ISSN:
1662-0356
Source:
Scientific.Net: Materials Science & Technology / Trans Tech Publications Archiv 1984-2008
Topics:
Natural Sciences in General
,
Technology
Notes:
We developed an anthropomorphic talking robot, Waseda Talker No. 6 (WT-6), whichgenerates speech sounds by mechanically simulating articulatory motions and aero-acousticphenomena. WT-6 possesses 17 degrees of freedom (DOF): a 5-DOF tongue, 1-DOF jaws, 4-DOFlips, a nasal cavity, and a 1-DOF soft palate as articulators; and 5-DOF vocal cords and 1-DOF lungsas vocal organs. The vocal cords, tongue, and lips are made from the thermoplastic rubber Septon,whose elasticity is similar to that of human tissue. WT-6 has three-dimensional (3D) lips, tongue, jaw,and velum, which form the vocal tract structure. It also has an independent jaw opening/closingmechanism. The previous robot in the series had a two-dimensional tongue and could not producehuman-like tongue shape. The new tongue can form 3D shapes, and thus, is able to produce morerealistic vocal tract shapes. The vocal cord model consists of two folds, and is constructed with astructure similar to the biomechanical structure of human vocal cords. These vocal cords can vibratein complex phases, similar to those of a human. With these mechanisms, the robot can reproducehuman speech in a more biomechanical manner, and thus, can produce a voice closer to that of ahuman
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://www.tib-hannover.de/fulltexts/2011/0528/01/42/transtech_doi~10.4028%252Fwww.scientific.net%252FAST.58.153.pdf
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