Reconfigurable Robotic Exercising Companion

Abstract

Regular exercise plays a crucial role in promoting overall well-being in today’s lifestyle. However, individuals often find it challenging to properly execute exercises, including maintaining correct postures and appropriate movement speeds. Robotic companions have emerged as potential solutions to assist and motivate users during exercise sessions. This research paper proposes a novel robot companion designed for exercise scenarios using a reconfigurable robot. In contrast to existing non-reconfigurable robotic companions, the use of a reconfigurable robot provides added flexibility in generating emotions. The system incorporates a module that utilizes fuzzy logic to evaluate the correctness of exercise performance based on posture variations and movement speeds. The robot generates emotions and provides feedback to users based on the exercise correctness score. The robot expresses emotions through reconfigurations, motion patterns, and variations in robot speed. This emotion-based feedback could be helpful for creating engaging and interactive exercise experiences. Apart from emotion generation, the robot utilizes vocal cues as feedback. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed system in evaluating exercise correctness and demonstrating meaningful emotion transitions. The findings of this work contribute to the development of innovative robotic companions for improving exercise adherence and overall well-being.