User-Centered Robot Head Design: a Sensing Computing Interaction Platform for Robotics Research (SCIPRR).

We developed and evaluated a novel humanoid head, SCIPRR (Sensing, Computing, Interacting Platform for Robotics Research). SCIPRR is a head shell that was iteratively created with additive manufactur- ing. SCIPRR contains internal sca olding that allows sensors, small form computers, and a back-projection system to display an ani- mated face on a front-facing screen. SCIPRR was developed using User Centered Design principles and evaluated using three di erent methods. First, we created multiple, small-scale prototypes through additive manufacturing and performed polling and re nement of the overall head shape. Second, we performed usability evaluations of expert HRI mechanics as they swapped sensors and computers within the the SCIPRR head. Finally, we ran and analyzed an ex- periment to evaluate how much novices would like a robot with our head design to perform di erent social and traditional robot tasks. We made both major and minor changes a er each evalu- ation and iteration. Overall, expert users liked the SCIPRR head and novices wanted a robot with the SCIPRR head to perform more tasks (including social tasks) than a more traditional robot.