PETS: a personal electronic teller of stories

Abstract

in Robots For Kids, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA. Druin, A. and Hendler J. (eds.) Page 2 Who, or What, Is PETS? Figure 1: PETS, Spaceship, and MyPETS software What Does PETS Do? PETS is a Personal Electronic Teller of Stories, a robotic story telling environment for elementary school age children (Druin et al. 1999a). The PETS kit contains a box of fuzzy stuffed animal parts and an authoring application on a personal computer (Figures 1 and 3). Children can build a robotic animal, or pet, by connecting animal parts such as torso, head, paws, ears, and wings. After they construct their pet, they can write and tell stories using the My PETS software. Just as the robotic animal is constructed from discrete components, My PETS is also constructive. This application enables children to create emotions, draw emotive facial expressions, name their robotic companion, and compile a library of stori