yves béhar and fuseproject design kind humanoid’s robot with diamond head and copper hue

Kind humanoid teams up with yves béhar and fuseproject

Yves Béhar and fuseproject team up with Kind Humanoid to design the exterior of its general-purpose robot. The cyborg hopes to assist people in their daily lives and with their everyday tasks by actively working with them instead of obeying their commands. There’s a form of trust that may be needed between the robot and humans, and here’s where Yves Béhar steps in. For him, a witty and surrealistic personality has to be in place, but it doesn’t spill over to the outside without working on visual elements that can suggest that.

So, he and the design team go for soft copper tones and a round diamond head for the Kind Humanoid robot. The color can evoke a warmth effect, and a diamond facial structure with a reactive digital display might help the cyborg be less of its traditional mechanical self. It also appears to be wearing a V-neck top with pronounced lines across its abdomen, which can create a perception that, just like humans, it wears a familiar outfit as opposed to the usual mono-body structure of robots.

all images courtesy of Yves Behar, via Instagram

General-purpose robot as a provider of additional labor

Yves Béhar and his designers at fuseproject believe that by constructing a distinctive head shape, some subtle clothing details, and surreal eye expressions for the robot, Kind Humanoid may be better adapted to interact with humans. And this kind of relationship with people is a task to cross out and have at hand for Christoph Kohstall and his team at Kind Humanoid. They imagine their general-purpose robot to have the ability to both reason and act, to have a mind of its own, and approach situations like a human would.

What they mean by a general-purpose robot is to have Kind Humanoid assist people, not replace them. They think of the it as a provider of additional labor ‘to do the work we don’t do but should do.’ It can become a robot supporting the elderly living alone in their own homes or at a facility, a nurse assistant, a home and yard maintenance helper, and more. It’s developed to take on both general and specialized tasks. In the words of Christoph Kohstall, it’s both an amazing challenge and opportunity to build the brain and body of a humanoid and assist humans and the planet.

Yves Béhar and fuseproject go for soft copper tones and a round diamond head for the Kind Humanoid robot

Kind humanoid robot language model GPT-3

Even before teaming up with Yves Béhar and fuseproject for the exterior design, Kind Humanoid’s team had already been developing the reasoning and mechanics of its general-purpose robot named Mona. In February 2024, the team announced that they had integrated the language model GPT-3 into the humanoid robot, so it could intuitively understand questions without the team needing to code them and the answers. During testing, it was able to move its body when commanded, and even reduce the sway when asked, as well as offer a drink to Christoph Kohstall.

After the first test, the team tried out the robot’s abilities with others by having them converse with the humanoid cyborg. Safe to say that during the test, Mona was able to comprehend and reply to the questions using formal language. This is useful for the Kind Humanoid team, who looks into making the conversations between their robot and others as humane as possible, so that the legged cyborg is able to assist them with their daily tasks in the future. As of publishing the story, there are no announcements yet on the unveiling date of the final design with Yves Béhar and fuseproject and the mechanics of the robot.

the cyborg may interact better with humans with this design