Robotic HRI Platform

July 18, 2025

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is the study and design of systems that enable robots to communicate, collaborate, and coexist with humans in intuitive and meaningful ways. As robots become more integrated into daily life, HRI will play a critical role in shaping how these machines are perceived, trusted, and adopted. The TIAGo Head HRI platform by Pal Robotics is a specialized robotic system developed by PAL Robotics to advance research and applications in human-robot interaction (HRI), social robotics, and embodied AI. Designed with expressive features, multimodal communication capabilities, and open-source software integration, TIAGo Head serves as a versatile tool for exploring how robots can engage meaningfully with people across diverse environments.

TIAGo Head stands 17.7 inches (45 cm) tall and weighs 12.7 pounds (5.75 kg), making it compact yet powerful for desktop and mobile applications. It features a 10-inch tactile touchscreen, RGB-D camera, four-microphone array, and 4-watt stereo speakers. The head includes two degrees of freedom for lifelike movement and programmable LEDs for customizable facial expressions.

The platform runs on Ubuntu LTS with a real-time operating system and is powered by an Intel i7 CPU with 16 GB of RAM. It supports ROS 2 and includes APIs for Python and REST, enabling seamless integration with external systems and custom applications. Developers can access the robot’s full operating system via SSH, allowing for deep customization and experimentation. TIAGo Head can be equipped with advanced perception tools, including 3D face and skeleton tracking, emotion recognition, and gesture detection.

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