Robots to the rescue – Tech News

Mention robots and his eyes light up instantly; he can expound on their capabilities and how Malaysia is at a vantage point with so many resources of our own.

“I’ve been in robotics for 15 years now, and I do a lot of research. I travel around the world visiting conferences and listening to talks and making reports. I believe that this is going to be a very, very big industry,” said Dr Hanafiah Yussof, chairman of the Malaysian Chapter of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. He proudly proclaims himself as a product of Malaysia’s Look East policy from the 1980s, having gone for his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Japan, and faithfully adopted a lot of his work ethic from the East.

“Funnily enough I wasn’t very good at school. But when I started doing my degree I became very interested in applications and programming, and I wanted to put into practice these applications to benefit the society,” he said.

Hanafiah earned his B. Eng Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iwate University in 1998, M. Eng. Degree in Mechanical System Engineering from Yamagata University in 2005, and Ph.D in Information Science from Nagoya University in 2008. In the same year, he was awarded a Research Fellowship Grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to conduct his Postdoctoral Research at Nagoya University from 2008 to 2010, and is still a research fellow at the Complex System Computing Lab there.

“In fact, I have two labs in Japan, and travel there frequently because I have ongoing research,” said the associate professor and Head of Centre of Studies in Mechatronics, Instrumentation and Control at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).

Hanafiah is also the Director of Center of Excellence for Humanoid Robotics and Bio-Sensing (HuRoBs), Deputy Director of Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Technology Advances (i-META), and Head of Business Unit at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UiTM.

Hanafiah with two NAO humanoid robots, which are a great teaching aid, and an efficient solution to inclusive education.

“We have been talking about Industry 4.1 for a while, and now the timing is just right for us here in Malaysia,” said Hanafiah as he gave this writer a tour of the office and laboratories of his company Robopreneur, located at the Futurise complex in Cyberjaya, after which we sat down for a chat, along with one of his robots, NAO.

“Robopreneur has been positioning itself as a local company that is capable of providing solutions for robotics and also able to support the industry.”

Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution takes the automation and machinery from the third industrial revolution and makes them even better through smart systems using data and machine learning, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.

“We feel that Malaysia is actually better than many other countries. We have a lot of natural resources and logistically we are very capable also. Geographically, we are situated between China and the Middle East, Europe and India. We are in a very good position to connect these markets.

“Most local companies actually have the capabilities to support such an industry. They have very resourceful workers with bright marketing tools. We are looking into how we want to grow our local technology using our own local talents,” said Hanafiah, adding that his company, which began in 2015, has 22 staff right now, mostly in research and development.

“The soul of this company is in creation. We develop everything from scratch,” he said about Robopreneur, which provides products and solutions pertaining to high-end service robotos, AI, 3D printing and digital media services.

“Our company focuses on service robots, which can be used for human interaction or as assistive technology, and we develop our own software.”

He explained at great length how there are basically three groups of robots – industrial robots that we see in factories, service robots such as those used in hotels, at functions, or even as waiters; and collaborative robots – which are a cross between industrial and service robots, and are able to perform functions as well as interact and communicate with humans.

Hanafiah’s research interests include intelligent operations of humanoid robot, rehabilitation robotics, grasping and manipulation of robotic hands, tactile sensors, bio-sensors, sensor fusion, haptic virtual reality technology and intelligent control of mobile manipulators.

His research project with UiTM, in particular, centres on the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Algorithm in Robot-Based Intervention of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

The Project is funded by Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.

The research is an exploratory study on the application of a humanoid robot as adjunct therapy method for children with autism; it aims to enable clinicians and parents to use a humanoid robot as a substantial object to attract, mediate and encourage interaction during therapy, as well as to provoke interactive and social responses that are not naturally occurring in children with autism.

Hanafiah explained that while there are other technological tools already in use, such as software that provides gameplay functions where the children can enjoy a videogame and learn something, researchers realised that this kind of technological approach was only able to engage children for short periods of time.

“In the last five years, however, there has been a lot of interest in using robots as technological assistive tools for autism rehabilitation and learning,” he said.

NAO can be programmed to suit the individual needs of a child with a disability or disorder and was used extensively in UiTM’s research with children with autism. — Handout

In general, the robots are used as assistive tools for therapists, teachers and parents during therapy or learning programmes with the children. Children with autism are usually fond of gadgets, according to Hanafiah, and robots naturally pique their interest and encourage interaction.

“Most of these robots have features that make them ‘friendly’ – they have a similar shape to humans, they have the ability to communicate, they are programmable, and are of the same height as children,” he said.

According to Hanafiah, several robots are currently being used for this purpose including NAO, Milo and Keepon; UiTM’s research programme used NAO.

Hanafiah and his team had many interactive sessions with a group of 12 children with autism, and their analysis showed that autistic behaviour in these children was reduced by up to 20% after interacting with the robots.

Hanafiah said that in Malaysia, Robopreneur was the first group to introduce robots for autism therapy applications, with its own software.

“NAO can be programmed to suit the individual needs of a child with a disability or disorder. For example, for children with speech impairments, NAO can be programmed to have interesting conversations with them and to train them to focus on contents revolving around speech therapy. Our software also enables the robot to learn behavioural responses of the children and to try and understand their emotions. This is important to keep the child engaged during therapy,” he explained.

“Children with autism don’t always communicate well with humans. So instead of human trainers, we felt these children would focus and be more receptive if a robot was interacting with them.

The number of teachers and therapists that are certified to work with special needs children is not that high. But with robotic assistance, these teachers would be able to handle more students in a class.”

Hanafiah said that there are still many hurdles ahead, especially when it comes to bringing this technology to the community, so that more people can experience it and use it in their daily lives.

“Even though there is evidence from research saying that robots provide positive results in assisting people with ASD, especially children, they are still not widely used within the autism community. Awareness is growing but it is still very challenging when it comes to accepting technology in autism therapy,” he said.

Hanafiah explains that his company has already started commercialising its robotic applications for ASD therapy and learning. Ideally, every family could have a robot so that learning can take place at home, and reports and data can be uploaded to a Cloud which is accessible by therapists and doctors who would then able to track progress remotely. It would be a practical way to develop a community and database because records would prove a valuable reference for research.

“We have to be very careful, however, because we are dealing with special needs children, and their needs and rights are paramount,” explained Hanafiah, adding that cost is another critical challenge to overcome.

“Technology is not cheap, and we have invested a lot in research and development. We need to make the service as affordable as possible for the community to be able to use it. And we believe the involvement of the government is also necessary to subsidise these costs.” Apart from using robots in autism rehabilitation, the other flagship programmes Robopreneur is working on include the Smart Wheelchair (a collaboration with Kinova Robotics and Hosei University to develop a smart wheelchair with a robotic arm for use by physically disabled people and ageing society) and Malaysia’s first humanoid robot (funded by Ministry of Finance through Cyberview and Futurise Sdn Bhd).

Hanafiah has big dreams. In five years’ time, he wants Robopreneur to be among the top five service robotics companies. “We want to explore more business overseas and we want to be listed as a Fortune 500 company,” he said. But meanwhile, Hanafiah keeps himself and his team busy tinkering with, upgrading and customising the robots around him – including Pepper, NAO, Rookie, Sanbot, Tapia and the Kinova arms, Adam and Sophia – quietly making strides in an industry that is on the cusp of changing lives everywhere.