Synchronized gesture and speech production for humanoid robots using random numbers

A robot configured to generate a gesture, comprising:

• a gesture generator configured to:
• receive a text of a speech including one or more speech elements;
• analyze the speech text by a plurality of pattern modules to identify a plurality of candidate gestures associated with same speech elements in the speech, each of the plurality of pattern modules configured to apply a different set of rules to the speech elements to identify one or more corresponding candidate gestures to be made by the robot during generation of a voice output corresponding to the speech text;
• and
• select a gesture from the plurality of candidate gestures identified by the plurality of pattern modules;
• a motion generator configured to generate control signals based on the selected gesture and to modify at least one of amplitude, frequency and speed of the selected gesture based on a random number, wherein the random number is configured to take different ranges of values based on a status of the robot;
• at least one actuator configured to cause relative movements on parts of the robot according to the control signals;
• and
• a voice synthesizer configured to generate the voice output by synthesizing the speech text, the voice output synchronized with the gesture generated by the robot.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for recognizing verbal commands, the computer readable storage medium structured to store instructions, when executed, cause a processor to:

• receive a text of a speech including one or more speech elements;
• analyze the speech text by a plurality of pattern modules to identify a plurality of candidate gestures associated with same speech elements in the speech, each of the plurality of pattern modules configured to apply a different set of rules to the speech elements identify one or more corresponding candidate gestures to be made by a robot during generation of a voice output corresponding to the speech text;
• select a gesture from the plurality of candidate gestures identified by the plurality of pattern modules;
• generate the selected gesture by controlling actuators in the robot;
• modify at least one of amplitude, frequency and speed of the selected gesture based on a random number, wherein the random number is configured to take different ranges of values based on a status of the robot;
• and
• generate the voice output by synthesizing the speech text, the voice output synchronized with the gesture generated by the robot.