This paper presents an innovative motion system that is used to control the motions and animations of a social robot. The social robot Probo is used to study Human-Robot Interactions (HRI), with a special focus on Robot Assisted Therapy (RAT). When used for therapy it is important that a social robot is able to create an "illusion of life" so as to become a believable character that can communicate with humans. The design of the motion system in this paper is based on insights from the animation industry. It combines operator-controlled animations with low-level autonomous reactions such as attention and emotional state. The motion system has a Combination Engine, which combines motion commands that are triggered by a human operator with motions that originate from different units of the cognitive control architecture of the robot. This results in an interactive robot that seems alive and has a certain degree of "likeability". The Godspeed Questionnaire Series is used to evaluate the animacy and likeability of the robot in China, Romania and Belgium.

This article describes a system which is being used for educational purposes and as a test-setup to research innovations in terms of software and hardware to encourage safe human machine interaction. The system exists of a motor combination and its belongings, a load (i.e. an artificial leg, coupling, etc.) and a desktop computer commanded by an external operator. In order to predict the response of the real system, a model is made in Simulink to simulate the system in advance. In a first phase the commercially available motor controller’s user interface running on the operator’s computer is used to tune the regulation parameters, to command the motion by applying set values, and to acquire, plot and interpret the responses in order to develop a model of the system. However, this default user interface comes with certain limitations regarding the requirements to change a set of parameters during complex and dynamic operations. Furthermore it restricts the users to apply rather conventional preset control loops. Testing for different control protocols, or even a load changing during operation is not possible with the default setup. To deal with these restrictions a new GUI is developed in Labview, and is used to bypass the default user interface. That way it becomes possible to effectively allow the alteration of a broad list of settings in the embedded controller, and the integration of non-conventional control algorithms. Finally, this paper describes the response of the real and simulated system for different set values, making use of both the default and custommade interfaces. Keywords— design, modeling, simulation, control

Most robots have a mechanical look or are covered with plastic or metallic shells. Their actuators are stiff which gives them not only an unnatural look, but also an unnatural touch. The goal of the huggable robot Probo is to serve as robotic research platform for human–robot interaction (HRI) studies with a special focus on children. Since not only cognitive interaction, but also physical interaction is targeted a new mechatronic design must be developed. To give Probo a huggable and safe behavior a new set of actuators is developed together with a triple layered protection cover which is presented in this paper. Probo’s soft touch is introduced, on the one side by use of novel passive compliant actuators, Compliant Bowden Cable Driven Actuators (CBCDAs), and on the other side by combining custom made servo motors, Non Back Drivable Servos (NBDSs), with flexible components and materials such as springs, silicon and foam. The working principle of the novel CBCDA is extensively described, together with experiments in order to determine its level of compliance and its bandwidth.

This paper reports on the mechanical design of the huggable robot Probo. Its intentions include human–robot interaction (HRI), both physical and cognitive, with a special focus on children. Since most of the communication passes through nonverbal cues and since people rely on face-to-face communication, the focus of Probo's communicative skills lies initially on facial expressions. The robot has 20 high-precision motors in its head and body. They are used to actuate the ears, eyebrows, eyelids, eyes, trunk, mouth, and neck. To build safety aspects intrinsically in the robot's hardware, all the motors are linked with flexible components. In case of a collision, the robot will be elastic and safety will be ensured. The mechanics of Probo are covered by protecting plastic shells, foam, and soft fur. This gives Probo's animal-like look and makes the robot huggable.

Probo is a huggable animal-like robot, designed to act as a social interface. It will be used as a platform to study human robot interaction (HRI) while employing human-like social cues and communication modalities. The robot has a fully actuated head, with 20 degrees of freedom, capable of showing facial expressions and making eye-contact. The basic facial expressions are represented as a vector in the 2-dimensional emotion space based on Russel’s circomplex model of affect (Posner et al. in Dev. Psychopathol. 17(03):715–734, 2005). The recognition of the underlying emotions based on the robot’s facial expressions were tested in different user studies and compared with similar robotic projects. This paper describes the concepts of the robot Probo and the ability to express emotional states.

IntroductionNowadays, robots are mostly known for their work in factories in industries such as automotive, electrical and electronics, chemical, rubber and plastics and many others.Robots are used for a wide variety of tasks like handling of materials and processes, welding and soldering, etc.The next generation of robots will be used in close collaboration with people in a wide spectrum of applications.For example, service robots will help elderly and assist disabled people.Household robots will be used in our homes and offices.Our children will play with entertainment robots.Medical robots assist in surgery and robotic prostheses replace limbs for amputees.Orthoses and exoskeletons can facilitate the rehabilitation process to regain mobility or manipulation skills.They also enlarge human strengths to carry heavy objects, for instance, nurses lifting a patient in and out of a bed.In lots of applications human and robots will work in a more close collaboration.For instance, NASA is developing a Robonaut to work together with astronauts in space.Statistics from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) show worldwide an increasing request of innovative robots, especially in non-automotive sectors.A growth can be noticed in both traditional and new markets, ranging from the industrial field to the service robotics, both for professional use and for domestic applications.However, European society has a different relationship towards robots than the Japanese or US society.The Japanese are more accepting of technological change.For instance, robots have always been a source of comics and amusement in Japan, making it easier to introduce robots into a personal environment.The Japanese Robot Association (JARA) predicts that the personal robot industry will be worth more than $50 billion dollars a year worldwide by 2025, compared with about $5 billion today.The technology of current industrial robots is insufficient to respond to this issue.This means that human-robot interaction using social robots must be studied in the different regions all over the world to address the different needs.Reasons why personal robotics is emerging now are the fact that actuators and sensors can be made very small and cheap, and the required computational power for computing real time all the software components is still increasing.And, last but not least, the markets for such robots are coming.Especially the aging population in Japan, Europe and United States faces a number of daunting societal problems.Also its dwindling work force and the increased cost of care demand out-of-the-box thinking.Companion and service robots are one part of the solution.However, the shift from industrial robots towards these service, personal and domestic robots leads to specific design criteria.For instance, an industrial robots can carry heavy

The concept of the huggable robot Probo is a result of the desire to improve the living conditions of children in hospital environment. These children need distraction and lots of information. In this paper we present the concept of this new robot. The robot will be employed in hospitals, as a tele-interface for entertainment, communication and medical assistance. To communicate according to social rules, the robot needs the ability to show facial expressions. Using a well defined set of Action Units (AU) it’s possible to express some basic emotions. A prototype of the robot’s head, capable of showing these basic emotions is presented. In order to express emotions, an emotional interface is developed. The emotions, represented as a vector in an 2D emotion space, are mapped to the DOF used in the robot. A graphical user interface to control the virtual and real prototype is also presented.

The concept of the huggable robot Probo is a result of the desire to improve the living conditions of children in hospital environment. These children need distraction and lots of information. In this paper the concept of a new social robot is presented. This robot can be used in hospitals, as a tele-interface for entertainment, communication and medical assistance.Besides the prototype of the real robot, a virtual model has been developed. With user friendly software these models can be used as an interface between an operator and a child. That way, Probo becomes a platform for experiments concerning human robot interaction with great opportunities in different disciplines.

Recently, more robots are being created to interact with human beings in order to satisfy certain social needs. From this point of view we started with the development of a social robot named Probo, intended to comfort and emotionally interact with hospitalized children. In this paper we present the objectives of this new robot and describe the concepts of the first prototype. The robot will be employed in the hospital, as a tele-interface for entertainment, communication and medical assistance. Therefore it requires the ability to express emotions, in order to do so, an emotional interface is developed to fully configure the display of emotions. The emotions, represented as a vector in an emotion space, are mapped to the degrees of freedom used in our robot. A 3D virtual model is created, providing realistic visual feedback to evaluate our design choices for the facial expressions. Images of these expressions were used in a comparison test with children.

Probo is a social robot intended to be used with children in a hospital environment. Its operational goals are to provide children with information, moral support and comfort in a possible difficult time. This paper reports on the early stages in the development of the expressive huggable robot Probo with potential applications for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and Robot-Assisted Therapy (RAT). Drawing on research in social communication, the robot-head, capable of displaying basic emotions, is designed and the design is compared with that of other social robots such as Kismet, Eddie and iCat. Some design criteria and their influence on the actual design are highlighted. This leads to a 17 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) modular non-anthropomorphic soft actuated robotic head.

Nowadays robots are being created that interact with human beings in order to satisfy certain social needs.Following this trend, the development of the social robot Probo has started.The robot will be used in hospitals, as a tele-interface for entertainment, communication and medical assistance.Therefore, it requires the ability to express emotions.In order to do so, an emotional interface is developed to fully configure the display of emotions.These emotions -represented as a vector in an emotion space-are mapped to the degrees of freedom used in the robot.Besides emotions, the interface includes a control for the point of attention and a module to create and store animations.A 3D virtual model is created, acting as a virtual replica of the robot, providing realistic visual feedback to evaluate the design choices for the facial expressions.This paper presents the objectives of this new robot and describe the concepts and design of the first prototype.

development of an intelligent huggable robot named ANTY (Fig.1) that will interact with hospitalized children to distract and support them during their stay in hospital. This robot is subject of a multidisciplinary project covering research opportunities not only in mechanical design, vision, speech and AI, but also in sociology and psychology. The main goal of the first phase is the development of the head of the robot. By moving its head (2 DOF), eyes (3 DOF), eyelids (2 DOF), eyebrows (2 DOF), ears (2 DOF), trunk (3 DOF) and mouth (3 DOF) it will be able to express its emotions.

The purpose of this study is to design and develop an anthropomorphic based eye-system, used in the intelligent huggable robot ANTY. The intelligent huggable robot ANTY aspires social children-robot interactions relying on face-to-face communication. The anatomy of an anthropomorphic eye and its movements are presented and linked to the design of the artificial robot eye-system.

Acknowledgements Many people have helped me along the way. Their guidance, good humour, advice and inspiration sustained me trough the months of work. First of all, I'd like to thank all of them. Furthermore, I thank Mark and Guillermo for a nice cooperation during this project.