Engineered Arts

File:EAmechanicaltheatre.png's "Mechanical Theater"]]

The company was founded by Will Jackson in 2004. While working on exhibitions for London's Science Museum in the 1990s, Jackson came upon the need for a machine that could explain concepts and ideas to people repetitively in an entertaining way and not to be nervous when talking to a group of people. In 2005, Jackson's work on the "Mechanical Theater" for The Eden Project would produce the company's first humanoid robot, RoboThespian Mark 1.{{Cite web |title=Profile: Who are Engineered Arts? |url=https://technologymagazine.com/ai-and-machine-learning/profile-who-are-engineered-arts |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=TechnologyMagazine |date=9 December 2021 |language=en}}

The company's early work included, creative and science education projects for Kew Gardens in London, Glasgow Science Centre in Scotland and other non-robot work. After completing the installation of a robot theatre at Copernicus Science Centre in 2010 the decision was made to focus solely on robot hardware and software.

{{main|Ameca (robot)}}

File:Ameca Generation 1.jpg

Ameca is a humanoid robot designed as a platform for Artificial Intelligence research and human interaction applications. It was launched at CES in Las Vegas USA in January 2022.{{Cite web |title=Second-Generation Of "World's Most Advance Humanoid Robot" Is Here To Say Hello |url=https://iflscience.com/second-generation-of-worlds-most-advance-humanoid-robot-is-here-to-say-hello-65077 |access-date=2022-10-14 |website=IFLScience |date=26 August 2022 |language=en}} Its main focus on human-like expressions and range of facial movement.{{Cite web |title=They Put GPT-3 Into That Robot With Creepily Realistic Facial Expressions and Yikes |url=https://futurism.com/the-byte/gpt-3-ameca-robot-facial-expressions |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=Futurism}} In its demonstration, it was made to mimic an operator's face using a mobile phone that had built-in LIDAR and used Apple's ARKit tools.{{Cite web |title=Ameca Robot perfectly mimics your facial movements in real time |url=https://stealthoptional.com/news/ameca-robot-perfectly-mimics-your-facial-movements-in-real-time/ |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=stealthoptional.com |date=2 September 2022 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Madi |date=2022-08-29 |title=Robot Mimics Human Expressions |url=https://www.mecharithm.com/robot-mimics-human-expressions/ |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=Mecharithm |language=en-US}}

Mesmer is a humanoid robot. Its key design feature is its face covered by a skin-like rubber, that can exhibit human-like expressions and characteristics. It was created and manufactured using 3D scans of human models taken in-house, allowing Engineered Arts to accurately mimic human bone form, skin texture, and emotions.{{Cite web |last=GRACE |first=HANNAH |date=2021-12-14|title=Humanoid Robot Mesmer Goes Viral for Realistic Facial Reactions: "Real Androids Are Coming" |url=https://www.itechpost.com/articles/108276/20211214/humanoid-robot-mesmer-goes-viral-realistic-facial-reactions-real-androids.htm |website=iTechPost}}

RoboThespian is an interactive, animatronic humanoid robot{{Cite web |date=2014-08-17 |title=RoboThespian: the first commercial robot that behaves like a person |url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/17/robothespian-engineered-arts-robot-human-behaviour |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} with LCD screens for eyes,{{Cite web |date=2011-11-15 |title=Robothespian humanoid robot delivers human-like stage performances |url=https://newatlas.com/robothespian-humanoid-robot/20481/ |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=New Atlas |language=en-US}} powered by Pneumatic motors, it and speaks more than 30 languages, and can be found on public display worldwide.{{Cite web |title=RoboThespian - ROBOTS: Your Guide to the World of Robotics |url=https://robotsguide.com/robots/robothespian/ |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=IEEE |language=en}}File:Campus Party Europa Dia 2 (4523750986).jpg

It is {{convert|1.75|m|ftin}} tall, weighs in at {{convert|33|kg}}, sports an aluminium chassis and a body shell made of polyethylene terephthalate plastic and its body offers over 30 axes of movement.

Internally it uses a Parallax processor for motor control.{{Cite web|url=https://learn.parallax.com/educators/inspiration/robothespian|title=RoboThespian | LEARN.PARALLAX.COM|website=learn.parallax.com}}

Over fifty are currently permanently installed worldwide,{{Cite web |title=RoboThespian At a Glance - Engineered Arts Wiki |url=https://wiki.engineeredarts.co.uk/RoboThespian_At_a_Glance |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=Engineered Arts}} including:

• NASA Kennedy Space Center, USA.
• Questacon, National Science Museum of Australia
• MUNCYT (Museo Nacional de Ciencia e Tecnología), National Science and Technology Museum in Spain
• Parc Futuroscope, France.
• Copernicus Science Centre, Poland (complete Theatre of Robots stage production, comprising 3 RoboThespians, integrated lighting, video projection, multi channel sound).{{cite book |chapter=Robotic Stand-Up Comedy: State-of-the-Art |chapter-url=https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/files/81306475/Nijholt2018_Chapter_RoboticStand_UpComedyState_of_.pdf |via=ResearchGate |last=Nijholt |first=Anton |title=Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions: Understanding Humans |series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science |date=July 2018 |volume=10921 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-91125-0_32 |pages = 391–410 |isbn=978-3-319-91124-3}}
• Parque de las Ciencias, Granada Spain. Early adopter of RT 2, and upgraded RT 3 later.
• Israel's National Museum of Science, Technology & Space
• Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum
• Carnegie Science Center
• Aberdeen Science centre{{cite web | url=https://aberdeensciencecentre.org/exhibit/robothespian-2/ | title=Robothespian }}
• Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago){{Cite web |title='Robot Revolution' Returns to Chicago |url=https://news.wttw.com/2017/05/15/robot-revolution-returns-chicago |access-date=2022-10-14 |website=WTTW News |language=en}}
• W5 Belfast, Ireland{{Cite web |last=Fitzmaurice |first=Maurice |date=2015-04-30 |title=W5's singing robot is probably smarter than you |url=http://www.belfastlive.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/w5s-singing-robot-probably-smarter-9158644 |access-date=2022-10-14 |website=BelfastLive |language=en}}

Academic institutions, including:

• University of North Carolina, USA.
• University Central Florida, USA
• Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UK
• University College London, UK
• University of Brighton, UK
• University of Barcelona, Spain

File:Innorobo 2015 - Engineered Arts - Socibot.JPG

Socibot was a static torso with a projected face. It integrated the core technologies of RoboThespian but in a desktop- or kiosk-sized form-factor.{{Cite web |title=SociBot - Engineered Arts Wiki |url=https://wiki.engineeredarts.co.uk/SociBot |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=wiki.engineeredarts.co.uk}} with a projected computer-generated face and articulated neck a simple and affordable introduction to advanced robotics.{{Cite web |title=Socibot |url=https://robotsoflondon.co.uk/socibot |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=Robots Of London |language=en-GB}}

This robot has been sold to places such as:{{Cite web |title=SociBot At a Glance - Engineered Arts Wiki |url=https://wiki.engineeredarts.co.uk/SociBot_At_a_Glance |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=wiki.engineeredarts.co.uk}}

Public installations:

• Putnam Museum, Iowa, USA
• Parc Futuroscope, France
• Espace des Sciences, France
• Bal Robotov, Russia

Academic institutions, including:

• Bristol Robot Laboratory, UK
• University of Craiova, Romania
• Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore
• Coventry University, UK

File:Ai-Da Robot at Abu Dhabi Art.jpg

{{main|Ai-Da}}

Ai-Da is a humanoid robot based on the Robothespian platform. Completed in 2019, Ai-Da contains no conversational AI capabilities and is tele-operated using Engineered Arts Tin Man software.

Its core function is creating drawings, paintings, and sculptures, with the use of a bionic hand and ocular cameras.{{Cite news |title=Robot Ai-Da will speak to the House of Lords in Westminster - CBBC Newsround |language=en-GB |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/63173407 |access-date=2022-10-07}} She is named after Ada Lovelace.

A variation on the standard Mesmer, this robot was modelled after 11th President of India, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam for display at Military Might, Chandrapur, Maharashtra.

Fred was created as part of the PR campaign to promote the TV series Westworld.{{Cite web |title=Profile: Meet Fred: Your pubs new local |url=https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/meet-fred-your-pubs-new-local/ |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=Engineered Arts Ltd. |date=25 June 2018 |language=en}} The robot employed Tin-Man technology to interact with customers in a London pub.

Rather than use an "off the shelf" operating system such as ROS, Engineered Arts uses its own OS called "Tritium".{{Cite web |title=Tritium |url=https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/software/tritium/ |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=Engineered Arts |language=en-GB}} It is designed to make their robots easy to program by non-technical people and operated from any location.

Tinman a telepresence program that allows a robot's owners to communicate with an audience via the robot's "personality", while themselves being remote.{{Cite web |title=TinMan Telepresence - Engineered Arts Wiki |url=https://wiki.engineeredarts.co.uk/TinMan_Telepresence |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=wiki.engineeredarts.co.uk}}

IOServe provides a generic way to link and program all robot hardware and runs under Linux. It has the ability to capture motion  data and replay it and modify existing motion sequences on the fly, including an interface to the open source 3D program Blender.

• A projected-face version of Robothespian performed alongside two humans in a play called The Uncanny Valley, which made its New York City premiere at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn in 2015.{{Cite web |date=2015-01-20 |title=Review: The Uncanny Valley |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/review-the-uncanny-valley |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=IEEE Spectrum |language=en}}
• A projected-face version of Robothespian performed in a play called 'Spillikin' at Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland in March 2017.{{Cite web |title=What's the deal with... RoboThespian? |url=https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/whats-the-deal-with-robothespian |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=Time Out London |date=7 March 2017 |language=en-GB}}
• The 2015 National Geographic movie Robots-3D, Robothespian hosted the film and was voiced by actor Simon Pegg.{{Cite web |last=Goldman |first=Maryann |date=2015-07-22 |title='Robots 3D' Takes You on a Tour of the Latest Advancements in Humanoid Robotics |url=https://geekdad.com/2015/07/robots-3d/ |access-date=2022-10-10 |website=GeekDad |language=en-US}}{{Citation |title=Robots (2015) - IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4594900/synopsis |language=en |access-date=2022-10-10}}
• In April 2022, Engineered Arts created a doppelgänger of YouTuber Tom Scott.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-13 |title=WATCH: YouTuber Buys 'Incredibly Creepy' Robot Doppelganger of Himself |url=https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/watch-youtuber-buys-incredibly-creepy-robot-doppelganger-of-himself-4974151.html |access-date=2022-10-14 |website=News18 |language=en}}

{{Portal|Cornwall}}

• Biomimetics

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{{commons category|Engineered Arts Limited}}

• {{Official website|https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/}}

{{Robotics}}

{{Machines}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:Manufacturing companies established in 2004

Category:Technology companies established in 2004

Category:Robotics companies

Category:Science and technology in Cornwall