TY - GEN
T1 - Anthropomorphic talking robot based on human biomechanical structure
AU - Fukui, Kotaro
AU - Ishikawa, Yuma
AU - Shintaku, Eiji
AU - Honda, Masaaki
AU - Takanishi, Atsuo
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - We developed an anthropomorphic talking robot, Waseda Talker No. 6 (WT-6), which generates speech sounds by mechanically simulating articulatory motions and aero-acoustic phenomena. WT-6 possesses 17 degrees of freedom (DOF): a 5-DOF tongue, 1-DOF jaws, 4-DOF lips, a nasal cavity, and a 1-DOF soft palate as articulators; and 5-DOF vocal cords and 1-DOF lungs as vocal organs. The vocal cords, tongue, and lips are made from the thermoplastic rubber Septon, whose elasticity is similar to that of human tissue. WT-6 has three-dimensional (3D) lips, tongue, jaw, and velum, which form the vocal tract structure. It also has an independent jaw opening/closing mechanism. The previous robot in the series had a two-dimensional tongue and could not produce human-like tongue shape. The new tongue can form 3D shapes, and thus, is able to produce more realistic vocal tract shapes. The vocal cord model consists of two folds, and is constructed with a structure similar to the biomechanical structure of human vocal cords. These vocal cords can vibrate in complex phases, similar to those of a human. With these mechanisms, the robot can reproduce human speech in a more biomechanical manner, and thus, can produce a voice closer to that of a human.
AB - We developed an anthropomorphic talking robot, Waseda Talker No. 6 (WT-6), which generates speech sounds by mechanically simulating articulatory motions and aero-acoustic phenomena. WT-6 possesses 17 degrees of freedom (DOF): a 5-DOF tongue, 1-DOF jaws, 4-DOF lips, a nasal cavity, and a 1-DOF soft palate as articulators; and 5-DOF vocal cords and 1-DOF lungs as vocal organs. The vocal cords, tongue, and lips are made from the thermoplastic rubber Septon, whose elasticity is similar to that of human tissue. WT-6 has three-dimensional (3D) lips, tongue, jaw, and velum, which form the vocal tract structure. It also has an independent jaw opening/closing mechanism. The previous robot in the series had a two-dimensional tongue and could not produce human-like tongue shape. The new tongue can form 3D shapes, and thus, is able to produce more realistic vocal tract shapes. The vocal cord model consists of two folds, and is constructed with a structure similar to the biomechanical structure of human vocal cords. These vocal cords can vibrate in complex phases, similar to those of a human. With these mechanisms, the robot can reproduce human speech in a more biomechanical manner, and thus, can produce a voice closer to that of a human.
KW - Human vocal cords
KW - Humanoid robot
KW - Speech production
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=62649105678&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=62649105678&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AST.58.153
DO - 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AST.58.153
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:62649105678
SN - 9783908158158
T3 - CIMTEC 2008 - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures and Systems - Mining Smartness from Nature
SP - 153
EP - 158
BT - CIMTEC 2008 - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures and Systems - Mining Smartness from Nature
PB - Trans Tech Publications Ltd
T2 - 3rd International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures and Systems - Mining Smartness from Nature, CIMTEC 2008
Y2 - 8 June 2008 through 13 June 2008
ER -