Mobile, Inflatable Interface to Support Human Robot Interaction Studies

Abstract

Robots capable of engaging with individuals in large crowds can be of use in diverse scenarios such as festivals, conventions, and during building evacuation. Such situations pose a unique combination of hardware constraints involving safety for human contact, durability to withstand physical inter-action with novice users, agility to keep up with moving crowds in non-trivial terrains, versatility to adapt to the situation and audience, and low cost to permit mass deployment. Here, we present a new mobile robot platform composed of a small rover base and a soft human-scale inflatable interface, capable of visual, tactile, and audible human interaction. The inflatable interface allows the robot to maneuver discretely or in confined spaces when deflated, yet grow to encourage interaction; it combines an internal projector, a camera, speakers, and a microphone to emit and receive user information. The rover base is designed to keep up with humans at jogging speeds over relatively uneven terrain. Low weight further permits easy handling and transport. The entire robot costs less than 1.2K USD, and can serve as a general purpose, open source test platform for future human-robot interaction research.