Indian student in UK creates world's friendliest robot "Erwin"

New Delhi: An Indian student in UK has created the world's friendliest robot “ERWIN” (Emotional Robot with Intelligent Network).ERWIN has been developed at the University of Lincoln as part of a study attempting to understand how long-term relationships may be forged between humans and androids.It is the brain child of Dr John Murray and now PhD student Mriganka Biswas is developing it further to proceed with his new study to find out how some of the human-like thought biases in robot characteristics affect the human-robot relationship.As shared by the university in the press release, Mriganka Biswas said that University shares that humans have cognitive biases that make us what we are. With our errors and personality disorders, humans are characterised by a lot of things based on these cognitive biases. By introducing these in the robots, they are trying to make them more human like. This will make it possible for the robots to behave with a certain personality and help them develop relationships just as humans do. Their theory is based on the fact that since robots lack their own identifiable characteristics, they don't bond so well with humans. They are determined to change just that.Erwin can express five basic emotions.ERWIN is a great listener and responds only when required. He understands when we are unhappy. He is warm, responds to touch and is the perfect companion for the elderly.Alongside ERWIN, the researchers will be looking at the responses people have to another robot, named Keepon. It is non-emotive, but is humanoid in appearance. By comparing how people react to ERWIN and Keepon, the researchers hope to discover which type of robot is more effective in engaging with humans, and which is more conducive to creating a long-term relationship.