Takayuki KANDA

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Previous Research...(Present Research)

Robovie is made for future everyday-life robot. It has enough sensor and gesture ability (4 DOF arms and 3 DOF head) for communication study. The control program is developed based on "A Robot Architecture Based on Situated Module", which is our former research. We have implemented over 100 interactive behaviors into the robot with the situated module architecture. Then, we have performed many demonstration of Robovie (Robofesta, Robodex 2000, etc.) Many children seem to like Robovie (especially they like hugging). However, for adult human-robot communication, we have many things to research. Everyday robot project (ATR Media Integration & Communications Research Laboratories) Size 60cm in a diameter, 120cm height Actuators Head (3 DOF), Pan-tilt in a camera(2 DOF x2), Arm(4 DOF x2), Locomotion (Pioneer 2) (2 DOF), Speaker Sensors Two Cameras, Omnidirectional vision sensor, 26 touch sensors (in body, arm, and head), 24 sonars, microphone OS Realtime Linux Software architecture Situated module architecture Number of situated modules 100

Playing children with Robovie at Robodex 2000

It is important to evaluate such the interactive robots, which will work in our daily life. For example, industrial robots are evaluated by speed and accuracy, and these measure enable us to develop and improve the performance. Similarly, the interactive robots must have the measures how these robot affects humans. We performed the experiment to evaluate "Robovie", which has the enough physical expression ability and the implemented interactive behaviors. Evaluation mainly consists of two parts "impression of the robot", and "human's behaviors toward the robot (utterance, gesture, and unconscious body movement)". As the result of 31 subjects, we obtained the comparison of robots's behavior pattern (passive and active), and interpersonal behaviors toward the robot. Development and Evaluation of an Interactive Humanoid Robot"Robovie" (ICRA 2002)

Comparison of behavior pattern Human's touching to the robot

In future, there are many robots working in our everyday life. Then neighbor robots will communicate each other with invisible way (such as radio and infrared). Contrary, we consider those robots need to seemingly communicate with visible way (voice and gesture). It helps observing human to understand these robots. It brings natural communication between humans and the robot. To formalize the ideas, we proposed a communication model based on relation chain. By using the robot having rich physical expression ability, we developed the robot system that can behave with corresponding to the situation and communicate with humans and robot. We verified the effects of the observation of robot-robot communication. Multi-robot Cooperation for Human-Robot Communication (ROMAN 2002)

A communication model based on relation chain Robot-Robot communication Human-Robot communication

We are developing the rule representation to control the execution order of situated modules. It is named "Episode Rule". Then, we are also developing the tool "Episode Editor" to find and write the "Episode Rule." The "Episode Editor" visualizes the implemented situated modules, relationship among these modules, and the experience of the robot (execution history of situated modules). We consider that the visualization tool makes the developers of the robot system to easily develop and improve the "Episode Rules". A constructive approach for developing interactive humanoid robots (IROS 2002)

Episode Editor

Size	60cm in a diameter, 130cm height
Actuators	Head (3 DOF), Original wheel mechanism for turn motion (2 DOF)
Sensors	Two Cameras, Omnidirectional vision sensor, touch sensors, sonars
OS	Realtime Linux
Software architecture	Situated module architecture
Number of situated modules	30

1. A robot architecture based on situated modules Indoor experiment We have developed a robot control program based on a robot architecture based on situated modules. The architecture enables us to progressively develop a robot control program by adding new situated modules. For indoor navigation, we implemented about 30 modules. Outdoor experiment Because of sunshine and complicated structure, outdoor environment is more complex than indoor environment. Thus, it is difficult to control a robot by using vision sensor in the outdoor. Moreover, there are more obstacles such as passengers and bicycles than indoor environment. In such a complex outdoor environment, we robustly navigated the robot based on a robot architecture based on situated modules. Publication: A Robot Architecture Based on Situated Modules (IROS'99)

2.Evaluation of Human-robot interaction For future robots working in human society, it is necessary function to interact with human. Based on a robot architecture based on situated modules, we have developed the robot that interacts with human. The robot turns to human, follows human, presents its intention by controlling its gazing direction (camera direction). Impression evaluation experiment To measure the effect of the camera direction control on human-robot interaction, we have performed the experiment on impression. The result of 66 subjects proved that the gazing direction control makes the impression of the robot more active and enjoyable. It is also found that the subjects whose computer skills are high evaluated the difference of gazing direction control bigger. Publication: Psychological analysis on human-robot interaction (ICRA 2001)

Last update May.21.2007