Design of a mixed reality workspace for an expressive humanoid robot

The MIT Media Laboratory Robotic Life Group's Leonardo is a highly expressive robot used for, among other things, social learning and human-robot teamwork research. A mixed reality workspace was conceived to aid in experimentation and demonstration of human-robot interaction by providing a complex state space and several interaction possibilities. A box concept was selected for its ability to incorporate several interaction mechanisms while allowing for meaningful physical tasks. A first iteration of the system was completed, which was controllable primarily through serial communication with a computer, while providing minimal physical communication. For a second revision of the system, physical interaction devices were developed which could be actuated by either the robot or a human, so as to better explore social interaction. Further development of the project will yield a robust, flexible and expandable tool with which future robot social learning and teamwork research can be performed.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Matamoros, Javier G

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cynthia Breazeal.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36727

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36727