“DIEGO-SAN” by Hanson for the Machine Perception Lab at the UCSD Institute for Neural Computation.

With a face by David Hanson and Hanson Robotics, which mounts on a body by Kokoro, this robotic baby boy was built with funding from the National Science Foundation and serves cognitive AI and human-robot interaction research.

With high definition cameras in the eyes, Diego San sees people, gestures, expressions, and uses AI, modeled on human babies, to learn from people, the way that a baby hypothetically would. The facial expressions are important to establish a relationship and communicate intuitively to people.

As much a work of art as technology and science, this represents a step forward in the development of emotionally relevant robotics, building on previous work of David Hanson with the Machine Perception Lab such as the emotionally responsive Einstein shown at TED in 2009.

— Hanson Robotics