World's First Robot Stage Actor

Tuesday marked the theatrical debut for the bot, which appeared onstage alongside real-life actors in a play that's being hailed as a first in robot-human artistic collaboration. Hataraku Watashi ("I, Worker"), by playwright Oriza Hirata, focuses on a couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work.

The 20-minute production took place at Japan's Osaka University--where Hirata is also a visiting professor at the Center of the Study of Communication-Design--and was performed for the media ahead of a possible full-scale public run in the next year or so. Hirata and the rest of the project team wrote special software that lets the robots move and deliver the right lines.

"Wakamaru" can recognize the faces of people that have been recorded, respond when spoken to, meet a person's gaze, offer up subjects of conversation, etc., all to ensure naturally rich communication. As "wakamaru" freely moves about a predetermined area and decides for itself when to recharge, its movement require no human assistance.