Archive for the ‘Robot News’ Category
Autism & Robots & Robbie the Robot
Robbie the Robot, a human-machine conversation computer program I developed, has the capability aid autistic children. I’ve been thinking about this intensely for the past few weeks. Today (March 28), much to my excitement, my favourite podcast - Talking Robots - features guest Kerstin Dautenhahn!
This is what they say about her…
Kerstin Dautenhahn who is Research Professor in the School of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences at University of Hertfordshire in the UK, where she is a coordinator of the Adaptive Systems Research Group. Autism is a developmental disorder affecting around 91 people in every 10,000, mainly causing difficulties in social interactions, communication and imagination. Using therapy robots in the AuRoRA project, Dautenhahn has been pushing autistic children to learn essential social skills such as turn taking, joint attention and imitation. Armed with a lot of patience and zeal, her team has been adapting their robots and therapy sessions to each individual child, whether it’s about playing with wheeled robots or Dautenhahn’s toddler-sized Kaspar humanoid. She also presents her new project on Interactive RObotic social MEdiators as Companions (IROMEC) which looks at how autistic children can learn to cooperate and interact with each other through the introduction of a robotic mediator.
So, I listened to the podcast a few times and took some notes…
- A person with autism has several problems interacting with others
- It’s a life-long development disorder
- Problems social interaction and communication
- Problems understanding facial expressions and body language
- It’s a spectrum dissorder
- You can have withdrawn people to very able people (different sides of the spectrum)
- Children with autism enjoy interacting with robots as much as any other person. They’re realy fascinated by it. // This is a great fact, especially for the future development of Robbie the Robot
- Since they were interacting with an autonomous robot, it was completely open! - No concrete hypothesis.
- Found they are very very very interested
- Enjoy interacting with it
- No fear interacting with the robot or touching
- They were smiling, and very keen.
- Autistic children have problems with behaviours like joint attention and immitation. Designed trials, to test this. Particular aspects of behavioural aspects.
- What they did in their work with a humanoid that was able to move its arms and legs:
- Children could interact with robot by similarly moving arms and legs
- Child became more interested, immitated the robot and innitiated the interaction
- If the robot was unable to do that behaviour, child would try something different
- Imagine not being able to know turns for conversations… turn taking in special need schools is what they are teaching // A key target for Robbie the Robot!
Robots are not a replacement for people. // AGREED!
Robots simplify! - Human-human interaction is very complex
- Posture, body language, facial expression…
- Tone, politeness, rules, queues
- … we are to interpret them in a social way
- For example: Do you know what time it is?
Yes
No
Yes, it’s 4:30. - Social correctness is the last one
- You need to interpret what you hear and interpret their behaviour
- Very difficult for a person with autism
- Humanoids are not as complex
- That way, you can use one to slowly teach the child
- First you need to connect, and get the child interested
- Lots of results have to be published on how children can imitate or use joint attention
- More clinical study is needed
- Types of robots
- Different types are suitable for different children
- Low functional end - successful mobile robot engages attention. (Applied AI Systems).
- Simple, robot moves around and has heat sensors and IR sensors
- Chasing, tag, run around, etc. Very very very simple robot
- More abilities, imitation … humanoid shape.
- Designs and types of behaviours you want to explore.
- Casper has facial expressions, it can turn its head, move arms, produce gestures, play peek-a-boo.
- It really depends on what groups of children you are dealing with
- Communication and interaction skills produce more challenges.
- All in all, start with what you know about the child, and design objectives of trials for therapy for the children
- Robots are individualized! This way, you can hope interaction capabilities develop
- Different types are suitable for different children
- Challenges from the Robotics point of view
- Nature - important that robot is predictable
- Scenerios are unconstrained
- Sensor system has 100% reliability
- More autonomy
- Summary of results
- Children respond to a robot differently to a non-robotic toy
- They are comfortable, they learn imitative behaviour, use robot to show joint attention
- Emphasis on mediation aspect
- Social mediator. 1 Robot, 2 children. Communication and interaction between the children
- Collaboration is very difficult for a child with autism
They use what they learn with the robot outside of the class.
- Although solid evidence is needed, there is big potential.
Robot assisted therapy is a growing area! Commercialize these robots. Here comes Robbie the Robot!
After breezing through all of my notes taken during this podcast, it becomes extremely obvious that Robbie can fit snuggly in a robot assisted therapy with an autistic child that is able to communicate, but sruggles slightly to keep a conversation going.
Now, the big question is how am I going to make Robbie to the point where it is extremely intelligent and can assist autistic children?
- Use and exploit language models - be sure to include anything that can happen, as it might happen
- Work on continuous speech recognition - this way sentences can be heard
- Convert what is heard into a probable sentence - if what it said was wrong, the child might correct it, where then I can monitor and adjust it accordingly
- Add some algorithms to advance the conversation according to the number of times Robbie has conversed with that particular child, and for how long — this way, Robbie will be able to ‘coach’ them to have a normal conversation — Once they are able to do so, they won’t need Robbie anymore!
- Create a teddy bear, or bubble boy physical device to make it seem less frightening — however, that would have to be tested, as maybe they would be more frightening that just a laptop
It definitely requires some thought, but I’m up for the challenge!
If this post made no sense, I highly recommend listening to the podcast itself, which can be found here, and the mp3 here.
Featured on MAKE!
Wow, what a brilliant surprise! After playing around with BubbleBoy, I go to check my email. I noticed that there were two new comments on my blog, which is rather peculiar! I checked it out, then shrieked out loud “I’M ON MAKEZINE!”. Wooooooooooo! I was sooooo (and still am) thrilled! A few seconds later, after playing the video to ensure it was my BristleBot, I sent a thank-you email right away to JBC, the person that made the article. 
JBC has a blog, you can check it out here: coin-op. One of the really neat projects is one called PoliceState. Check it out! I like the look of the cars, really stylish.
I’m just so absolutely honoured, flattered, and blabber-ghasted! Thank you so much!! So, check it out on MAKE!
Oh yeah, one more thing - BristleBot says thanks too.
Female Robot Leader Honored
With the U.N. International Women’s Day coming up on March 8th, the Japan Times ran a special series in this
Sunday edition highlighting "… the astonishing progress being made against considerable odds by women in Japan working in a wide variety of scientific fields, long thought to be the sole preserve of men."
They selected six women who represent "Japan’s brightest stars in the fields of science, technology and medicine, ranging from geophysics and cancer treatment to biodiversity and robotics." We were very pleased to find that one of these six wonderful women was our own robotics ’sensei’, mentor, and friend, Yukiko Nakagawa, the founder of RT Corporation.
Congratulations Nakagawa-san! It’s a well deserved honor!
Well done to her! That is quite a feat! After reading about her, she is definitely one of the people whom I will see as a role-model for now on.
Link.
Woah! The RT Corp store has some pretty awesome stuff!
Hats for MANOI! *freaks out with joy*
Sofa for MANOI! *squeaal*
So cool! I can definitely see my MANOI needing those.
On a more serious note, this article is an interesting read.
Then there is the "attractiveness" factor. As robotics expert Yukiko Nakagawa points out, "Girls are considered ‘uncute’ if they go on a date to a science museum and if they know more about the exhibits there than boys."
…Wow much? Going to a science museum would be pretty cool, in my opinion! I don’t understand how women can like science less than men. Is there really that big of a difference? 
What makes a person different from one another are their decisions and personality! No one has to strictly conform to tradition. I like science and robotics because of the challenges! At the time, I had no clue when I bought my MANOI that it was one of the toughest athlete humanoids. But, with a little ‘work’ — I put work in quotes as it isn’t work since it is FUN, but physically it is work since I am exerting energy to create a force… — it’s going to be alright! I’ll have to figure out the gyros at a later date though. And, I did get it to walk last weekend instead of moonwalking forwards. *thumbs up*
I cannot wait to blog about my science fair project!! Keep a lookout for a post and a page on March 5th! It is really going to change the way humans and machines interact with eachother.
Until then, I’ll still be adding more to it.
i-Snake
Incase it slipped my mind and I haven’t blogged about i-Snake…
i-Snake is a new robotic surgeon that is storming its way through the news recently (a few months ago..). Basically, it is an extremely flexible robot that is able to see where we can’t.
This highly flexible robot ‘could allow coronary bypass operations to be performed without the need for open-heart surgery.’ And it would help heal your heart after travelling through blood vessels. The research team thinks that the i-Snake could also be used as a diagnosis tool replacing the eyes of a surgeon when looking inside us.
It sounds very promising. However, when thinking of the worst… what happens if it can’t get out? Or, what happens if it was short circuited? I’m sure that would be highly unlikely, but … what if? Although, the benefits outweigh the risks by far.
Link.
Even Robots Celebrate 2008
2007 was a pretty harsh year. Everyone is hoping 2008 will be better, including this robot! :O
The Japanese have many traditions to celebrate the new year. There are special new years foods to enjoy, sending and receiving special new years postcards, playing traditional new years games, writing haiku and renga poetry, making the first pilgrimage of the year to a local temple or shrine, and making (and eating) mochi - boiled and pounded rice dumplings.
Haha! That is too cool.
Link! 
i-SOBOT: Archery and Basketball
It seems i-SOBOT can do anything!
…Like archery!
…And Basketball!
Certainly is a little wonder! I wish I could afford one
Tags: i-SOBOT, robot, archery, basketball
WowWee Robots
WowWee, a popular robot company, released a few new robots a while ago!
Here is a pic of three of them:
I really like the one with three wheels a lot.
Get more info here!
This robot can BIKE!
This robot, 50cm and about 5kg can cycle around on a bike! There are three sensors inside the robot, one of which is a gyro. My guess is that there is an acellerometer in there too.
According to Murata Electronics (M) Sdn Bhd managing director Osamu Onishi, the robot is able to stabilise itself using a rotating disc built into its body.
Neat stuff! I wonder how it starts and stops though? Not to mention, get up when it falls? And, is it NOT wearing a helmet?! :O Big no-no…
Link.
Bristlebot
LOL, This is so cute. Somehow, I can see something bizarre happening with these on April Fools Day!
Link.
Tags: robot, bristlebot
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