Sounds like the humanoid robots are coming!

Humanoid robots are likely to become more commonplace in the future but why do some of us find the idea of them more than a little unsettling?

There are numerous reasons – from their slightly jerky movements to their facial expressions (or lack of) but one under-studied area is the sound they make.

Postgraduate robotics and psychology research student Joel Currie has been exploring this aspect of humanoid robots using Pepper – the University’s humanoid robot built by Aldebaran along with collaborators Patric Bach and Maria Elena Giannaccini.