My RobotMaking Programming simple!

Presented by:Alexander BraendleAndreas Heil

Date12 Dec 2005

Intelligent Environments

Intelligent Environments are all places where humans spend timeThey shall act intelligently & personalized in a natural way with the humans in them.

Bringing the physical and digital world togetherDesigned for humans!Make it simple!Make it work!

Simple!?

Technology

Ubicomp

AmbientIntelligence

Inte

llige

nt E

nviro

nmen

ts

Interaction

Interaction

Sensing

Communication

Acting

Collaboration

Smart Natural Easy

Context Abstraction

Personal

Adaption

Application

Cognition

Some challenges

New Requirements• Ultra Heterogeneity, Dynamic Configuration, Context-Awareness,

Personalization, Extensibility, Reliability, Security, Privacy protection, Usability, Autonomy…

We need software infrastructures for decreasing the complexities• How to hide the complexities under high level abstraction?• What the abstraction is appropriate ?• How the abstraction is implemented ?

The human factorUbiquitous computing environments should be deployed incrementally.• Our living space is not a demonstration room.• We like to replace existing objects to new objects when necessary.A user’s personal device is a key to access to an intelligent environment.• A personal device is a window to access various surrounding services.

What do we think about?

• Increasing the intelligence of environments• Retrieving context information• Thinking future daily objects, appliances, architecture.• Personal Devices• Robots• How to interact with Humans• Programming environments

Robots in human environments

Future Applications• Support & Care, Education, Entertainment

Personal Robotics• Human-robotics Interaction• Mediator between digital/real world• Natural and affective interaction (speech, gestures,

emotions)

New programming paradigms• Body inspired software architecture (Pisa)• Meta-programming models (Berlin)

From nature to software models

What is needed that robots could be successfully integrated in our everyday life? What are key technical issues?

Interacting with Humans

Considering affects and emotions as base components for designing interaction

Improving interaction in a novel social environment (humans + Computers + Robots)

How could robots facilitate the access to technology and provide supportive services

Social, verbal, affective

Communication

Understanding and Modelling Affects in

Social contexts

ComputingApplications

Interaction withComputers, Robots,

Humans

Sensing HumanResponse

Emotional Context-Aware application on

Mobile devices Recognizing humans and provide behavioural

Response Pattern

Computing Support

And Knowledge

The EmotiveHuman User

Human Social

Environment

My Robot, making programming simple!

• Why robots?

• Why programming them?

• Why programming them easy?

• Some examples> Science fiction> Industrial robots> Mars Rover> Fischertechnik> Lego> Roomba

• Definition: A robot is a device, hard- or software with the capability of sensing and (re-)acting.

• Let’s start building our own robot

Small, smaller, OQO

• At first we need a brain for the robot

• Let‘s take a PC or Laptop!>Battery powered>Great functionality>Easy programmable>A lot of interfaces and extensions

• Why not a PC or Laptop?>Size?>Weight?

• The solution is called OQO>Full functional laptop>Small in size>Does not weight a lot

OQO, a look inside

• Some internals>1GHz Transmeta Crusoe>20GB HDD>512 MB RAM>800x600 Display >Firewire, USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wireless, Bluetooth etc.>Microphone, Speaker, Digital Pen

• Software>Windows XP Professional>IIS, Webserver>.NET Framework 2.0>Remote Desktop Connection

• Some really cool piece of hardware, we can work with!Now, we need parts…

Phidgets, having fun with electronics

• Getting bored of soldering?

• Phidgets, never heard of it?

• Electronic parts with USB connection>Sensors + Actuators>Remind the definition! We have a robot

• Still we need the brain>Remind the OQO

• Let‘s try!!!

Text LCD Display + Sensor Kit

• Provide both a USB connector

• LCD provides two lines for text, each with 80 letters• Sensor Kit provides 8 analog and 8 digital inputs

• Demo

• How difficult is it to send text to the display?>Example

• Easy, isn‘t it?

Phidgets, what else you can build of it

Fischertechnik, constructing another robot

• Fischer, a German company. Arthur Fischerinvented the rawlplug in 1954.

• Since 1965 providing construction kitsfor mechanical models based on a special connection system

• 16-bit interface called „ROBO Interface“

Fischertechnik models

The Fischertechnik ROBO Interface

• The in- and outputs>8 digital inputs >2 digital and analog distance sensors >4 analog sensors for resistance and voltage>4 motors with 8 different speeds

• The board>Serial port, COM, RS232>USB >Infrared>R/F module available>Ethernet for the next hardware revision planned

• .NET API(what‘s a API?) provided by Microsoft Research Cambridge

Demo

How to control?

• No we want to control the robot

• Let‘s take another off the shelf product

• Ordinary Joystick

• Again take a available API totalk to the joystick: DirectX

Contest

Controls

Research

Commercial research vs Academic research

Mainly focused on hardware

• Mechanical

• Electrical

• Functionality

Operating systems unatended

Commercial

Already many commercial robots available• Aibo• Asimo• Hoap• fischertechnik• Lego• …How to program them?• Different tools• Different programing paradigm• Different programing languages

Robots, too?Software

• MS Agent• Internet Explorer• Media Player

Additional Hardware

• Smartphone

How to program them?

• Standard tools> Visual Studio .NET

• Programing paradigm> OOP> .NET

• Your favorite language> C#> VB.NET> J#

Goal

One language for all robots?

One tool to rule them all?

Playing, Learning, Doing: Robots.FUNWhat might .FUN look like?

We are interested in building a compelling & engaging programmable environment to play & learn for children

Innovative, Very Easy, flexible programming environment for Robot control applications

That is accessible to non technical market (children, nurse, elderly, machine operator)

That enables a ‘path’ from very simple (beginner, child) to professional (using visual studio) Visual Robot Development Kit (VRDK)

Andreas

Demo

Imagine a world …

where „Paper“ is able to understand, what you are doing …

"Men Are From Mars, Robots Are From Mitsubishi“Financial Times (12/09/05) P. 9; Pincock, Stephen

As Carnegie Mellon roboticist Daniel Wilson outlines in his book, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising," the field of robotics has taken off in recent years, with researchers around the world developing robotic applications to do everything from vacuuming to exploring space alongside man. Several Japanese companies are developing robots that can serve as in-home assistants, link up to the Internet to respond to questions, and serve as a kind of companion. Toyota recently released its Partner Robot with the ability to play the trumpet through lips endowed with sensitivity and fingers with human-like dexterity. The convergence of robotics and artificial intelligence has enabled researchers to develop devices such as Sony's Qrio, a small robot that knows to hold out its arms if it is falling, and can pick itself up from the ground. Embodied intelligence seeks to equip robots with such cognitive abilities, though ingraining many basic components of intelligence still eludes roboticists. Robots still cannot understand what gives an object its properties, though roboticists are working to give their creations the ability to learn by experience. The international group of researchers working together in the RobotCub project is trying to create a child-sized robot that can learn from interactions with its environment, just as people do. Many researchers feel that people's perceptions of the role of robots must change if they will ever be accepted as legitimate companions. Mitsubishi has begun taking orders for its Wakamaru robot, an in-home personal assistant that wakes you up in the morning, reports the weather and the headlines, and then greets you in the evening with any telephone messages. "We have tried to create a robot you can have a relationship with," said Mitsubishi's Ken Onishi.

Thank you!

Thank you!