I-Corps: Context-Aware Interactive (CAI) Robotic Platform

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是为老年人口带来更多可用的技术，帮助他们更独立地老龄化。具体地说，如果机器人更容易理解和使用，现有的家庭机器人可以帮助更广泛的老年用户群。这是一个特别及时的机会，因为美国的老年人口正在迅速增长。老年用户需要一个可以通过外部功能表达许多内部状态的机器人，特别是以直观和交互的方式。编导和戏剧艺术家认识到如何通过背景(布景)、动作(编排)和命令(对话)来传达叙事，因此将特殊的专业知识带到了典型的产品设计过程之外。将这些专业知识与机器人硬件开发相结合，有可能在老年人与家中技术的联系和利用方面产生重大变革。这个i-Corps项目旨在探索三部分设计方法的商业潜力，这种设计方法已经开发出来，以使机器人系统具有更强的表现力和可理解的功能。该方法1)创建具有适当表达带宽的系统以通过运动简档向人类观众传达内部状态，2)帮助用户理解如何通过角色驱动的叙述与机器人系统交互，以及3)跨多个上下文预测对这些系统的情感反应。初步结果表明，通过LED等低成本、简单的硬件、现成的伺服电机、改进的操作指南和基于上下文的行为，以及现有的低成本机器人硬件，可以促进对家庭技术的信任和接受。例如，像心率监测器这样简单的东西有不透明的、难以解释的监测器、令人困惑的多步骤程序以及不祥的哔哔声。这种新颖的方法在像这样的现有设备上增加了一个可定制的表现层，创建了一个关于设备如何工作的角色驱动的叙事，并使用了可能通过启动来提高用户采用率的戏剧背景。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to bring more usable technology to elderly populations to help them age with greater independence. Specifically, existing in-home robots could assist a broader cohort of elderly users if the robots were easier to understand and use. This is an especially timely opportunity as the elderly population is quickly growing in the United States. Elderly users need a robot that can express many internal states through external features, especially in an intuitive and interactive way. Choreographers and theater artists recognize how to convey narrative through context (set), movement (choreography), and commands (dialogue), therefore bringing a special expertise beyond typical product design processes. Marrying this expertise with robotic hardware development has the potential to produce a significant transformation in how aging adults relate to and take advantage of technology in their homes. This I-Corps project aims to explore the commercial potential of a three-part design methodology that has been developed to layer robotic systems with greater expressiveness and understandable features. This method 1) creates systems with appropriate expressive bandwidth to communicate internal state to human viewers through motion profiles, 2) helps users understand how to interact with robotic systems through character-driven narrative, and 3) predicts affective responses to these systems, across multiple contexts. Initial results indicate that trust and acceptance of in-home technology can be facilitated with low-cost, simple hardware like LEDs, off-the-shelf servo motors, improved how-to literature, and context-based behavior, with existing, low-cost robot hardware. For example, something as simple as a heart rate monitor has opaque, hard to interpret monitors, confusing multiple-step procedures, and an ominous beeping. This novel approach adds a customizable expressive layer to an existing device like this, creates a character-driven narrative about how the device works, and uses theatrical context which may improve user adoption via priming.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.