Individual Process Report by Jacquelyn van Kampen

Individual Process Report Project: Make the Robot Move (Me)

Jacquelyn van Kampen 0732234 Coach: Gijs Ockeloen

Technical University Eindhoven Department of Industrial Design February to June 2010

Individual Process Report

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Table of Contents Introduction

Assignment One: Show Emotion

Introduction

Robotic Movement Research

Chosen Emotions

Development of Robot

Assignment Two: Evoke Emotion Introduction Ideation and Realization

9 9 11

Ideation

Realization

Assignment Three: Interaction

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Introduction

Ideation and Realization

Ideation

Electronics

Mechanics

Conclusion

Overall Project Reflection

Resources

Glossary of Electronics

Appendix A

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Introduction The following report was developed to show the individual responsibilities and growth throughout a first year project put forward by the Technical University of Eindhoven, department of Industrial Design. The project was one semester in duration, from February first to June eleventh 2010. The project was broken down into three phases. These phases include a preliminary research phase, an individual robot-building phase and a final concept development phase. The project brief can be found in Appendix A. This report focuses on the second phase of individual robot building. The individual tasks allowed for each group member to develop electronic skills by building a series of emotive robots. The group developed a problem statement early on in order to have guidance and coherence through the individual phase of the project. It was decided to focus on children between the ages of three to four in the context of a Chinese kindergarten. There is a law in China that restricts the people living in urban areas to only have one child per family. These children are growing up with no siblings and studies have shown that some of them have a hard time adjusting when they enter kindergarten1. This presents an opportunity for a solution to be developed. The group made a goal to develop a device that encourages only children in China to learn how to share.

Jiao, S. Ji, G. Jing, Q. (No Date). Cognitive Development of Chinese Urban Only Children and Children with Siblings. Institute of Psychol-

ogy, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Assignment One: Show Emotion Introduction The objective of the first assignment of phase two was to make a robot that displayed two contradictory states of mind. The idea was to use robotic movements to convey human emotions. During this assignment a workshop was given on movement describing how effort factors such as flow, weight, time and space affect emotional behavior. These factors were considered throughout assignment one and had an influence on the final design. A workshop on programming for Arduino was also given in order for the students to form a base knowledge on how to work with an open-source electronics prototyping platform. The chosen emotions and their corresponding factors will be described through this chapter along with an explanation of the technology used and how it was implemented into the prototype. During the movement workshop put on by Roos van Berkel on Thursday February eleventh 2010, a way of defining emotions through motions was explored. Roos encouraged the group to investigate their reachable space using intentional effort. This allowed the group to experience how using movements with varied forces and directions can represent different emotions. This practice was later translated into the form of a robot.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Robotic Movement Research After exploring the movements of a human, research was conducted on the movements of a robot. According to Ronald Arkin, the author of Behavior-Based Robotics, simple movements are better. He also states that a robotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behavior should be prioritized according to its environment. This means that as external factors are introduced the robot should react accordingly, â&#x20AC;&#x153;robotics is about perception and actionâ&#x20AC;? (R. Arkin 1998). For example, if a robot is naturally happy but is afraid of light, it should be programmed to remain happy until it encounters light. The priorities of the robot will adjust to a frightened response until the light is taken away.

Chosen Emotions The chosen states of mind were positive verses negative. A positive state of mind in humans is often displayed in emotions such as joy and excitement as apposed a negative state of mind showing sadness and anger. Joyous movements are open, upward and rhythmic whereas sad movements are slow, inward and down. These movements were used in the robot.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Development of Robot The robot accelerates when it is joyous. The program was written to turn a servo motor quickly within thirty degrees to create a waving motion. When a button is pressed the robot becomes upset and the movement decelerates. The servomotor is programmed through an Arduino to respond to the button push by turning slowly between an eighty degree radius. The servomotor was attached to a string that pulled on a pipe, the pipe moved up and down according to the servoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position. This was tested first with a simple string and some straws, when the paper prototype proved that the desired movement will be achieved the final prototype was developed. The diagram below shows the servomotorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions according to the program and the photos show the progression of the prototyping.

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Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Assignment Two: Evoke Emotion Introduction Now that the group members were feeling more comfortable with developing a robot, they felt that it would be strategic to think ahead and use the design question as guidance through the second assignment. Based on that, the group declared that the second assignment would be an opportunity to explore emotions that one experiences when they share or are about to share. Each member would experiment with how a robot can bring out these emotions in the user. The following are the emotions that were expanded on. Anticipation/ uncertainty  curiosity Accomplishment/ satisfaction  pride Pity/ sadness  empathy Frustration/ anger  jealousy Happiness/ delight  joy of sharing

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Individual Process Report

CURIOUS? Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Ideation and Realization The chosen emotion for the individual robot was to evoke curiosity. It is a very intriguing emotion to include in a design to enhance interaction. Curiosity comes about through a feeling of anticipation or uncertainty and results in a feeling of satisfaction or disappointment. It is human nature to ask about things that interest them. If sharing can seem interesting to a child, curiosity can be used to entice the child to want to share. Ideation

It is much more interesting to evoke emotion than to display it. Evoking emotion can be achieved through interaction as well as with form. This was kept in mind through the idea generation process. The idea was to make a robot that allows the user to see inside it, only slightly, for a period of time. The hope was that the user would be interested by it and therefore the user would want it to open again so they could see what is inside. To enhance the curiosity of the user LED lights were placed inside. The lights go on when the device is open and off when it is closed. Finally there is a button placed inside. If the button is pushed it indicates that the device was successful in making the user feel curious. This was the end of the interaction; the robot was developed only to test its ability to evoke emotion. In order to be thorough, the robot was tested on several peers.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

When Industrial Design students and coaches operated the robot one hundred percent of them pushed the button to see what would happen. When non-designer peers operated the device they were, for the most part afraid to stick their hand in the device, however; they asked about the button and wondered what it would do. Designers are naturally curious; this needs to be considered when conducting user tests for a device that is meant to evoke curiosity.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Realization

A stepper motor was purchased and built according to a schematic. The stepper was then programmed through an Arduino to spin a certain number of steps forward, stay that way for a few seconds, and then spin backward the same amount of steps. This repeated with varied amounts of steps in between cycles until the program was finished, at which point the device would remain open, to allow for the user to push the button. The Arduino was also programmed to simultaneously turn on and off a LED.

When it came time to bring the electronics together with the mechanics, it was discovered that the stepper motor was too large to fit nicely into the device. It was decided that a servomotor could perform the same task and was more compact. The code was adjusted to allow for this change. This assignment was useful to test how emotion could be evoked but the next step was to relate it to the design problem: encouraging children to share. Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Assignment Three: Interaction Introduction The third assignment allowed for each group member to use what they have learned about showing and evoking emotions and develop it further by incorporating interaction. The aspect of sharing became more predominant in this assignment both through form and interaction. Because the form would play a large role in this design, shapes from nature were observed in how they are able to trigger a reaction. If such shapes were used in this design it would make for a more interesting prototype and a more meaningful interaction.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Ideation and Realization Ideation

The inspiration for this design came from observing how birds interact with one another. When two birds interact their feathers ruffle as a signal to the other. This movement will be represented through the design to represent two people reacting on one another. In order to introduce sharing the device was designed to come apart so that each child has one half. When the halves are pointed at one another there is a reaction.

Electronics

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In order to have two exclusive pieces reacting on one another a non contacting sensor needs to be used. It was decided that an infrared sensor would be best suited for the desired action. Also because the movement will occur by simply turning on and off a motor there was no need for an Arduino. The infrared sensor would work as follows: D

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Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798

Individual Process Report

An encoder and decoder were needed in order for the receiver sensor to react only on the frequency of its senderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wave. The encoder has a specific pulse rate that needs to be matched by the decoder. When there is a match the infrared sensor and receiver become active. However the receiver was still non responsive because even though it was receiving the proper pulse rate from the sender it did not react. It was realized that the output of the receiver is active low, however; the input of the decoder is active high. Inserting an inverter circuit between the receiver and the decoder solved this problem. The inverter was able to make the output of the receiver active high in order to match the input of the decoder. For the data sheet on the encoder and decoder that were used please see the references.

The circuit was built on a breadboard in order to test its functionality before moving on to soldering. After the electronics were working, the focus moved toward the mechanics.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Mechanics

The form of the device was decided on early in the process. A basic shell of the device had been developed and was ready for the electronics to be placed inside it. The following photos describe the process of the form coming together with the electronics. The motor needed to be secured in such a position that it would not have any interference from wires or other barriers. A flag was attached to the spinning mechanism to allow for a smoother contact with the tiles.

Finally the two half spheres were sandblasted to hide the electronics but still allow for the infrared sensor to transmit a signal, the tiles were painted a bright colour to allow for them to stand out and the rest was painted white. When the two pieces were put together they formed a full sphere.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Conclusion The individual phase of this project allowed for a great deal of personal growth, especially in the areas of technology and form and senses. The knowledge gained through this phase of the project was carried through to the final concept development. The process of working individually allowed each group member to show his or her ability to complete tasks independently and still communicate and remain focused on a common goal. This allowed for a smooth transition into the group work phase. During group work tasks were divided in order for each member to work efficiently toward a common final concept.

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Overall Project Reflection The first quartile of this project allowed me to show my abilities through individual tasks including conducting research, working with electronics and form giving. I was able to improve my programming and electronic skills by working hands on, connecting components through breadboard circuits, soldering, testing and problem solving. I was able to ask for help form experts in the electronics lab when I had a problem. I realized how important good communication skills are. The more clear I could be about what I had done, what I wanted to do or what should happen, the better the engineer would be able to understand my problem, and help me. In practice I used sketches as a communicative tool as well as verbal explanations. The most effective communicate tool that I used was a scenario storyboard. I made the storyboard with the specific purpose of explaining the concept in a clear way. Each action, reaction and interaction was displayed as a descriptive drawing and arranged in a sequential order. I went form very little knowledge on electronics, programming and working with a micro-controller at the beginning of the semester to feeling very confident in my abilities to involve technology in future projects and assignments. The project was split into phases of individual and group work. As stated earlier in the report, the group decided to all work toward a common goal in order to keep the future of the project in mind during the individual phase of the project. This meant that each member of the group needed to be committed in order to keep cohesive and organized. I was the project leader so I ensured that each member felt comfortable within the group to share their ideas, ask each other for help and communicate. I ensured that each member had the opportunity to develop themselves in the competency areas they needed or wanted to develop. The dynamics of the group did not change that much between the individual phase and the group phase because tasks were still divided and each member had something to work on. The group had good communications skills throughout the entire project. We created an open environment so each member would feel free to ask for each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinions and advice. When a major decision needed to be made we would hold a formal meeting. When communications are open and each member is involved the project went quite smoothly however there were moments of miscommunication and missing deadlines. I arranged for a group dynamics meeting in order to get each member back on the same page and aware of his or her involvement within the team. Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Resources Arkin, R. (1998). Behavior- Based Robotics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Igoe, T. (2007). Making Things Talk. Sebastopol, CA: Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Reilly Media, Inc. Jiao, S. Ji, G. Jing, Q. (No Date). Cognitive Development of Chinese Urban Only Children and Children with Siblings. Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Shiffman, D. (2008). Learning Processing A Beginnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Guide to Programming, Images, Animation, and Interaction. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Inc. http://www.arduino.cc/ http://w3.id.tue.nl/fileadmin/id/objects/E-Atelier/doc/Datasheets/Lineair/HT12_A_E.pdf (2003) http://w3.id.tue.nl/fileadmin/id/objects/E-Atelier/doc/Datasheets/Lineair/HT12_D_F.pdf (2002)

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Glossary of Electronics Arduino Duemilanove: Micro controller board Servo Motor: position, velocity and force management within a 180 degree radius Stepper Motor: Position, velocity and force management based on set steps Infrared Sensor: A device that measures infrared light signals from objects in its field of view

Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Appendix A General information Brief Description

Introduction:The term robot makes us think about the archetype robot, a metal manlike machine with a computer voice. This science fiction view is far form the reality. In Reality the term robot is used for several directions in technology and science. Next to developments in mechanical and electrical engineering about the construction of robots and the design of software to define the robotʼs behavioural rules and possible learning capabilities, the interaction between robots and humans is something which is investigated in more detail over the years. Within this project you are challenged to investigate the phenomenon ʻrobotʼ mechanically, electronically, and also philosophically. You will build a series of robots; deepen your understanding of what distinguishes a robot from a tool, a machine or a human being. The final project goal is to design an ʻEmotive toyʼ. This assignment aims to combine two qualities of enjoyable objects: Objectives / Specifics (project objectives; learning goals)

Possible suggestions to use as context: > Device which enhances the social interaction between children or between child and parent. Focus on young children in the age of 6 to 8 years. > Children sometimes have fears of dark. How can we make a device to comfort the child. Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Deliverables

Phase one (teamwork) ʻIntroduction in roboticsʼ Team discussion and research on robotics. In one week the team needs to get grip on the subject of robotics. Next to a more general view on robotics, the team is advised to research human-robot interaction and academic research topics. (e.g. the on expressions of emotions) Suggested readings: Apart from research on Actuators, servoʼs and arduino boards, study Literature on cognitive science, philosophy of the mind, psychology, artificial intelligence and neuro sciences. Have a look at : Weizenbaumʼs Eliza, an early language processor that attempts to respond to your sentences. The Mindʼs I. Composed and edited by Doug Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett An interesting movie clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MniNlhWqxoA 3-6

Interesting topics: Do minds or selves exist? What is consousness? What is personal identity? What is a soul? Could the mind be a program? Could be duplicate a person? What is free will? Deliverables: >At least one mood board or poster which can be used to explain the view of the team. >A report with research, including a summary and conclusion. >Choose one of the directions above on which the team will focus during the project: write an project description for yourselves. Phase two (individual) ʻAspects of robotsʼ This part of the project is separated into 3 assignments. Each can be Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

seen as a different project for which you need to walk to the different phases of the design process. Use the direction of the team as context for all the assignments, that way all experience will contribute knowledge to the final phase. The 3 assignments as well as the making of the report has to be fulfilled individually. 1 ʻMovementʼ Build a robot which can move in two different ways. Pick two contradicting states of mind. (E.g. bored versus exited) The two ways of moving have to communicate the states of mind. Provide structured research about the connection of movement and state. After three weeks you need to present the robot. 2 ʻEmotionʼ -> Build a robot which does communicate emotion(s). Use basic forms and movements. (No copies of the human face) Explore possibilities to design the robot. What aspects of the design influence the perception of a human about the robot? Explore possibilities to design the robot. After two week you need to present the robot. 3 ʻInteractionʼ -> Build a robot which interact with a human. This means the robot must be able to sense an action with a human and react on it (in a way which is connected to the sensed.) The interaction can be designed in a way it creates an opening for playing, After two weeks you need to present the robot. Prepare a report with all the information. Analyse the outcome of those assignments. (Include reflections) Describe your vision on robotics. Next to the assignment you need to investigate the history and future of a robot in the context of this assignments . This report needs to contain a coherent story about those aspects. 4-6

Deliverables: > Three robots as result of the assignments. > A report, about the four assignments. > An exhibition style presentation (Interim exhibition) including: (If you fail to provide working prototypes, make sure you are able to explain itʼs behaviour very clearly. A nice suggestion to present your robot without actually making it: film or animate it.) Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

Phase three (team) ʻEmotive toyʼ During the last part of the project you have to combine the knowledge of the first two phases and design an ʻEmotive toyʼ. This part of the project has to be fulfilled as group. Itʼs allowed to use, or refer to each others research or to research by third parties, as long as you point out your sources (in accordance with appropriate Academic Standards). Deliverables: > A working ʻEmotive toyʼ prototype > A hardcopy of the project report > An exhibition style presentation (Final exhibition) including: A DVD with all relevant information, including softcopy of the final report. Project Planning: Week 5 Friday 5th February Short introduction of the project. Start of first phase of the project Week 6 Friday 12th February Presentation of first phase, with help of the moodboards. Hand in the report. Start of second phase, first assignment ʻMovementʼ Week 7 Holyday Week 9 Friday 5th March Presentation of first assignment ʻMovementʼ. Start second assignment ʻEmotionʼ. Week 11 Friday 19th March Presentation of second assignment ʻEmotionʼ. Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

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Start third assignment ʻInteractionʼ. Week 13 Thursday 1st April Presentation of assignment ʻInteractionʼ. Week 14 Thursday & Friday 8th and 9th April Exhibition Week 15 IDentity Week Week 16 Start of third phase of the project ʻEmotive toyʼ Introduction and discussion Thursday 22th April 17:00 Deadline to hand in report (report about the 3 assignments, see the project description above). Week 18 Friday 7th May Interim presentation third of the project Present the concept of the team. (Detailed information about expectations will follow) Week 22 Thursday 3th June 17:00 Deadline to hand all deliverables (see the deliverables) Week 23 Thursday & Friday 10th and 11th June Exhibition Information Sources

Within the theme ʼSocial Robots & Humanoidsʼ there is a lot of expertise available to support you. Discuss the specific question with your coach. He / she can help you to find the right person to talk to. Jacquelyn van Kampen s090798 j.van.kampen@student.tue.nl

Individual Process Report

A few related papers: 1) Emilia I. Barakova and Tino Lourens, Expressing and interpreting emotional movements in social games with robots, Pers Ubiquit Comput DOI 10.1007/s00779-0090263-2 2) Emotional Robots: Software Empowers Robots To Learn When A Person Is Sad, Happy Or Angry ScienceDaily (July 28, 2008) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717225057.htm 3) Kozima, H., Nakagawa, C., Yasuda, Y., and Kosugi, D. A toy-like robot in the playroom for children with developmental disorder, to appear in Proceedings of the International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL-04, San Diego, USA), 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keepon

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