Servo - June 2009

TWICKIE TWEENS TAKE ON NEW YORK

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots created by Kacie Kinzer that navigate a city (in this case, New York) with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag and rely on people they “run into” to read this flag and point them in the right direction to reach their goal.

Throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only

by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench,

ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot,"You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.” Get the latest travel plans at www.tweenbots.com.

MARCO POLO BOT

Scientists have used a popular kid’s swimming pool game to guide their development of a system for controlling moving robots that can autonomously detect and capture other moving targets.

Engineers from Duke University and the University of New Mexico have used the simple pursuit-evasion game "Marco Polo" to solve a complex problem — namely, how to create a system that allows robots to not only "sense" a moving target, but intercept it. The main challenge facing researchers is developing the artificial intelligence to control the robots and their sensors without direct human guidance. Get updates at www.pratt.duke.edu.

MEET KASPAR, THE FRIENDLY ROBOT

KASPAR is a child-sized humanoid robot being used to study human-robot interaction as part of the European RobotCub Project, which aims to build an open-source robot platform for cognitive development research. The Adaptive Systems Research Group is investigating the use of gestures, expressions, synchronization, and imitation. In addition, the robot may be used for developmental studies and interaction games.

This family of robots has been used in the past in the Aurora project which investigated the possible use of robotic systems as therapeutic or educational tools to encourage social interaction skills in children with Autism. They are currently being used with children with Autism as part of the European IROMEC project which acknowledges the important role of play in child development as a crucial vehicle for learning about the physical and social environment, the self, and for developing social relationships. IROMEC targets children who are prevented from playing, either due to cognitive, developmental, or physical impairments which affect their playing skills, and is investigating how robotic toys can empower children with disabilities to discover the range of play styles from solitary to social and cooperative play.