Page 185 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

168 Socially Intelligent Agents

External interfaces. the robot connects to a keyboard (8 words), which
can also be used as an electronic xylophone (8 notes), and a joystick (to con-
trol the movement). The robot can connect through a serial link to a PC (the
code for the PC is written in C and C++ and runs both under linux and win-
dows 95/98/2000. 96M RAM, Pentium II, 266MHz). A PC-robot interfacing
program allows one to interact with the robot through speech and vision.

Motors. The robot is provided with 5 motors to drive separately the two
arms, the two legs (forward motion) and the head (sideways turn). A prototype
of motor system to drive the two eyes in coordinated sideways motion is under
construction.

Imitation game with infra-red. The robot has 4 pairs of infra-red emit-
ter/receptor to detect the user’s hand and head movements. The sensors are
mounted on the robot’s body and the emitters are mounted on a pair of gloves
and glasses which the user wear. The sensors on the robot’s body detect the
movement of the emitters on the head and hands of the user. In response to the
user’s movement, the robot moves (in mirror fashion) its head and its arms, as
shown in Figure 20.2 (left).

Imitation game with camera. A wireless CCD camera (30MHZ) attached
to a PC tracks optical flow to detect vertical motion of the left and right arms
of the instructor. The PC sends via the serial link the position of each of the
instructor’s arm to direct the mirror movement in the robot (Figure 20.2, right).

Other Sensors. The robot is provided with touch sensors (electrical switches),
placed under the feet, inside the hands, on top of the head and in the mouth, a
tilt sensor which measures the vertical inclination of the body and a pyroelec-
tric sensor, sensitive to the heat of human body.

Speech. Production and recognition of speech is provided by ELAN
8
synthesizer and speech processing software from Viavoice (in French) and
Dragon (in English). Speech is translated into ordered strings of words (writ-
ten language).

2.2 Software: Behavioral capabilities
“Baby behaviors”. The Robota doll can engage in a simple interaction
with the user by demonstrating baby-like behaviors, which requires the user
to “take care” of the robot. These are built-in behaviors, implemented as a set
of internal variables (happiness, tiredness, playfulness and hungriness) which
vary over time. For a given set of values, the robot will start to cry, laugh, sing
or dance. In a sad mood, it will also extend the arms for being rocked and