Engineered Arts · Humanoid · 2005
The pioneering 'robot actor' from England's Engineered Arts (founded 2004), first built in 2005 and now installed at 250+ venues worldwide including NASA Kennedy Space Center and museums. RoboThespian is a life-size (1.75 m, 33 kg) interactive humanoid designed for public display: an aluminium chassis and PET body shell house an actuated upper body, arms, hands, head and jaw driven by Festo pneumatic actuators plus brushed DC motors across 26 DoF (30+ axes). LCD-screen eyes, RGB cheeks and a synchronised jaw bring expression; it speaks 30+ languages with 90 TTS voices, and runs Engineered Arts' Tritium software (Gentoo/Ubuntu) with scripted, API and TinMan telepresence control. It performed in the stage play 'Spillikin' and hosted the 2015 NatGeo film Robots 3D.
Price level: ★★★★☆
View full interactive profile, comparisons & videos →| Category | Humanoid |
| Sub-type | Interactive Performance Humanoid (stationary) |
| Status | Active |
| Year | 2005 |
| Origin | UK |
| Released | 2005 (multiple generations) |
| Weight | 33 kg |
| Frame | Aluminium alloy |
| Degrees of freedom | 26 |
| Camera | Cameras + IR depth sensors (gesture/pose) |
| AI model | Custom core software; OpenNI gesture recognition; TinMan telepresence; Tritium OS; InYaFace projected-face; 30+ languages, 90 TTS voices; speech recognition + NLP |
| Operating system | Gentoo + Ubuntu Linux (custom core software) |
| Actuator type | Hybrid: Festo pneumatic actuators (air muscles) + brushed DC motors; peak air 30 L/min at 6 bar |
| Use cases | Live stage performance / theatre, Museums and exhibitions, Education, Telepresence, Corporate events |
| Made in | UK (Cornwall) |
