Fujitsu announced the development of the "robot AI platform" as a service platform providing natural communication between people and robots.
Fujitsu announced the development of the "robot AI platform" as a service platform providing natural communication between people and robots. As a first step for this platform, Fujitsu is offering a one-year trial service of the platform in Japan with a link to "unibo," a Unirobot Corporation communication robot, as well as consulting leading to official implementation. Going forward, Fujitsu plans to successively roll out services, such as the Robot AI platform basic service for multiple devices, which can connect to various front-end devices, including tablets, smartphones, and intercoms.
This platform offers communication technologies such as natural language conversation, facial expression recognition, voice-emotion analysis, and face recognition, as cloud services that can connect with devices such as robots. Robots connected to this platform can provide communication services via natural conversation suited to the situation and interests of individuals in a variety of settings, including customer service and elder care. By connecting this platform to existing customer systems, customers can add additional value from the use of robots to their work processes and services.
Summary
This platform can connect with a variety of devices, including communication robots, enabling natural communication between people and the devices. The features of this platform are as follows:
1. A robot platform that can be connected to existing systems
For customers considering systems using robots, Fujitsu is offering the Robot AI Platform Trial Pack for unibo, a set consisting of unibo units along with the platform, as a trial service aimed at testing the implementation of this system, which can be used for one year. Going forward, Fujitsu plans to offer the Robot AI Platform Basic Service for unibo, which will be optimized for official deployment and can also connect to customers' existing systems.
2. Voice interaction through natural conversation
With this platform, robots can actively speak to people and solicit information on their interests and status using the service robot platform technology developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, and then can suggest topics suited to that context. In addition, this platform can use target-oriented voice interaction developed by iNAGO Inc. to narrow down the intent behind a person's words. Using these two conversation methods, and by automatically switching between them based on the usage scenario, this platform can hold conversations that respond to a variety of conversational patterns.
3. Facial expression recognition, voice-emotion analysis functionality, and facial recognition technology optimized for situations in business and daily life
Fujitsu has integrated voice-emotion analysis technology developed by Empath Inc. with facial expression recognition technology that can differentiate joy, anger, and sorrow, even from tiny changes in facial expression, jointly developed by Fujitsu and sMedio, Inc. In addition, with facial recognition technology jointly developed by Fujitsu and sMedio, this system can differentiate individuals even when a part of their face is hidden.
4. Deployment consulting available
As part of the launch of this service, Fujitsu has systematized the knowledge and experience it has developed over many years of robotics R&D into a consulting service. Fujitsu is supporting faster innovation for customers by helping them, when they are considering deploying robots, in setting plans, creating ideas for the use of robots, testing those ideas and evaluating their effectiveness.