Aslan – a robotic arm for sign language translation

A team of engineers from the University of Antwerp is developing a robotic arm to translate speech into sign language. The first version of the robot, called Project Aslan, is 3D-printed and can be assembled in a few hours. But the ultimate goal of the team is to create a two-armed robot with an expressive face in order to fully convey the complexity of sign language translation, reports Robotics.ua . 

In recent years, scientists have made a number of technological attempts to bridge the gap between the hearing and deaf communities by creating smart gloves and tablet devices that translate gestures into text or audio. There is even a full-size gesticulating humanoid robot from Toshiba.

The purpose of the 3D robot project

The Aslan Project (sok. from Antwerp's Sign Language Actuating Node) is designed to translate text or spoken words into sign language. In its current form, the hand is connected to a computer, which, in turn, is connected to the network. Users can connect to this network and send text messages to Aslan – the hand will start gesticulating feverishly. Currently, she uses an alphabet system called "fingerspelling", where each individual letter is transmitted through a separate gesture.

The robot arm consists of 25 plastic parts – three-dimensional images printed on an entry-level desktop printer, 16 servomotors, three motor controllers, an Arduino Due microcomputer and several other electronic components. According to engineers, the printing of plastic parts takes about 139 hours, and the final assembly of the robot will take another 10 hours. For printing, the engineers used 3D Hubs technology, which is designed to make it possible to create a robot anywhere. 

Of course, this DIY (Do It Yourself – VM) robot will not replace human sign language interpreters. The team sees it as an opportunity to help people with hearing impairments in situations where human help is not available. Erwin Smet, a professor of robotics at the University of Antwerp, says: "There are many circumstances when a deaf person needs a sign language interpreter, but cannot get the necessary help. Here, such an inexpensive option as Aslan can offer a profitable solution."

While the current version can only translate text into gestures, the team is working on deepening the system for future versions to convey more subtle behaviors. In sign language, meaning is conveyed through a combination of hand gestures, body posture, and facial expressions, so researchers are developing a two-handed setup and plan to add an expressive face to it.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  30.08.2017