Do-It-Yourself Design for Social Robots: An Open-Source Hardware Platform to Encourage Innovation

Abstract

One of the chief obstacles in achieving wider acceptance of robotics is that only experienced roboticists can develop robotics applications. If we want robots in our homes and offices, we need more tools and platforms that reduce the costs of prototyping robots them, in terms of both time and money. The open-source paradigm offers a potential solution to these key factors. However, creating open-source robotics hardware does not just mean making the design files available online. It is essential to design the hardware in such a way that it can be built and modified by non-expert users. In this article we summarize our experiences of four years of creating open-source robotics in academia that led to the social robot Ono and the Opsoro design toolkit for social robots. We detail our design approach, leveraging DIY-friendly techniques to create systems that, though complex, can be assembled and modified by novices. We describe four experiments, two focusing on the assembly of an open-source robot and two using our toolkit to create novel social robot embodiments. They show that the key elements to attract novices are the ability to build, hack and use a social robot platform at different levels of difficulty. We believe that the open-source approach holds much promise in robotics research, though this approach is not without its challenges. The main bottlenecks are: the lack of time for ancillary activities related to open-source, the * cesar.vandevelde@ugent.be † francis.wyffels@ugent.be ‡ bram.vanderborght@vub.ac.be § jelle.saldien@ugent.be 1 difficulty of building communities around niche research topics and the challenge of consolidating open hardware approaches with traditional business models.

Blossom

“…Some of them are custom one-off designs (such as the original Keepon, DragonBot, and Tofu), and some are commercially available products (such as MyKeepon, Cozmo, and Pepper). In HRI research, personalization has been found to positively affect user perception of a robot [48,50,76,80] even if the robot is not specifically designed for social interaction. Blossom thus extends these prior design works by presenting a compliant robot that enables users to build and program their own robot and to customize its appearance.…”

“…While the use of alternative and handcrafted materials has been emergent in other interactive technologies [56,83], it has been less explored in social robotics. Open Platform for SOcial RObots (OPSORO) is an exception in that it uses fabrics in the design of its soft covers [80], similar to Blossom. Additional examples of alternative materials exist in hobbyist circles, such as TJBot, a single-DoF desktop robot, and Smartibot, a phone-controlled mobile robot, both constructed from cardboard [8,22].…”

Shybo – Design of a Research Artefact for Human-robot Interaction Studies

“…However, many case studies show how the methodologies of the design practice are adopted as methods for investigation. Vandevelde et al (2017), for instance, applied a design approach focused on do-it-yourself (DIY)-friendly techniques to create an open-source robotic toolkit. The researchers faced the main project's challenges (e.g.…”

“…Several studies, in fact, illustrated the importance of systematically submitting the prototypes to the judgment of potential users. This would allow to identify the appropriate design characteristics of the robot (Šabanović et al, 2006) and to get useful insights from the use (Vandevelde et al, 2017). Furthermore, participation is even more productive in co-design sessions, in which potential users can creatively play a role in the definition of all aspects of the robot.…”

Ethic Reflections about Service Robotics, from Human Protection to Enhancement: Case Study on Cultural Heritage

“…Vandevelde et al [24], for instance, developed a robotic toolkit, that is easy to build, by doing multiple design iterations and regularly testing with non-expert users.…”