Say hello to ADAM, Malaysia’s very own humanoid robot

Come and see me: Visitors taking a look at ADAM at the 2019 Beyond Paradigm Summit at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: Sophia stole the limelight several days ago when she got to chat with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and debate with Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, but clearly they were not her “type”.

Sophia would have been really pleased to meet ADAM, Malaysia’s own advanced humanoid robot.

While Sophia, developed by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics in 2016, made waves at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre at the Beyond Paradigm Summit on July 17, ADAM kept a lower profile.

The two-day summit showcased advanced technologies encapsulating the core ideas of automation and data exchange surrounding the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0).

With a head visor on the face, ADAM, the acronym for Advanced Development Autono­mous Machine, was developed by a local robotics company based in Cyberjaya called Robopreneur Sdn Bhd.

The company’s founder and CEO, Dr Hana­fiah Yussof, said ADAM was first activated in March after a year of research and development and prototyping work, thus claiming it as the first Malaysian humanoid robot created.The humanoid robot weighing 44kg has a seamless full body movement with 22 degrees of freedom of upper body joints, including fingers, and natural interaction capabilities with humans using voice detection and recognition empowered by Artificial Intelligence (AI).“So, the idea of developing humanoid robots is actually one of the initiatives in contributing to Malaysia’s vision of IR 4.0.

“Developing it actually involves developing the technology itself such as robotic design, advanced computing, sensing fusion and AI.

“This is a five-year project but now we have already completed the first phase, which is within the one-year milestone,” he said at the recent summit.

Hanafiah said ADAM was to be completed in three phases, with the second phase focusing on total body development.

The third phase would lead towards the machine-learning algorithm, so that the robot will have the capability of a more natural speech, visual recognition and detection of emotions. — Bernama