.. Summit University VC, Prof. Musa Aibinu to deliver keynote address
By MyEngineers
On Friday 2nd December 2022 in Abuja, history beckons as the Uniccon Group of Companies, located in Abuja is set to unveil Africa’s first humanoid robot named ‘Omeife’, in Nigeria.
The group’s CEO, Mr Chuks Ekwueme made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
The 6-foot-tall multilingual human-like robot was built by Nigerian technology company based in Abuja, Uniccon group. Uniccon Group is one of Nigeria’s fastest growing technology startups that offers eclectic, innovative technology solutions to businesses and government agencies across Africa.
Speaking about the unveiling, Ekwueme said that the six-foot-tall female African humanoid provides language as a service for businesses that need to integrate native African audiences, adding that she is a multipurpose and assistance robot. He listed some of its attributes which are:
“It Identifies and tags humans through face and facial expressions, paying attention to a specific item when required.
“It Identifies objects, knows their characteristics and also calculates positions and distances of objects it sees.
“It pays attention to a specific person to keep the conversation alive. It is careful and aware of words, phrases, sentences and expressions that are not polite in African cultures.
” It is safe for the kid’s smooth interaction, it is not reactive and it is knowledgeable in various fields and always teachable.
“To improve and understand new things from conversations, it has the ability to recall, understand old concepts better with new information,”
“We never planned to replicate humans but to build a robot that can support humans with some level of precision, and we have done that,” – Chuks Ekwueme
Ekwueme said some of its features include: Terrain intelligence, position awareness, advanced gestures, grip and it is also programmed to have a deep understanding of African culture and behavioral patterns.
According to him, the robot speaks African languages like Youruba, Hausa, Igbo, French, Arabic, Kiswahili, Pidgin, Wazobia and Afrikaans.
He said: “For terrain intelligence, knowing the level of ground and stability of itself on the floor, this will help it navigate on non-flat surfaces and maintain good balance.
“For position awareness, the GPS for location and state-management is for knowing whether the system is standing, walking or talking.
“Advanced gestures are the expression of talking, hand illustrations, smile and other bodily gestures.
“Grip is the ability to size, understand shape and how to hold things with its hand.”
Omeife is the first African humanoid with near-human resemblance, language competency, movement, navigation, and behavioural intelligence using AI and Computer Vision capabilities.
The CEO said that Africa’s contributions to the tech ecosystem was well recognised globally.
“Through Omeife and other projects, we are happy to play a part in helping businesses and people all over Africa to achieve their fullest potential by providing access to the most innovative technologies for efficiency,” he said.
Uniccon Group sourced components for the manufacture of Omiefe locally as Nigeria ups its play in the regional tech scene.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, Rwandan High Commissioner to Nigeria, Stanislas Kamanzi, and other eminent personalities will be in attendance.
It will be recalled that Omeife was first unveiled at Gulf Information Technology Exhibition, GITEX in Dubai, by the Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital economy, Professor Isa Pantami, who lauded Uniccon group’s commitment to playing a vital role in advancing technological innovation in Africa.
The technology sector in Nigeria is fast gaining ground and is making accessibility and sharing of information, ideas, and business transactions much easier. Not only that, the innovations made by Nigerian tech companies are giving the country wider recognition by the rest of the world.
Vice Chancellor Summits University, Engr. Professor Abiodun Aibinu to Present Keynote Address
Meanwhile, The erudite Vice Chancellor of Summit University Offa, Engr Abiodun Musa Aibinu will be speaking at the event as the keynote. Speaker. He will be speaking on topic, the Future of Humanoid Robots in the African Ecosystem.
Aibunu is an “AcadoPreneur” and a highly-motivated career driven achiever with over Twenty-Three (25) years working experience in the field of: Artificial Intelligence, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Robotics, Mechatronics Engineering, Telecommunication Engineering, Industrial Automation, Teaching and Research in the field of Artificial Intelligence, ICT and Robotics.
Compiled by isqil najim
