What is Android Science?
Beyond what the term implies, android science isn’t simply about designing and building robots. Rather, android science is the design and construction of robots for the purpose of studying human behavior — specifically, how people interact with and react to robots. As robotic science advances, we come closer to the day where robots will play everyday roles in our society. The ultimate objective of android science is to develop a robotic design that eliminates any psychological barriers people may have in interacting with robots. Some argue that the leading edge of android science is being advanced in Japan, where Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Lab at Osaka University, and Karl F. MacDorman, associate professor at the School of Informatics at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, have created Repilee Q2. Repliee Q2 is a lifelike robot, which from a short distance away, is virtually indistinguishable from a petite, Japanese woman. When Repilee Q2 star