[LUM#12] Quite a program
A specialist in human-robot physical interactions, Anastasia Bolotnikova programs Pepper to assist elderly or frail people with their daily activities. This is a minor revolution led by this PhD student from the Montpellier Robotics and Microelectronics Laboratory, whose work has already attracted attention.
Hal-9000, Astro, and C-3PO can go take a hike. Meet Pepper! More Wall-E than Terminator, this little humanoid robot's mission is to assist elderly or frail people with their daily movements. At the controls 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 mathematics geek wields algorithms like others wield wrenches. A 3.0 puppeteer whom Pepper couldn't resist for long. "I program him, he moves and does what I ask him to do. It's an extraordinary experience."
The days of Space Odyssey and "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that" seem well and truly over for robots, and Pepper will perform his delicate function with millimeter precision: "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 frontier between 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, made famous in 2005 by French start-up Aldebaran before it was bought out by Japanese company SoftBank Robotics. "That was my first encounter with a robot, and 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 did an internship at Lirmm, where she worked "in collaboration with Airbus on multitasking control of humanoid robots."
Her work has already been recognized with the "best student paper award"presented in China in 2017. Shortly thereafter, she was recruited by SoftBank to program Pepper as part of her thesis. With one foot in the company and the other still at LIRMM, the doctoral student is completely satisfied with the situation: " It's different from pure research. In a company, there's a scenario for incorporating 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 reflects her work... programmed! Winner of the prestigious 2019 Young Talents France award presented by the L'Oréal-UNESCO Foundation, the researcher had no hesitation about how to use the €15,000 prize money. "It's a unique opportunity to develop my career by meeting the world's leading scientists in my field."Japan is on the agenda, of course, but above all "Italy or Germany, which excel in robotics."
In the meantime, his romance with Pepper continues, and before his mistress flies away, he has a year to perfect his skills in real-life situations with volunteer nursing home residents. This is a crowning achievement for Anastasia Bolotnikova, who sees it as an opportunity to "show that [her] research works and is useful in the real world."
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