[LUM#12] Quite a program
Anastasia Bolotnikova, a specialist in human-robot physical interactions, programs Pepper to assist elderly or frail individuals with their daily activities. This PhD student at the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics is spearheading a small revolution, and her work has already garnered attention.
Hal-9000, Astro, and C-3PO can go take a back seat. Meet Pepper! More like Wall-E than Terminator, this little humanoid robot’s mission is to assist elderly or frail people with their daily activities. At the helm of this technological gem is Anastasia Bolotnikova, a doctoral student at the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics (LIRMM).
An extraordinary experience
At just 26 years old, this computer science and math whiz handles algorithms as effortlessly as others handle wrenches. A 3.0-generation puppeteer whom Pepper couldn’t resist for long. “I program him, he moves and does what I ask—it really is an extraordinary experience.”
The days of *2001: A Space Odyssey* and lines like“I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”seem well and truly over for robots, and Pepper is precisely calibrated to fulfill her delicate role:“Helping people by compensating for their weaknesses, supporting them when they make a gesture or move,” explains Anastasia, who, as a specialist in human-robot physical interaction, operates at the intersection of these two worlds. “Programming a robot is complex, but understanding how people want to move is even more complicated.”
From Airbus to SoftBank
It was in Estonia in 2014 that young Anastasia discovered robotics. Her university had a small NAO robot, which had been made famous in 2005 by the French startup Aldebaran before it was acquired by the Japanese company SoftBank Robotics. “That was my first encounter with a robot; maybe that’s where it all started.” Two years later, as a master’s student in computer science, she decided to come to France and completed her internship at LIRMM,where she worked“in collaboration with Airbus on multitasking control of humanoid robots.”
Her work had already been recognized withthe “Best Student Paper Award”presented in China in 2017. Shortly thereafter, she was recruited by SoftBank to program Pepper as part of her dissertation. With one foot in the company and the other still at Lirmm, this arrangement fully satisfies the doctoral student: “It’s different from pure research; in a company, there’s a framework for integrating research into a business plan. With this experience, I’ll be able to choose between the public and private sectors.”
In the real world
A future that mirrors her work… all planned out! As the 2019 winner of the prestigious Young Talents-France Award presented by the L’Oréal-UNESCO Foundation, the researcher didn’t hesitate about how to use the €15,000 prize.“It’s a unique opportunity to advance my career by meeting the world’s leading scientists in my field.”On the itinerary is Japan, of course, but above all“Italy or Germany, which excel in robotics.”
In the meantime, his romance with Pepper continues, and before his partner takes flight, he has a year to hone his skills in real-world settings with volunteer nursing home residents. This is a major milestone for Anastasia Bolotnikova, who sees it as an opportunity to “demonstrate that her research works and is useful in the real world.”
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