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Designing and Building Sensual Androids and Robots

Warning: Some sexual content. Not suitable for minors.

Interested in sensual/sex androids/robots/love mecha? You've come to the right spot. Below I've listed links to the design and construction of sex androids as well as some off-the-self models and some forums about love dolls. Build your own android or robot. Lots of info that you'll find useful when designing and creating biomimetic female and male androids as personal companions. Robotics magazines. Robotics engineering, electronics engineering.

Should it be legal to have a sexual relationship with an android? Is it moral to do so? In fact, should androids be built with any kind of sexual function at all? You may wonder why this would even be an issue, but consider this: Might it not be safer from a hygienic perspective to use androids as sexual surrogates and prostitutes than human beings? At least the possibility exists of disinfecting an android between clients, thus reducing the risk of spreading diease. Could this not be a more socially acceptable way of providing sexual services for hire? Certainly prostitution has existed as long as society does it not make sense to control the medical consequences by applying some basic principles of hygiene? Humans have consistently manufactured sexual toys of increasing realism and talent; surely someone, somewhere will construct a sexually functional android if only for the titillation value.

from "In our own image: building an artificial person"
by Maureen Caudill, 1992

Click on the links below for detailed info. Links checked and updated December 2006.

NEW - Links to Electronics magazines
Circuit Cellar Practical, hands-on applications and solutions for embedded-control designers.
Elektor Electronics Electronics hobby magazine from the UK features electronics projects
Nuts & Volts is the leading magazine for those seriously interested in electronics. Lots of free project files.
Robot Magazine a magazine featuring robots for consumers and hobbyists. Primarily robot kits and off-the-shelf robots.
SERVO Magazine is dedicated to the "Next Generation of Robotics Experimenters", devoted 100% to robots and robotics.

New Robotics Technology from MIT The Huggable: A Robotic Companion for Therapeudic Applications Incorporates new sensate skin technology and voice coil actuators. Read more about the actuators in "Voice Coil Actuators for Human-Robot Interaction".

Do-it-yourself Sex Devices at Slashdong.org Articles and tips on building/modifying sex toys and constructing your own from items such as game controllers. Active forum.

How soon will robots become part of our day-to-day lives? According to the International Federation of Robotics, about two million personal robots were in use around the world in 2004, and another seven million will be installed by 2008. In South Korea the Ministry of Information and Communication hopes to put a robot in every home there by 2013. The Japanese Robot Association predicts that by 2025, the personal robot industry will be worth more than $50 billion a year worldwide, compared with about $5 billion today.

from A Robot in Every Home, Scientific American, January 2007
by Bill Gates

Sex Android Programming Guide, updated May 22, 2007 Programming sexual behaviors. The Maria Scripting Language for programming sex androids/robots/automa. See the resources page at this site for the Maria specifications (updated with detailed explainations behind the design of the language and illustrations) and for a sample script showing how the language might be used to program your sex android or love doll. At the moment a Java interpreter for the Maria scripting language is still being developed.

Sexual Anatomy for Android and Love Doll Designers Biomechanics and Functional Anatomy of Human Female Genitalia 24 pages with lots of illustrations. For designers and creators of biomimetic androids, dolls and robots. Now includes detailed info on vaginal musculature and supporting structures, the vulva, more info on the pelvis. Also includes anatomy of the anus and rectum. New! Biomechanics and Functional Anatomy of Human MALE Genitalia for designers and builders of male androids/robots. 8 pages of anatomical and functional information; the penis, male pelvic musculature, erection and ejaculation.

Anthropometry and Biomechanics Data 61 pages of data from The Human Factors Design Guide (HFDG) Chapter 14 (2004 update) in PDF format. You can visit the Federal Aviation Administration Human Factors Research & Engineering Group website here to see the most up-to-date information available. See also "Ergonomic Models of Anthropometry, Human Biomechanics and Operator-Equipment Interfaces: Proceedings of a Workshop (1988)" printable from the website. Use these resources to help you design realistic skeletons and motion systems.

The idea of making empathetic machines raises eyebrows, even among some roboticists. Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor and the author of several works on technology and identity, asks, "Should we be creating robots just to make people feel good? Should we be making artificial companions? Isn't this a statement that we've given up on offering actual human companions?"

from It's Alive, Wired Magazine, 15.01
by Clive Thompson

Build your own sex android Plans for a simple sex android using the parallel port interface on your computer for control. Low cost and simple to build, has multiple motors for stimulation, microswitches for a rudimentary nervous system and a low-voltage pump for lubrication

THE KOKORO COMPANY LTD. of Japan manufactures show robots including the Actroid series of female host robots.

GlobalSpec: The Engineering Search Engine Like Yahoo! or Google for engineers. Locate hard-to-find parts and solutions to your robotics/android engineering problems. Nice, free newsletter via email is available from GlobalSpec detailing the latest technologies.

Building Brains for Bodies by RODNEY A. BROOKS AND LYNN ANDREA STEIN, Autonomous Robots, 1, 7-25 (1994). Abstract:
We describe a project to capitalize on newly available levels of computational resources in order to understand human cognition. We are building an integrated physical system including vision, sound input and output, and dextrous manipulation, all controlled by a continuously operating large scale parallel MIMD computer. The resulting system will learn to "think" by building on its bodily experiences to accomplish progressively more abstract tasks. Past experience suggests that in attempting to build such an integrated system we will have to fundamentally change the way artificial intelligence, cognitive science, linguistics, and philosophy think about the organization of intelligence. We expect to be able to better reconcile the theories that will be developed with current work in neuroscience.

TECHNICAL LINKS FOR ARTIST USING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Including lots of useful electronics links and plastics and electroplating sources.

Contemporary views on female pelvic anatomy by Matthew D. Barber. Pelvic musculature and support of female genitalia (in particular the vagina, urethra and pelvic floor). Well written with clear illustrations. Highly recommended as a useful source of information for the designers of female sex androids. From the Cleveland Journal of Medicine, December 2005 (Vol. 72, Supl. 4).

Clitoral anatomy in nulliparous, healthy, premenopausal volunteers using unenhanced magnetic resonance imaging by Helen E. O'Connell and John O. L. DeLancey. This study shows the anatomy of the clitoris in healthy, living women (versus cadavers) using an MRI scanner. Clearly shows the relationship of the clitoris to other structures in the female pelvis especially the cavernous tissue of the clitoris. More useful information for the android designer/builder. Article published in Journal of Urology, June 2005 (J Urol. 2005 June ; 173(6): 2060�2063).

"Sexually Interactive Autonomous Robots" an article by Nat Friedman and Rony Kubat, May 17, 1999

Converting rotary motion to linear motion Three methods for converting the rotary motion of an electric motor to linear (back and forth) motion using ball screws, acme screws or timing belts. Useful in many android and robotic applications.

Simple audio player for your doll. Plays audio clip at random from a list you provide. Written in Java. Runs as either an application or an applet. Source code available.

Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal from the BMJ VOLUME 319 18.25 DECEMBER 1999.
Objective: To find out whether taking images of the male and female genitals during coitus is feasible and to find out whether former and current ideas about the anatomy during sexual intercourse and during female sexual arousal are based on assumptions or on facts.
Design: Observational study.
Setting: University hospital in the Netherlands
Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging was used to study the female sexual response and the male and female genitals during coitus. Thirteen experiments were performed with eight couples and three single women.
Results: The images obtained showed that during intercourse in the "missionary position" the penis has the shape of a boomerang and 1/3 of its length consists of the root of the penis. During female sexual arousal without intercourse the uterus was raised and the anterior vaginal wall lengthened. The size of the uterus did not increase during sexual arousal.
Conclusion: Taking magnetic resonance images of the male and female genitals during coitus is feasible and contributes to understanding of anatomy.

The Clitoris Female Sexual Anatomy page. More info. Excellent

The Virtual Pelvis Museum at St Mary's Hospital at the University of Manchester. Female pelvic bones shown in 3D using VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language). Rotate the pelvis to view from any angle. To view these images you must have a VRML viewer installed on your computer

Stanford Visible Female Female Pelvic anatomy with illustrations and animations. The specimen is that of a 32 year old female and it was fixed in a standing position. The uterus and ovaries are those of a reproductive age female. The data set is limited to the pelvic region. Excellent!! Lots of info

The Doll Forum Discussion about "love dolls" etc. Adult content.

Android World About androids in general; lots of info. I've found that many of the most interesting links are broken but otherwise an excellent site.

Real Doll Realistic silicon rubber love dolls.

CybOrgasMatrix, the most sophisticated Sex Doll in history, is created from an actual life-casting of celebrity model Pandora Peaks. She is anatomically correct, robotically actuated, and made from a technically advanced formula of a durable, ultra-realistic flesh-like elastomeric gel, supported by an articulated skeleton. Her superlative and compelling realism appeal to all the senses-she speaks, she moves, she looks, feels, and smells real

Daxtron Labs Their website has some useful links for android builders

Humanoid Robots not really sensual but a look at humanoid robots or androids by the Idaho National Engineering and Evironmental Laboratory (INEEL). Read the article on ethical considerations. The INEEL is a multi-purpose national laboratory delivering science and engineering solutions to the world's environmental, energy, and security challenges.

. . . Back in Japan six months later we came across a story from Shukan Taishu, a girlie magazine salarymen read on the subway. The story was called "Unreal Inanimate Lover Has Guys Turning to Jelly" and it said a $7,000 life-sized sex doll called a "rarebot" was selling like hotcakes. The whole thing sounded bizarre enough that I had to grab a train to the suburban home of Masami Sakai, the designer of the silicon-skinned beauty. He came to the door and explained that he used to design prosthetic limbs. Then he got the rarebot idea and jumped right on it. Reona, the rarebot in his house, was wearing kimono pajamas and pantyhose. She slumped in a brown leather chair in the tiny office, wedged between a gold-framed mirror and a PC. Because Reona weighs as much as a person, Mr. Sakai has to cart her around in a wheelchair. To make a long story short, Reona was not a robot. All she had was a removable, washable insert that resembled a cross between a video cassette and a pet monkey. There were no motors or sensors, but I strongly suspect that someone, somewhere, is working on it.

from "Robo sapiens: Evolution of a new species"
by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, 2000

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