Science Around Us Foundation

April 2019

NEWMAN the Robot: the Story Behind

XXVI International Specialized Exhibition TIBO-2019 was held in Minsk from 8 to 12 April, giving its visitors a chance to see the latest developments in the field of information and communication technologies. The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus presented more than 40 innovative developments from various industries: agriculture, industry, space… The visitors and participants of the forum were most interested in the anthropomorphic robot Newman created by scientists at the Open Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

The cost of the project was more than 20,000 rubles. The robot had been being printed on a 3D printer for 4 months without interruption, had 25 movable elements and was actively learning. At the time of launch, NEWMAN could only control its hands, but the authors promise to expand its functionality in the near future: the robot will begin to recognize images and learn the Belarusian language. The main goal of the project was to study the possibilities of integrating anthropomorphic robots in the service sector, education, and other spheres of human life.

History of Creation

The development of the robot started in 2017, when the Science Around Us non-profit foundation offered support to the United Institute of Informatics and Robotics Problems within the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus to launch the Open Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics project. The main goal of the project was to create enabling conditions for students, undergraduates, and even schoolchildren who wanted to turn their scientific ideas in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics into life. The head of the Laboratory was Grigory Prokopovich, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor.

In 2018, with the support of the Science Around Us Foundation and EPAM Systems, six jobs were created and equipment was purchased in order to establish the infrastructure necessary for the Laboratory, including RGBD cameras, computers, milling and engraving machines, monitoring and measuring devices, stereo microscopes, manipulators for training, microcontroller boards, etc.

The main focus of work in 2018 was the development and creation of 3D-printed robot parts. These details were assembled into educational NEWMAN the Anthropomorphic Robot in accordance with the design of the Open Source InMoov.

The Laboratory also worked on private scientific projects and projects at the intersection of science and art in 2018. Neurophysiology researcher Victoria Yakusheva searched for visual forms of future art objects using additive technologies, while students led by Grigory Prokopovich performed and presented works on the study of computer vision systems, interactive storage and database recognition systems, algorithms for recognizing object shapes based on data from a service robot scanner, etc. 4 Bachelor’s, 2 Master’s, and 1 Candidate’s Theses in total.
The Laboratory is currently developing several projects, ranging from analog computing systems for microrobots to an intelligent control system for anthropomorphic robots.

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