Test Results

Please go to the Evaluation section for the test results.

Test Completed

Test was completed and we have 30 participation results as we hoped. Results will be posted soon.

Ready, Set, Test!

We started running the experiment since yesterday. The robot is placed on the corner of a hallway in Wean Hall, few feet away from the vending machine. It can pan its head and look for incoming traffic from both sides of the hallway. The two-way radio is going to be planted inside the black set of bottle racks, which will be perfect to conceal the device while still allowing good reception.

The robot will try to capture everyone’s attention as they walk by, or stop to make a purchase of their own drinks. It is clear from invading personal space but close enough so that it will definitely catch people’s attention.

Our goal is to have 30 participants, 15 of them interact with the generic robot and 15 with Don Roboté script.

Shiny Armor & Blade of Glory

The robot is now donned with the metallic armor and optional accessories. With this the physical form is now complete, as well as the internal components such as speakers and eyeball LEDs in place.

The shield and the sword is detachable so that the transition between the character can be easily done.

The speech now comes out through the holes on the back shoulder. Emery clothes are used to fill the hole.

We switched to better speakers so that speech volume would be louder.

Unfortunately, it was infeasible to have the Qwerk board process the voice data from users. Instead of having a microphone to hear back user responses, we decided to go for a pair of two-way radio, and have one of them planted near the coke machine and the robot so that the tele-operator can hear what is going on. The two-way radio was not mounted inside the robot because it creates strong interference with the circuitry and causes the servos to twitch. Although not ideal, this alternative will provide us a benefit of freeing up wireless bandwidth which will reduce delayed responses that the operator sends to the robot.

Prototype Complete

The beta version of the robot is complete. The robot is able to work with remote wireless access and runs on batteries. The camera works, a speaker in the back shoulder provides recognizable voice, head and arms move, and the robot is mobile. The exterior appearance is dull and incomplete at this point: paint coating and eye LEDs will be added later.

The USB webcam is fixed onto the PER’s head which was detached from the PER. The head is mounted on a PVC pipe neck on the torso of the robot. The tilt and the pan servos are already built into the PER’s head.

The mouth is covered with emery cloth, a perfect material for protection and cloaking of the camera. The metallic mesh lets the camera see through enough for capturing video.

The Qwerk processing board and the battery pack is resting inside the PVC torso. The board will be fixed on the torso with Velcro strips.

The servos for arms are glued onto the side panels.

The chassis of the PER is the driving force of our robot. The entire torso is fixed onto the chassis. Servos and motors for driving the PER are already mounted on the chassis.

The speaker is mounted close to the top of the torso so that the robot’s speech would be loud enough. We might drill holes on the shoulder of the robot later to make sure that the speech comes out clear enough.

Taking Shape

Don Roboté has now gained a body. Using a combination of PVC pipes, tape, glue, zip ties, and plastic boards the torso and head are complete.

We still need to wire it, add arms, and add eyes. But with a few wires we will be able to drive around.

Body Prototypes

I put together three distinct types of robots.

1) A cardboard bot on top of the Merv. He has a backpack for the bottle. The mouth area can be emery cloth to allow vision and the speaker.

2) A plastic tub bot. I didn’t want to cut up the tubs but it makes a decent look to the body. The octopus head was just an idea if we wanted a kindler gentler bot.

3) An open guts bot. I put a ton of wires in there, a single gripper out front, and a whole bunch of doodads. The light and gears on the side can be used to show emotion.

Gutted PER

Here are some photos of a PER (Personal Exploration Rover) Illah provided us for the project. We’ve taken out the electronics and removed the top panel and inserted our very own Qwerk board. Once we get the board’s firmware updated, we should be on our way to creating a prototype to test out some ideas and flesh out an interface.

First Test

This is the description for our first test script.

Interaction and metric:
The robot will enlist the help of the human in a simple task.  The task will be to take a dollar to a coke machine, buy a coke, affix it to the robot, and return to the machine with a “report”.  The time required of the task should take no longer than a few minutes, as the robot will be situated close to the coke machine.  The general interaction is as follows, with each human step counting as a discrete increase in interaction marked with a number (#).  This robot has no “personality” beyond that of a cold, stoic, mechanized robot.

R is robot, H is human:
R asks a passing H for ambiguous assistance.  e.g. “Excuse me I need assistance, can you help me?”
H stops and looks at the robot (1).
H replies with a “yes” or “no” (2).
R presents a dollar bill and asks if they will buy him a coke from the machine and return it to the robot.
H takes the dollar from the robot (3).
H actually goes to the machine and buys a drink (4).
H returns to the robot (5).
R asks the human if it will affix it to the robot’s “front panel”.
H attempts to affix it to the panel (6).
H succeeds (7).
R asks the human to complete a final task of reading a short summary report to the machine and bids farewell.
H obliges and begins to read (8).
H reads the entire report (9).

Welcome

Welcome to the home of Don Roboté.   This project will be an ongoing project for 16-899D: Human-Robot Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University.  The class is taught by Prof Nourbakhsh.

Updates will be posted as the project progresses.  Stay tuned to find out if our Mecha de la Manche wins the heart of his dear Cocoacola Machiné.