AI-powered humanoid robots in India are coming of age

livemint.com:

₹2.5 lakh with some components sourced from the dump yard of our mechanical engineering department," Piyush Khanna, a robotics student at KIET, told Mint. In comparison, a polished and sophisticated robot like Sophia would cost anywhere upwards of ₹25 lakh. "Anushka is still being tested.

A silicone mask and legs would make her look more realistic," acknowledged Khanna, but added that it does imply that “she is not smart like Sophia." Anushka, for instance, uses computer vision to recognize faces, roll her eyes up, down, and sideways, follow people as they walk, and even make automated phone calls to specified people in case her batteries need recharging, or if someone threatens her. The robot can perform over 50 hand gestures, 30 eye gestures, along with jaw and neck movements. It moves around on a three-dimensional (3D)-printed base with wheels, and uses servo motors for precise motion control, and "realistic" lip movements.

Anushka has an i7 processor, 16 GB RAM (memory), and uses natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to questions. She can understand 60 languages but currently responds only in English. Her other features include home automation to control lights and the ability to make real-time decisions using reinforcement learning like humans do.