End-User Programming of Manipulator Robots in Situated Tangible Programming Paradigm

Abstract

While the cost of creating robots is declining, deploying them in industry remains expensive. Widespread use of robots, particularly in smaller industries, is more easily realized if robot programming is accessible to non-programmers. Our research explores techniques to lower the barrier to robot programming. In one such attempt, we propose situated tangible robot programming to program a robot by placing specially designed tangible blocks in its workspace. These blocks are used for annotating objects, locations, or regions, and specifying actions and their ordering. The robot compiles a program by detecting blocks and objects in the environment and grouping them into instructions by solving constraints. We designed a preliminary tangible language and blocks and evaluated the intuitiveness and learnability of the approach. Our user studies provide evidence for the promise of situated tangible programming and identify the challenges to address. In addition to improving the block design and extending the language, we are planning to integrate tangible programming into a holistic ecosystem of a programming environment in future.