The Interactive Robots and Media Lab (IRML) is a research laboratory, originally hosted at the College of IT of the United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ain,

Abu Dhabi Emirate The Emirate of Abu Dhabi (, , or ; ar, إِمَارَةْ أَبُوظَبِي , ) is one of seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is by far the largest emirate, accounting for 87% of the nation's total land area o ...

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, then moved on to the CSE facilities of New York University Abu Dhabi. Starting January 2013 IRML is expanding, emancipating, and partially commercializing its operations. The laboratory was founded in September 2007 by

Nikolaos Mavridis Nikolaos Mavridis (born April 28, 1973) is the founder and director of the Interactive Robots and Media Lab (IRML), and a PhD graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology He is also an assistant professor of research at the Computer Sci ...

, a PhD holder from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and started operations in February 2008. The main projects underway in the lab (as of December 2009) were two: the

Ibn Sina Robot The Ibn Sina Robot is the world's first android robot with Arabic language conversational abilities. Created by roboticists Nikolaos Mavridis and Hanson Robotics founder David Hanson at United Arab Emirates University's Interactive Robots and M ...

, an

android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

that is able to converse in the Arabic language, as well as the Microsoft-funded FaceBots project, which aimed towards building robots that can sustain long-term relationships with humans through dialogues referencing shared memories and shared friends, while utilizing and depositing social information on the

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

website. Other projects have started since then; mainly revolving around human-robot interaction, machine perception, and cognitive systems. The lab has also hosted three international research-centric summer schools, which have a special format: they have a duration of one month, most of the time is spent in collaborative team-work on hands-on research projects, carried out in teams of 3-5 members coming from diverse academic levels (post-doctoral, graduate, undergraduate) and countries of origin. Also, the lab has been involved in other activities related to robotics and interactive media, winning for example the "Best Pipe Inspection Robot Design" at the Schlumberger i-Design course competition, and being involved in activities related to winning the bid and preparation for hosting the

World Robot Olympiad The World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is a global robotics competition for young people. The World Robot Olympiad competition uses Lego Mindstorms manufactured by LEGO Education. First held in 2004 in Singapore, it now attracts more than 28,000 teams fro ...

(WRO) in Abu Dhabi in 2011. The lab has been featured in regional as well as international news, on venues such as the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, Agence France Press (AFP), The UAE National,

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

TV etc.

References

External links

Interactive Robots and Media Lab website

IRML videos channel

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

2007 establishments in the United Arab Emirates Education in Al Ain Robotics organizations Research institutes in the United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates University {{UnitedArabEmirates-struct-stub