Page 184 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

Play, Dreams and Imitation in Robota 167

In the Robota dolls and other works [1, 2], we have exploited the robot’s
ability to imitate another agent, robot or human, to teach it a basic language.
The imitation game between user and robot is a means to direct the robot’s
attention to specific perceptions of movement, inclination, orientation. The
robot can then be taught words and sentences to describe those perceptions.
2. Robota

Figure 20.1 shows a picture of the two original Robota dolls. A commercial
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series of Robota dolls is now available with different body features, including
a purely robot-like (completely metallic) one.

Figure 20.1. Left Picture: On the left, the first prototype of Robota doll made out of LEGO,
and, on the right, the second prototype of Robota doll. Right Picture: The new commercial
prototype (version Caucasian).

2.1 Technical specificities
These features are that of new series of Robota dolls.

General. The robot is 50 cm tall, weighting 500gr. The arms, legs and head
of the robot are plastic components of a commercially available doll. The main
body is a square box in transparent plexiglas, which contains the electronics
and mechanics. It has an on-board battery of 30 minute duration.

Electronic. The behavior of the robot is controlled through a Kameleon
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K376SBC board , attached to the main body of the robot.