Design of Robotic Heads for
Use in Assistive Robotics
Dan Ricks
Outline
► What
Do Robots Look Like?
► Current
► What
► Input
Robots Used in Autism Research
Should Robots Look Like?
HRI Robot Classifications
Machine
Realistic
Mascot
The Uncanny Valley
Current Humanoid Autism Robots
Robota
Kaspar
FACE
Infanoid
Keepon
How They Chose Their Robots…
►
Infanoid (Koyoto and Nagoya Universities) – The robot was built to show
emotion, but little effort was put into covering the mechanical parts.
►
Keepon (National Institute of Information and Communications
Technology, Japan) – Tried to make it as simple as physically possible to
avoid distractions.
►
FACE (University of Pisa, Italy) – Used to teach the intricacies of human
emotion, and so a very lifelike head was built.
►
Robota (University of Hertfordshire) - Used limbs, head, and clothes from
a doll.
►
Kaspar (University of Hertfordshire) - After doing the study with Robota,
they tried to make a robot that balanced looking human as well as being
simple and plain. They used a CPR dummy mask for face.
Does Appearance Matter?
Case 1: Theatrical Robot
Actor in Robot
Costume
Actor in Normal
Clothes
Touch
Gaze
Near
Does Appearance Matter?
Case 2: Robota
Robota in Doll
Clothes
Billy
Robota in
Plain Clothes
Don
Andy
Current Therapies They Do
►
Act as the object of joint attention.
►
Perform imitation activities.
►
Play turn-taking games.
►
Practice eye contact.
►
Used as a toy in unstructured playtime.
►
Enact and teach appropriate behavior in social situations.
►
Make a facial emotion and have the child label it or match it to a picture of a
human making that same face.
►
Tell the child a social situation and have the child pick an emotion for the
robot.
How Can We Tell if They’re Interested?
► Ask
Them
►Observationally
►Physiological
Based
Feedback
Observation Based
► Put
the child in a room with the robot
performing some routine.
► Videotape




Eye Gaze
Touch
Imitation
Proximity
and measure:
Physiological Feedback
►
Have the child wear a BioPac system.
►
The child plays rigged games.
►
A parent and a therapist identify whether a child likes the
game, is bored, or anxious.
►
Researchers associate these emotions with their
physiological levels.
►
Now the computer can automatically label their emotional
states. The computer and therapist agree 81% of the
time.
This study was performed by the Marino Autism Research Institute in
conjunction with Vanderbilt University
Input
► What
abilities should the face have?
 Ekman Faces
 Happy vs. Unhappy
► Which
faces would be appropriate?
► Should we/how can we, test to see if they
are appropriate?