Human-mimetic binaural ear design and sound source direction estimation for task realization of musculoskeletal humanoids

• Published in: ROBOMECH journal Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 1 - 15
• Main Authors: Omura, Yusuke, Kawaharazuka, Kento, Nagamatsu, Yuya, Koga, Yuya, Nishiura, Manabu, Toshimitsu, Yasunori, Asano, Yuki, Okada, Kei, Kawasaki, Koji, Inaba, Masayuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 17.06.2022; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Acoustics; Artificial Intelligence; Background noise; Biomimetic; Central nervous system; Computational Intelligence; Control and Systems Theory; Data processing; Dummies; Ear; Engineering; Environmental sound recognition; Estimation; Humanoid; Mechatronics; Musculoskeletal humanoid; Nervous system; Object recognition; Research Article; Robotics and Automation; Sound; Sound source direction estimation; Sound sources; Musculoskeletal humanoid; Sound source direction estimation; Biomimetic; Environmental sound recognition
• ISSN: 2197-4225; 2197-4225
• DOI: 10.1186/s40648-022-00231-x

Human-like environment recognition by musculoskeletal humanoids is important for task realization in real complex environments and for use as dummies for test subjects. Humans integrate various sensory information to perceive their surroundings, and hearing is particularly useful for recognizing objects out of view or out of touch. In this research, we aim to realize human-like auditory environmental recognition and task realization for musculoskeletal humanoids by equipping them with a human-like auditory processing system. Humans realize sound-based environmental recognition by estimating directions of the sound sources and detecting environmental sounds based on changes in the time and frequency domain of incoming sounds and the integration of auditory information in the central nervous system. We propose a human mimetic auditory information processing system, which consists of three components: the human mimetic binaural ear unit, which mimics human ear structure and characteristics, the sound source direction estimation system, and the environmental sound detection system, which mimics processing in the central nervous system. We apply it to Musashi, a human mimetic musculoskeletal humanoid, and have it perform tasks that require sound information outside of view in real noisy environments to confirm the usefulness of the proposed methods.