Abstract
This paper presents an innovative motion system that is used to control the motions and animations of a social robot. The social robot Probo is used to study Human-Robot Interactions (HRI), with a special focus on Robot Assisted Therapy (RAT). When used for therapy it is important that a social robot is able to create an “illusion of life” so as to become a believable character that can communicate with humans. The design of the motion system in this paper is based on insights from the animation industry. It combines operator-controlled animations with low-level autonomous reactions such as attention and emotional state. The motion system has a Combination Engine, which combines motion commands that are triggered by a human operator with motions that originate from different units of the cognitive control architecture of the robot. This results in an interactive robot that seems alive and has a certain degree of “likeability”. The Godspeed Questionnaire Series is used to evaluate the animacy and likeability of the robot in China, Romania and Belgium.
Highlights
The social robot, Probo [1] (Figure 1), is one of a range of social robots that are used for Robot Assisted Therapy (RAT), with a special focus on children
While inspiration can be constructively drawn from such principles as to how to apply similar strategies to designing social robots and create the illusion of life and intelligence, the problem for the functional design of the social robot is much more complex, than cartoon characters, as behind each character is a puppet master [21], while a robot must be able to react immediately to events happening in real time and in the environment of the robot
Tools inspired by the creators of computer animations for creating life-like motion for social robots have been implemented and evaluated with the robot, Probo
Summary
The social robot, Probo [1] (Figure 1), is one of a range of social robots that are used for Robot Assisted Therapy (RAT), with a special focus on children. An object tracking behaviour is created by a feedback loop between the estimated object position from a camera and the servos of the robot’s head This results in machine-like behaviour that − in contrast to life-like behaviour – cannot be naturally interpreted. The study states that a social robot can serve as an actor, enacting suitable behaviour in specific social situations to give the child opportunities to learn. This is in line with the first results from interaction studies performed with the robot, Probo, for autism [14] [15]. Previous studies on the recognition of emotions in Probo’s facial expressions showed a recognition rate of 84% [16], making the robot fit for social interactions
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