Swimoid: interacting with an underwater buddy robot

摘要

The methodology of presenting information from robots to humans in underwater environments has become an important topic because of the rapid technological advancement in the field of the underwater vehicles and the underwater applications. However, this topic has not yet been fully investigated in the research field of Underwater Human-Robot Interaction(UHRI). We propose a new concept of an underwater robot called the Buddy Robot. And we define the term Buddy Robot as a category of the underwater robot that has the two abilities; recognizing and following the user and giving out visual information to human using display devices. As one specific example of the concept, we develop a swim support system called Swimoid. Swimoid consists of three parts, a hardware , a control software and functions that can support swimmers in three ways; self-awareness, coaching and game. Self-awareness function enables swimmers to recognize themselves swimming form in real time. Coaching function enables coaches on the poolside to give instructions to swimmers by drawing some shapes. Game function helps novice swimmers to get familiar with water in a fun way. As a result of user tests, we confirmed this system works properly by the test user's comments.