Meet NASH, Singapore's first humanoid robot, and future maid to the rich

Foreign maids in Singapore, your days may be numbered.

Meet NASH, a 1.8-meter tall, 80-kilo robot who might be the smartest humanoid robot in the world.

Constructed from lightweight aluminum and covered by hardy plastics, NASH -- which stands for Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Advance Smart Humanoid -- is able to gesture, walk, climb stairs, follow verbal instructions and recognize objects such as apples and cups.

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More than just a bag of battery-controlled bolts, NASH can lift up to 40 kilos on its back and 10 kilos in each hand and is able to resist being pushed and pulled from different directions.

NASH also has the mental smarts to match its physical abilities, capable of making decisions based on the information it gathers, is responsive to human languages and understands instructions rather like a dog, but without shedding hair.

Created by Professor Xie Ming, a scientist from NTU's School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NASH has been five years in the making.

“It took us over two years to come up with the design of a two-legged humanoid robot which could mimic the movement of hands, arms and legs of a human body,” said the 48-year-old scientist, who is also one of the world’s leading authorities for humanoid robots.

“That wasn’t the hardest part, as the biggest challenge was to make the robot walk on uneven terrains without falling, and to recognize push and pull forces so it can resist and counterbalance itself."

"We have been trying very hard to solve these problems through the use of specific planning and control algorithms, which took us the better part of the last three years.”

“Now, we are in a better position to make this a social robot, one that can talk and respond to humans, to understand us and to do what we ask of it to do."

Professor Xie hopes NASH -- who is equipped with built-in sensors and cameras -- will soon be able to interact with people and help them with menial tasks, such as carrying and lifting objects, and to assist the elderly.

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"This will be a future challenge because it relies on cognitive linguistics, which will make the robot understand what we are asking it to do, with the use of human languages instead of numerical values used in computer programming.”

Still a work-in-progress, NTU expects the completed product -- which currently costs about S$200,000 -- to be released into the market within five years.

Associate Professor Gerald Seet, director of the Robotics Research Centre at NTU, said in a report by TODAY: "If it's sufficiently robust and fast enough, then... you could deploy it in place of any other human being. You could make it drive a car or maybe do an assembly task."

For now, foreign maids and factory workers can breathe easy, NASH is not ready to take your place.