PRE2020 3 Group9

Groupmembers

Name	Studentnumber	Department	Responsibility
Emma Allemekinders	1317873	Mechanical engineering	Model of path planning and business plan
Emma Höngens	1375946	Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences	Guidelines for parents and software plan
Paul Hermens	1319043	Mechanical engineering	List of materials and technical drawing
Hidde Huitema	1373005	Mechanical engineering	Model of path planning and business plan
Jos Stolk	1443666	Mechanical engineering	Technical drawings and software plan

What is changed this week?

This week (the 15th of March until the 20th of March) we worked on the following topics:

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Introduction

Problem statement

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people have to work from home instead of from the office. This means that their working environment changed and in many cases is not optimal. However, the working environment is not the largest problem of working from home, children are. Because of several corona restriction, children are not always able to go to school, to their grandparents or after-school care. This results in two problems, namely boredom and distraction.

First of all, boredom. When children are at home with their working parent(s) instead of school, after-school care or at their grandparents' place, they get bored easily. They should be silent and not distract their parents, but what should they do then? Besides, when they cannot go to school, children miss educational content as well. This problem should be solved.

Secondly, when children are at home while the parent is working, they cannot concentrate well. Children need attention and when they get bored, the first they go to are their parents. This means that parents with children at home are not able to concentrate, have meetings and make their deadlines. So it is hard for parents to combine private life with work. This should be solved. Therefore, there should come a child-friendly robot that entertain children and also learn them new things.

Execution

This robot solution is created for the course Project Robots Everywhere (0LAUK0). In the project group 9 will mainly focus on the first outline of the mechanical design and the navigation of the robot, and what should be done in the future to develop a working robot.

In the process of the project, the group will first have a look at the state of the art via literature. Then, the user group is investigated via literature and a survey among the parents. Together with the state of the art, the robot can be specified and RPC's can be stated. The last step is to create and complete the end products (deliverables).

Deliverables

At the end of the project Robots Everywhere, the following products will be delivered by group 9:

Deliverables
Mechanical design: Design of a child friendly robot based on literature and a survey.
Local navigation model: A model that shows when a robot detects something that is not on it's map on it's way to a target, it should be able to move past that object.
Software plan: The end product of the software plan will be described. This plan is needed for future development of the robot.
Bill of materials: List with the materials and the costs of those materials to get a final selling price and insight what is needed to create the robot of this product.
Future plan: Description of the involved stakeholders and the development steps needed to take the robot to the commercial market.
Guidelines for parents: Since the robot is used by younger children a description is needed how to use it in a safe way.

Outline wiki

Chapter	Description
1) Description robot	This chapter introduces the robot by describing related projects and what should be taken into account from this background literature.
2) Rubby	This chapter describes the robot that will be developed. It also illustrates the use of Rubby in daily life.
3) User	This chapter describes the group of users and the specifications.
4) Specifications Rubby	This chapter describes what the robot should contain at the end of the project and how these RPC's translate themselves to the robot.
5) Deliverable 1: Local navigation model	This chapter shows the steps that are taken during the process to achieve deliverable 1 and at the end of the project the description of deliverable 1 of the end product will be described.
6) Deliverable 2: Mechanical design	This chapter shows the steps that are taken during the process to achieve deliverable 2 and at the end of the project the description of deliverable 2 of the end product will be described.
7) Deliverable 3: Software plan	In this chapter the end product of the software plan will be described. This plan is needed for future development of the robot.
8) Deliverable 4: Bill of materials	In this chapter a list of materials is provided that is needed to build the robot. Also the final costs of the robot can be found here.
9) Deliverable 5: Future plan	In this chapter the end product of which steps should be taken to create the robot and bring it to the commercial market are described.
10) Deliverable 6: Guidelines for parents	In this chapter the end product of how the robot should be used is described.
11) Conclusion	In this chapter the end product is discussed and the process is evaluated.
12) Discussion	The process will be evaluated here and recommendations will be given.
13) Appendix	In this chapter you can find all elaborating material that is used for the development of the robot.

State of the Art

In this chapter, literature about existing robots and their features are discussed. As the robot in this project is focused on keeping children busy when they, for example, cannot go to school, educational and entertainment functions will be discussed. After this, possible other functions of the robot and technical requirements are discussed.

Entertainment and Education

Entertainment of children through a robot instead of "normal" toys can be done by making use of an interactive interface. This interface can be a tablet or screen, voice commands, movements, or music (like singing).

The educational aspects of robots are investigated a lot and this knowledge can help us in the development in our robot. In several studies, robots that have such educational functions, were implemented in a children’s environment to investigate the impact of the robot on the children. Examples of these existing robots are Robovie, QRIO and IROBI [QRIO; IROBI]. Two Robovie robots have been implemented at a primary school in order to investigate whether they could form relationships with children and whether these children might learn from them. Results from this study, along with those of the studies performed with QRIO and IROBI, showed that robots are actually able to teach kids the English language [Robovie(1); Robovie(2)], can achieve strong social bonds with toddlers for a long period of time [QRIO] and can increase the learning interest and academic achievement [Breazeal].

This is IROBI, a robot that is studied in an educational context.

This is Robovie, a robot that is studied several times in an educational context.

This is QRIO, a robot that is studied in an educational context.

A few important conditions are needed to achieve this. First of all, the more predictable the robot is, the worse the quality of interaction. This means a robot should ‘grow’ with the child in order to increase the effectiveness of learning and communication. Secondly, it is preferred that a robot is adapted very well to the personal characteristics of the user; since each child has a different way and pace of learning. Furthermore, appearance, behavior and content of the robot are the three main factors that have impact on the robot’s effectiveness. Finally, an important note is that robots should do not replace parents, tutors or teachers; they are only for supplementing them in what they already do. [Breazeal]

As a conclusion, robots with an educational function have a significant added value. Children’s language skills can be improved and especially their motivation to learn increases. Verbal interaction with the child to learn words appears to be a relevant and feasible function, and also playing memory games is a feature of a robot that already exists [Breazeal]. The extra educational function of writing check increases the diversity of learning areas; Writing is a more active, whereas language learning is a more unconscious process.

Functions for robot

In this section of the chapter State of the Art, per function that should be taken into account in the development of the robot of this project, literature about existing robots is considered.

Safety

• Motion control for the robot, to keep an eye on the child when it is moving around. [Robot following] shows that the following behaviour can be used to keep the child in view and therefore ensure proper functioning of the robot at all times.
• It should be possible to move slowly to not be dangerous. This in combination with a soft material will drastically decrease the change of dangerous operation. [Child robot] shows faster movement on its own is not as bad. It is a higher mass with fast movement that creates a worse impact if in contact with a child. If the drive mechanism is moved towards the core of the robot, the weight of the arms can be reduced which requires less torque, and will therefore be safer.
• Observe dangerous objects in close range of the child and notify caregivers. This is done to increase the safety of young children. As children are very curious they can interact with sharp, hot or other kind of dangerous objects without knowing it. If the parent is busy with other activities they wouldn’t see it without a warning of the robot.

Entertainment

• Interactive interface to enable entertainment for the child. [Tablets children] shows children can be entertained rather easily by a tablet. In our case it would have also voice capabilities which could make it a more natural interaction and possibly more entertaining.
  • Tablet/ screen
  • Voice commands
• Singing songs, in [Music robot] the children were often not only entertained but started moving or dancing to the music. This stimulated not only musical hearing but also some natural exercise.
• Check if the child is still paying attention (be aware of the short attention span). This can be used to switch up the current activity. If for example they are/were enjoying music or playing games but then lose interest which can be derived from their expressions and body language. Then the robot nanny can ask if the child would want to do something else. Children are able to use a tabled independently from a very young age [iPad use children]. The child will therefore be able to control the tablet by themselves and will therefore be able to choose their activity independently and according to their own attention span. When the robot senses that the child is fully distracted from the tablet however, it will prompt the child to do another activity with the robot. It is stated in [Grabbing attention] that this is most easily achieved by sound cues. Waving gestures proved to be the second most effective means of attracting attention. This can be achieved by moving the arms attached to the robot.

Education

The potential benefits of using robots for educational purposes has been shown in [Robot use for childcare], [Robots as social partners] and [socialization toddlers]. It is therefore desirable that a robot nanny can also carry out educational tasks. These following tasks will be carried out by Rubby:

• Talking to the child. It is shown in [Talking to children] that speech directly targeted to children plays a large role in their future development. This is a task that can easily be carried out by the Rubby robot. It can read books and tell stories to the child to stimulate the development of their vocabulary.
• Games for development of memory and numerical skills. Passolunghi and Costa have shown in [Educational games], that playing specific games can greatly improve a child’s working memory and numerical skills. These games can be implemented in a tablet for example and can be played by the child.
• Check writing. It is argued in [Escribo games] however that playing games on a platform similar to Squla, significantly increased the reading and writing skills of preschoolers. This is a task that can also be carried out by the Rubby robot. A tablet can be implemented on which the Squla games can be played and the robot can give positive reinforcement to stimulate playing these games.

Not sure (for questionnaire)

We are not sure whether the following functions will be implemented in the robot, the questionaire will show whether these functions are desired.

• Physical entertainment. Trost et al. argue in [Physical activity overweight] that there is a strong correlation between overweight status and physical activity in preschool children. More physical activity in the form of dancing, playing catch and other games will therefore lead to less chance of a child becoming overweight. However, Timmons, Naylor & Pfeiffer argue in [Physical activity preschool] that there is no real correlation between the health of a pre-schooler and their physical activity in the long term. Nevertheless, physical activity is never a bad thing and could be stimulated by the Rubby robot. It is important to initiate physical activity that the child considers fun however, as also mentioned in [Physical activity preschool]. This can be supported by the moving wings/arms on the Rubby.
• Restraining the child for safety. As stated by Sharkey & Sharkey in [Crying shame of robot nannies] it might be desirable for a robot nanny to physically restrain a child when he/she is about to do something dangerous. This might not be desirable however, since restraining a child is a slippery slope and might lead to unwanted behavior of the robot.

Requirements for robot

Technical requirements

• Camera (for privacy only process local and send just notifications over the internet to the parents or care givers). This way a lot of safety features can be made available like described above.
• Screen with touch
• Microphone (Also local processing)
• Sensors to make path planning possible
  • Lidar, possibly very expensive
  • Cameras, could need a lot of processing
  • Proximity sensors
  • Maybe the best solution, a combination of cameras and proximity sensors.
• Motion control
  • Walking would be way to expensive and difficult for the purpose
  • Rolling with 2,3 or 4 wheels will be relatively easy. Tracks could also be used. To improve the usable terrain of the robot tracks could be used as they can keep traction on surfaces like carpets or a wet floor. Wheels are quite reliable and would create less noise
• Two arms which are able to rotate about 180 degrees and move spherically to introduce playfulness and connected interactivity with the child
• Batteries with automatic charging (at night or if not in use)
• Processor to run software, path planning, facial recognition as well as emotion recognition. The heaviest task is the path planning. This would use as input all the sensors to then come to a resulting path to or around the child to accomplish a goal.
• Emergency button located on the robot to stop the robot functions to prevent accidents. As well as a remote emergency button from the network.
• Software to facilitate safety, entertainment and education purposes
  • Voice recognition
  • Text to speech, more robot-like voice as it is not a humanoid and in Dutch. Possibly multiple voice sound options to increase acceptance of the robot
  • Games as described above
  • Path planning
• Updating of software (possibly over the network), not only functions but also security. This is also a important part as bad software can in this case result in an almost useless robot.

Camera or no camera The questionnaire will show whether or not the use of a camera is desired. Different technical requirements for a robot with and without camera are given below:

• Camera
  • One higher resolution camera would be used for facial recognition, emotion recognition and possibly body language observing. It would also be used to keep the child from dangerous situations.
  • A couple, 3 or 5 cameras located at the sides and back to make path planning possible. These can be lower resolution as bigger objects are the most important part for path planning.
• No camera
  • A camera might not be desirable due to privacy issues.
  • The child will be given a bracelet which serves multiple functions:
    • It lets the robot know where the child is. This will enable the robot to follow the child.
    • The bracelet can monitor bio signals and use those to recognize emotions of the child.
  • The robot will use Lidar technology and proximity sensors (that can track the bracelet) To navigate around the house
  • The biggest downside of not using a camera is that the monitoring capabilities of the robot will then be severely limited.

Rubby

Description

Rubby is a robot solution that helps parents focusing on their work at home. The robot Rubby keeps the child busy by functioning as a playmate while taking the desires and attention span of the child into account. This means that parents do not have to focus constantly on their children and give them intensive attention during working hours. Especially during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic this robot is a great help in daily life.

The Rubby is a robot of around half a meter high and is able to move around by means of wheels. It is able to detect motion of the child and if necessary, the robot can move slowly as well. Rubby has arms and also a body on which a tablet is mounted. This tablet is used as an interface on which the child can play (educational and entertaining) games. Rubby is able to interact with the child in several ways. First of all, it can respond to the child's speech. Secondly, it can speak to the child, which is for example used in telling stories, improving the child’s vocabulary. Finally, the interaction is enhanced by the movements of Rubby, as it can move the arms and roll back and forth. The tablet on the robot’s body can be used in an entertainment as well as an educational way. The change in these kinds of interaction enhances the social connection between Rubby and the child. The robot takes into account the loss of attention of the child by asking whether or not he should switch to a different game.

Scenario

It is Friday morning, around 8.30 AM. Ava wakes up because her father David is opening the curtains in her room. ‘Good morning sweetheart’ he says to her. David let her sleep later on than on school days, so he could already do some work. Today he has some important meetings and he has a deadline in the afternoon, so it is going to be a busy day. But first he breakfast with Ava and goes to the supermarket to do some shopping for the day and the coming weekend.

At 10.00 AM, Ava and David are back from the shop. Now, the day can really begin. David opens up his laptop and starts working from the table in the living room. Ava sits in the living room at the carpet and starts playing with her dolls. After half an hour, she starts to get bored. David gives her some fruit and tells her that he has a meeting the next hour. ‘Yes, then I can play with Rubby’ she says and she wonders what the robot has in mind to do for her this time. When David would have announced a meeting 3 months ago, Ava would be disappointed as she had to be silent all time and she got bored. Nowadays, when her father should not be disturbed by Ava she can hang out together with Rubby, a robot that acts a playmate for toddlers so their parents can work or meet without being disturbed.

After taking her last little piece of fruit and sip of her drink, David get Rubby out of the charger in the corner of the room. He puts the robot on the carpet, turns it on and set up the robot for an hour to an hour and a half. “See you in an hour darling” he says to Ava, sits down at the table and puts on his noise-cancelling headphones.

“Hi Ava, I am Rubby I am not a human like you and your father, but I am a robot” … says to Ava. “Hi Rubby, what are we gonna do today?” Ava asks the robot. “We start with a counting game” and the tablet on his belly light up. After 10 minutes he asks Ava “Do you want to go something else?”. “Yes” she answers. She learned that she can only use little commands for the robot and she has to pronounce it clear. When you talk with humans you can have real conversations, so she knows from this that Rubby is a robot.

“Now, we will do a puzzle.” The game on the screen on his belly change and Ava starts putting pieces on the right spots. After 10 minutes Rubby asks again if Ava want to something else, “no” she answers and continues with the puzzle. After 5 minutes he asks again and Ava indicates she want to do something else. “Let’s do some exercise Ava!” Rubby says and he starts to explain what they will do. With his arms the robot indicates what Ava has to with her arms and with his wheels he shows the direction of the steps Ava has to take. After 10 minutes Rubby says “Let’s do a color game” and the screen on the belly lightens up again. This gets on for coming 40 minutes and then David’s meeting is finished.

David finds it nice that his daughter does not get bored while he has a meeting and that he is not distracted. It feels good to know that Ava gets a variety of activities to do by … alternated with entertainment, learning and physical tasks.

After long meetings he always takes a walk, so today he takes a walk with Ava. After their half an hour walk, they lunch together. After lunch Ava should take some rest and she read some picture books for half an hour. Then she can watch the television for half an hour. After this she can play with her dolls or something else. This afternoon, David has to finish something important and he also has a meeting. Fortunately, Rubby supports him with keeping Ava busy for an hour and a half.

Due to Rubby David has an effective working day. And also due to Rubby Ava had a nice day with a lot of fun activities. Before they had Rubby as a support, David had to work in his free time to catch up with his work. This weekend, when the whole family is home, they can do a board game or watch the television together with David.

User

In this chapter first the target group will be defined and the specifications of these users will be given. As a result a table of user needs is given. The primary user group are Dutch children of 4- and 5-years old that go to kindergarten. The needs of the secondary user group, parents of these children, also come forward in this table.

User specifications

The primary users are Dutch children of 4- and 5-years old that go to kindergarten. When the robot is developed further after the end of this project, also other countries and maybe age categories are included. The nationality is included so the educational content of the robot can be adapted to the user group. The secondary users are the parents of the primary users. Persona’s and scenario’s can be found in the appendix to get an idea of the users of the robot.

Development children

In this section the development of children from 3 to 6 is described per year [Development child]. The age group of 3 to 4 years old is described to create a feeling of the development of children on the moment they start with the use of Rubby.

Development 3-4 year

Type of development	Description
Physical development	Toddler can't suddenly turn or stop. The child can jump 40–60 cm far. It can walk the stairs on its own. It can open and close the door on its own. It can cycle with training wheels. It can climb on a climbing frame. From 3.5 years it becomes more convenient, it can help lay the table, wash itself, make up its bed.
Intellectual development	Toddler can make harder puzzles. Toddler can lay pictures in the right order Has interests in shapes and series. Can concentrate longer From 3.5 years it likes: drawing, making music, and counting. It will start asking more questions. It will play roll-games with other children as the fantasy grows bigger.
Attachment development	Child has enough language-knowledge to understand its parent Child is not fearful for parents leaving Child can regulate tension
Social development	Child gets insight in what it can do good and what it cannot do good By positively stimulating, it builds confidence
Language development	Toddler really likes learning new words. It will try out new words. Toddler askes a lot of why questions Toddler over-uses grammatic rules: “Driede ipv derde”.
Play development	The toddler can cut with a scissor. Pouring a drink without spilling Child will first think about what it wants to draw In the scribbling drawing will appear shapes Can imitate to draw a circle

Development 4-5 year

Kind of development	Description
Physical development	Child has good regular body movement skills. Child changes position very often à Running, climbing, jumping, can balance on a beam Can work with computer mouse Can catch a ball
Intellectual development	Goes to group 1. Can talk Knows colors Starts writing its name
Attachment development	Is already quite independent
Social development	Kid gets to know different rules at home than at school à socializing process starts Can estimate which tasks it can do
Language development	Sentences become way longer Pronunciation is almost perfect
Play development	Can play on its own outside Can play memory (and other simple games) Starts drawing people and shapes Does do roll-playing

Development 5-6 year

Kind of development	Description
Physical development	Can throw a ball and catch a ball Child wants to be the best à Competitive Jumping rope Start with a sport Can good imitate a movement
Intellectual development	Is interested in its history and future Insight in traffic Has higher self-esteem Can spell 3-4 letters words
Attachment development
Social development	Wants to be independent
Language development	Quite good with words
Play development	Can work multiple days on a drawing

Content school

In Appendix D, an overview what is learned in year 1 and 2 of primary school in the Netherlands can be found. Many aspects that are (usually) learned in kindergarten are based on social and emotional interaction. Existing technologies are not yet able to completely support humans in these interaction and this is especially the case for younger children. In the table below there can be found on what components of primary school content Rubby can build on.

Discipline	Skill	Learning material
Dutch	Vocabulary Listening/reading	Learning new words Understanding texts (and adapt strategy)
English	Vocabulary Listening	Learning new words by stories (passive vocabulary) and Using new words by games (active vocabulary) Listening to stories
Mathematics	Numbers: concepts Numbers: calculations Measuring	Counting in order, with steps, from different starting points, counting amount of things, estimate amount Subtracting and adding (visually) Measuring instruments for mass, money, comparing sizes of things
Orientation to yourself and the world	Space around you Plants, animals and humans	Weather, universe, agriculture and logistics Recognition of plants and animals, human body, phases in reproduction cycle
Artistic orientation	Music Cultural heritage	Listening to music, musical instruments Telling stories about important cultural heritage
Physical activity	*Moving on music	*Dancing, rhythm of music

Decision making children

In parent to child interaction there is a natural balance between the control of the parent in comparison to the child’s own demand for independence (Lundberg, 2007). Which means even parents won’t always be able to guide their children to what the parents want for example playing with blocks. This balance depends on the age. Young children have way less control over their activity and independence than older children. If the robot is used, the same effect will occur. The robot will not have constant control over the activity of the child. If a child seems to want different interactions the robot can use this information. The child could want to interact with the room or environment or maybe the robot with another application. As young children have an attention span of 10-15 minutes, it is important to change some things up after such a time span (Torta, 2012). This is important to increase the effectiveness for the parents of working or doing something else without using a lot of focus to watch your child. Aside from the focus benefit for the benefit, Rubby can also increase educational areas using games. From research (Herodotou, 20188) children using in this study angry birds regularly showed positive impact on the maths comprehension.

User Needs

The user needs are based on user specifications described above and based on results of the survey that is done among parents (see Appendix).

User need description	Primary users	Secondary users
The user should not get bored.	X
The user should be supported in his/her development.	X
The user should have a good time when other human-beings are not able to play with him/her.	X
The user should be able to choose between different activities.	X
The user should not be harmed by the robot when it is used in the right way.	X
The user needs a system that prevents from catching up work.		X
The user should be able to work and have online meetings in peace, without disturbances from children.		X
The user should have the control over his/her children (turning on the robot, safety).		X
The user wants his/her children to have a good time.		X
The user wants his/her children to learn new things.		X
The user should be able to keep an eye on his/her children.		X

Specifications Rubby

In this chapter the RPC’s for robot Rubby are given, related work about the functions for the robot are described and the technical requirements are listed.

RPC's for this project

Requirements
The Robot should be able to move itself with a speed of 4km/h while preventing collisions with objects in the room
The Robot should have two arms which are able to rotate about 180 degrees and move spherically
The Robot should be able to be wireless (on battery not with a wire).
The Robot should have a child-friendly casing and shape
The Robot interface should be placed on itself where the child can reach it well
Guidelines for parents: Since the robot is a toy it should have a description for safe use for a child
The Robot should include an emergency button located on the Robot to stop the robot functions
The Robot should have voice-recognition sensor on itself where at all time voice can be recognized.
Preferences
The robot should be as cheap as possible
Constraints
The Robot size should not be longer than a child of 4/5 years old

RPC's for the software engineer

Requirements
The Robot should be able to charge itself when the battery percentage is 5 percent. And it should go back to its charger when the Robot is turned “off".
The Robot should have some sort of interface on which entertaining games/educational games can be played by the child
The Robot should be able to make sounds, including pre-programmed talks like “Well done” and music
The Robot should be able to provide: Physical games, entertainment games and educational games
The Robot should be able to send a signal to the parents when something is wrong with the child
The Robot should include an emergency button located on the Robot to stop the robot functions
The Robot should be able to detect when the child is bored / can’t keep its concentration
The Robot should have voice-recognition for its pre-programmed games
Preferences
The Robot should be able to detect emotions of the child
The Robots gender should be able to be chosen by the user
Constraints
The Robot should not tell the child what to do or not
The Robot should be designed in such a way that the data is safe and no user data can leak

Functions for robot

Safety

• Motion control for the robot, to keep an eye on the child when it is moving around. [Robot following] shows that the following behaviour can be used to keep the child in view and therefore ensure proper functioning of the robot at all times.
• It should be possible to move slowly to not be dangerous. This in combination with a soft material will drastically decrease the change of dangerous operation. [Child robot] shows faster movement on its own is not as bad. It is a higher mass with fast movement that creates a worse impact if in contact with a child. If the drive mechanism is moved towards the core of the robot, the weight of the arms can be reduced which requires less torque, and will therefore be safer.
• Observe dangerous objects in close range of the child and notify caregivers. This is done to increase the safety of young children. As children are very curious they can interact with sharp, hot or other kind of dangerous objects without knowing it. If the parent is busy with other activities they wouldn’t see it without a warning of the robot.

Entertainment

• Interactive interface to enable entertainment for the child. [Tablets children] shows children can be entertained rather easily by a tablet. In our case it would have also voice capabilities which could make it a more natural interaction and possibly more entertaining.
  • Tablet/ screen
  • Voice commands
• Singing songs, in [Music robot] the children were often not only entertained but started moving or dancing to the music. This stimulated not only musical hearing but also some natural exercise.
• Check if the child is still paying attention (be aware of the short attention span). This can be used to switch up the current activity. If for example they are/were enjoying music or playing games but then lose interest which can be derived from their expressions and body language. Then the robot nanny can ask if the child would want to do something else. Children are able to use a tabled independently from a very young age [iPad use children]. The child will therefore be able to control the tablet by themselves and will therefore be able to choose their activity independently and according to their own attention span. When the robot senses that the child is fully distracted from the tablet however, it will prompt the child to do another activity with the robot. It is stated in [Grabbing attention] that this is most easily achieved by sound cues. Waving gestures proved to be the second most effective means of attracting attention. This can be achieved by moving the arms attached to the robot.

Education

The potential benefits of using robots for educational purposes has been shown in [Robot use for childcare], [Robots as social partners] and [socialization toddlers]. It is therefore desirable that a robot nanny can also carry out educational tasks. These following tasks will be carried out by Rubby:

• Talking to the child. It is shown in [Talking to children] that speech directly targeted to children plays a large role in their future development. This is a task that can easily be carried out by the Rubby robot. It can read books and tell stories to the child to stimulate the development of their vocabulary.
• Games for development of memory and numerical skills. Passolunghi and Costa have shown in [Educational games], that playing specific games can greatly improve a child’s working memory and numerical skills. These games can be implemented in a tablet for example and can be played by the child.
• Check writing. It is argued in [Escribo games] however that playing games on a platform similar to Squla, significantly increased the reading and writing skills of preschoolers. This is a task that can also be carried out by the Rubby robot. A tablet can be implemented on which the Squla games can be played and the robot can give positive reinforcement to stimulate playing these games.

Not sure (for questionnaire)

We are not sure whether the following functions will be implemented in the robot, the questionaire will show whether these functions are desired.

• Physical entertainment. Trost et al. argue in [Physical activity overweight] that there is a strong correlation between overweight status and physical activity in preschool children. More physical activity in the form of dancing, playing catch and other games will therefore lead to less chance of a child becoming overweight. However, Timmons, Naylor & Pfeiffer argue in [Physical activity preschool] that there is no real correlation between the health of a pre-schooler and their physical activity in the long term. Nevertheless, physical activity is never a bad thing and could be stimulated by the Rubby robot. It is important to initiate physical activity that the child considers fun however, as also mentioned in [Physical activity preschool]. This can be supported by the moving wings/arms on the Rubby.
• Restraining the child for safety. As stated by Sharkey & Sharkey in [Crying shame of robot nannies] it might be desirable for a robot nanny to physically restrain a child when he/she is about to do something dangerous. This might not be desirable however, since restraining a child is a slippery slope and might lead to unwanted behavior of the robot.

Requirements for robot

Technical requirements

• Camera (for privacy only process local and send just notifications over the internet to the parents or care givers). This way a lot of safety features can be made available like described above.
• Screen with touch
• Microphone (Also local processing)
• Sensors to make path planning possible
  • Lidar, possibly very expensive
  • Cameras, could need a lot of processing
  • Proximity sensors
  • Maybe the best solution, a combination of cameras and proximity sensors.
• Motion control
  • Walking would be way to expensive and difficult for the purpose
  • Rolling with 2,3 or 4 wheels will be relatively easy. Tracks could also be used. To improve the usable terrain of the robot tracks could be used as they can keep traction on surfaces like carpets or a wet floor. Wheels are quite reliable and would create less noise
• Two arms which are able to rotate about 180 degrees and move spherically to introduce playfulness and connected interactivity with the child
• Batteries with automatic charging (at night or if not in use)
• Processor to run software, path planning, facial recognition as well as emotion recognition. The heaviest task is the path planning. This would use as input all the sensors to then come to a resulting path to or around the child to accomplish a goal.
• Emergency button located on the robot to stop the robot functions to prevent accidents. As well as a remote emergency button from the network.
• Software to facilitate safety, entertainment and education purposes
  • Voice recognition
  • Text to speech, more robot-like voice as it is not a humanoid and in Dutch. Possibly multiple voice sound options to increase acceptance of the robot
  • Games as described above
  • Path planning
• Updating of software (possibly over the network), not only functions but also security. This is also a important part as bad software can in this case result in an almost useless robot.

Camera or no camera The questionnaire will show whether or not the use of a camera is desired. Different technical requirements for a robot with and without camera are given below:

• Camera
  • One higher resolution camera would be used for facial recognition, emotion recognition and possibly body language observing. It would also be used to keep the child from dangerous situations.
  • A couple, 3 or 5 cameras located at the sides and back to make path planning possible. These can be lower resolution as bigger objects are the most important part for path planning.
• No camera
  • A camera might not be desirable due to privacy issues.
  • The child will be given a bracelet which serves multiple functions:
    • It lets the robot know where the child is. This will enable the robot to follow the child.
    • The bracelet can monitor bio signals and use those to recognize emotions of the child.
  • The robot will use Lidar technology and proximity sensors (that can track the bracelet) To navigate around the house
  • The biggest downside of not using a camera is that the monitoring capabilities of the robot will then be severely limited.

---

Deliverable 1: Model of the path planning

In this chapter the end product about the navigation of the robot will be described. During the project, the steps that are taken are posted in this part of the wiki.

Mobile Robotics simulation toolbox - Emma -- THIS IS PREVIOUS WORK

I got to know 2 path planning. I have made 2 scripts that include these kind of pathplanning.

1) Path planning with a path that is defined by self-made points

2) Path planning by making a map that defines walls and the algorithm will determine itself how to go to the goal.

It works now, it is defined for a kinematic model with 2-driven wheels.

Steps for next week:

1) Make our own map

2) Upload our own kinematic model: Make our own wheel radius etc instead of a default.

3) Tweak velocity etc to get optimal desired movement

Deliverable 2: Technical drawings + evaluation of robot etc. in NX

In this chapter the end product of the mechanical design will be described and shared. During the project the steps that are taken to achieve this are posted in this part of the wiki.

Design conception

In order to design a robot, and especially its exterior appearance, several aspects are to be taken into account. Studies have shown the functions and shapes of a robot are crucial for the effectiveness of interaction between the robot and its user. This is the starting point of the design of Rubby. Sketches are made of different components of the robot as well as of the robot as a whole. Here the RPCs are taken into account in order to comply with the determined requirements.

Additionally, the following findings were important with regards to the external design of Rubby:

• Sound effects: The addition of sound effects is the most effective and feasible way to keep the user’s attraction to the robot. [sound addition]
• Eye-contact: Eye-contact does not necessarily improve the attention of the participants. The robot’s gazing behaviour may be suited in cases where the visual attention is already on the robot. [eye-contact]
• Essence of shape: The shape are and interactional functions of a robot are important for the development of personal robots. [shape importance]
• The importance of human-likeness: Robots need a moderate level of human-likeness; however, robots still need to be easily distinguishable from human beings. [human-likeness]
• Anthropomorphic appearance: A moderate level of anthropomorphic appearance is required combined with appropriate social cues. [antropomorpic appearance]
• Children tend to attribute intelligence, biological function and mental states to a robot. [attribution]
• Humanoid features: A few visual human-like features can achieve the elicitation of children’s preferences. [humanoid features]
• General appearance: A humanoid robot appearance is predominantly preferred over a robot with pure mechanical appearance.[general appearance]
• Impression of a robot: The initial impression and evaluation of a robot is essential. [impression]

Based on this, the following design choices regarding the external design of Rubby were concluded:

• Basic shape of the robot should be similar to that of a human being.
• The addition of sound effects: music sounds and speech.
• The addition of arms. These arms can turn in order to increase the level of human-likeness and to increase the attention attraction.
• The addition of a head. To ensure the robot does not look too much like a human being, the incorporation of a moving mouth when speaking is left out.
• Concerning the eye contact, ‘fake’ eyes can be added, however physically rolling and blinking eyes are left out, since this might work counterproductive.
• The addition of wheels. This emphasizes the robotic nature instead being a human. The movable aspect is important to improve the emotional response of the child to the robot.

Taking these aspects into account, together with the RPCs made, several sketches and outlines are made to visualize possible solutions.

In Appendix H, an overview of these sketches can be found.

Preliminary design

Subsequently, the 2D sketches as presented in appendix H are further elaborated and optimized. The sketches are combined and put into 3D with a computer program. This results in the preliminary designs.
In Appendix I, these designs can be seen.

Appendix I: Designs in Blender

Final design

In this phase, conclusions are made on the design and design choices are discussed. The several specifications of the final design are considered. A bill of materials (BoM) is presented based on the design choices. This BoM is part of deliverable 4. There, also a price indication for the robot is presented.

The robot's main body will contain a battery and processor. The system will contain three motors. The first motor will be to rotate the inner arm around its own axis (red arrow in figure 1 in appendix J) and can be mounted on the inside of the main body. The second motor will rotate the outer arm around the red axis in the second figure in appendix J. The easiest option is to mount the outer motor at the end of the inner arm, however, it will increase the mass of the arm a bit. This second motor could be positioned inside the main body and then transfer the rotation via a belt or some alternative. The third motor is used to drive the tracks in order to ensure the movement of the robot.

The weight of our robot can be a compared with a Nao robot, about the same size and material. The total weight of a Nao robot is 5 kg. This would give an estimate for an entire arm of around 400 grams.

If the arms would then be 20 cm long, the required torque can be calculated. The outer motor will put a force on the COG (center of gravity) of the arm 10cm from itself and using gravity force, T = r*Fz = 10*0.200= 2 kg cm. Online a servo can be found of 4.1 kg cm torque: [Hitec HS-422 Servo Motor]. This servo is 46 grams and is relatively cheap. This motor can also be used for the inner arm.

Concerning the motor needed for the tracks, the total mass of the robot is estimated at max 5 kg and the radius of the upper wheel at 5 cm. The torque needed for this motor equals equals T=radius*mass of robot= 5*5= 25 kg cm. A motor for this can be found: [DC 12V Motor]. So this can be used to drive the tracks.

Cocnerning the battery, if we assume a laptop capacity battery, of about 5 Amp hours, and the DC motors of the tracks at 0.8A each or 1.6A total. Then the rated time of operation before charging would be 3 divided by 1.6, which is about 3 hours. This calculation can be done because the tracks will be the main power consumption.

The head will be a fixed part, with a face which is static. The robot’s appearance is colourful, with use of bright colours for the track covers and main body. This increases the attraction level of the child to the robot.

The tracks will be protected with a cover. This ensures the safety for the child, so that it does not become entangled with the tracks. See figure 3 in appendix J.

The tablet and the processor (a Raspberry pi) will be linked but bought separately. The tablet will contain one main app built for this robot which includes the proposed functionalities: entertainment and educational. This tablet will be connected to the Raspberry pi in order to control the servos attached to the arms and tracks. The Raspberry pi also performs the processing of the camera sensor and distance sensors and run path planning from this data.

Appendix J: Visualization of some design aspects

Deliverable 4: List of materials

Based on the mechanical requirements of the final design, as mentioned in deliverable 2, a bill of materials is presented, together with the corresponding costs.

Of the [Hitec HS-422 Servo Motor], 4 of these would be used for the arms coming down to approximately 4*12 = 48 euro.

2 [DC Motor] will be used to drive the tracks. 2 of these are required and therefore these will cost 2*60 = 120 euro.

A [distance sensor] is used for the path planning. Also, a [720p camera] will be added. This will cost 13 euro.

As described, a battery of about 5 Ah is used. The price of such a battery would be about 30 euro.

The price of the plastic body is estimated at 10 euro. The [track gears] that will drive the tracks are used 6 times and this boils down to a price of 6*15 = 90 euro.

The Raspberry pi is used to control the motors and to process the data of the camera and distance sensors. This processor will cost 30 euro.

The tablet including the app providing the entertainment and education functions, is estimated to cost 300 euro.

Material	Price	Quantity	Subtotal price
Servo motor arms	€12,-	4	€48,-
DC motor tracks	€60,-	2	€120,-
Plastic body	€10,-	1	€10,-
Tablet	€300,-	1	€300,-
Gear for tracks	€15,-	6	€90,-
Battery	€30,-	1	€30,-
Processor (Raspberry pi)	€30,-	1	€30,-
Camera 720p	€13,-	1	€13,-
Distance sensor	€6.50	5	€32.50
			€673.50

Appendix

Appendix A: Persona's

The majority of the Dutch households with children are led by two parents. However, more than 10% of the households with children is led by one parent (80% of the cases woman) (Volksgezondheidenzorg.info, 2019). To give a good view on the users of the Toddler Nanny, people of 2 households are described below.  In one-parent households, the majority has one child (Nederlands Jeugdinstituut, 2020).  

Melissa

Melissa is a female of 31 years old. She is not married and has a son, Noah, of 3 years old. They live together in an apartment at the edge of a town. She likes to walk with her son to the playground nearby their home, play with him and watch animation videos with him. Once in a month, she meet with her friends in a restaurant or a bar. Melissa’s mother babysit for Noah. 

Melissa works for five days a week as a secretary in an advertising agency. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked for four days at the office and on Friday from home. Nowadays, she works from home five days a week. As Noah is not allowed to go to kindergarten every day, he is also at home for several days a week. She finds it hard to concentrate with Noah at home too: he attract a lot of attention and makes a lot of noise. Because she cannot do much on her job during the day, Melissa works until late in the evenings to complete her work.

Noah

Noah is a boy of 3 years old. He lives with his mother Melissa in an apartment at the edge of town. He likes to hear stories read by his mom, play with his toy cars and build towers from building blocks.

Noah does not go to school as he is too young. He went to kindergarten four times a week before the COVID-19 pandemic, but nowadays he is at home for multiple days during the week. He tries to talk with his mom Melissa, but she is grumpy when he does as she has to work. She parks him in the same room as she is with a box full of toys. He plays with his color puzzles and other toys, but after ten minutes he get bored and starts another activity. He uses sounds while playing and his mother get annoyed by this. A few toys later, he starts asking questions to his mom, but she does not answer and talks to other people on the screen. He tries to play again with his toys, but after a while he tries again to attract the attention of his mother. It does not work, she gets angry and puts him in a chair so he can watch television and she is not disturbed by him.

David

David is a male of 44 years old. He is married with Karin, a general practitioner of 39 years old. Together, they have two children: James, a boy of 8 years old and Ava, a girl of 4 years old. They live in a family home in a village surrounded by meadows.  

David works from home, at his home office, for four days a week. He is a logistic consultant and works with companies from over the whole world. He has a lot of conference calls in a week and there is also a lot of paper work to be done. Ava, his little daughter, is at home at Friday and Wednesday afternoon. She can be disturbing, because she wants to have attention from her father David and she is not able to keep herself busy with hobbies, like James is. Kindergarten is not possible for Ava as this only takes place a few villages away. David hopes that there will be a technology that supports him with caring for Ava, so he can continue working. 

Ava

Ava is a girl of 4 years old. She lives in a family home with her brother James and her parents David and Karin. She goes to school 4 days a week. At Friday she is at home with her father, because she and the other toddlers of her school are free at that day. Ava likes to play with dolls, cars, paint and dance with her family members.  

When she is at home on Wednesday afternoon and Friday, she feels bored. She does not know what to do on these days. James goes to his friends, the hockey club or is at school, so she cannot play with him. On these days she wants to play with daddy, but he has to work all day. When she goes to her father, he is talking to other people on the screen and he has not time for her. Sometimes he get angry when she chats with him during work hours.

On these days, she has to keep herself busy the whole day. David, her dad puts her in the living room or in his office with her toys. She always plays herself with puzzles, read her books and play with toy trains. After a while, she asks her father if she can watch the television and he always says yes so she does not disturb him. However, watching television for a long time is boring, she thinks. So she hopes that there is someone or something that can play with her when she is at home.

 

Appendix C: Scenarios

Scenario Melissa and Noah

This week, Melissa and Noah are both at home. Usually, Melissa works at home and Noah goes to school. But this week, Noah is at home as well because his teacher got infected with the corona virus and so Noah’s complete class must be quarantined. Melissa has a full work week with a few deadlines, two meetings and much administration to do. So it is unfortunate that Noah is at home whole week as he distract her often when she is working. Fortunately, Noah’s school borrowed parents of quarantined children a robot that keeps them busy. Rubby teaches the toddlers about calculating, language, motor control playfully, the school told Melissa when she picked up the robot and Noah yesterday. She hopes it works so she can continue working and Noah can keep on learning. Melissa starts working at 7 AM, one hour before she wakes up Noah. In this way, she has some more time for Noah. At 8 AM Melissa walk to Noah’s bedroom and wakes him up. They get him dressed and have some breakfast. Melissa tells Noah that she has a lot of work to do, so he should keep himself busy. Noah looks a little sad to his mom. Then she tells him he will get help with this from a robot. “A robot?” asks Noah surprised. “Yes a robot. But first we will brush your teeth and then you can choose to draw or to play with your cars”. Melissa works until 10.30 AM. Sometimes Noah came to her and then she gave him another toy to play with. Now they make some fruit and drinks for Noah and herself. She feels that Noah starts to get a little bored by keeping himself busy, so after they finished their coffee break, Melissa gets Rubby and activate the robot. She leaves Noah with the robot and walks back to her desk to work. She hears Rubby talk to Noah and sees he is all ears. Melissa put her headphones on and continue working. Once in a while she takes a look at Noah and sees him thinking, laughing and talking to the robot. After more than an hour of effective working, Melissa decides that it is time for lunch. She sits at the table with Noah and while they are eating she asks what he thinks of the robot. He immediately starts talking enthusiastically about the games he played, the dancing he did and the things he learned by Rubby. Melissa is happy to hear this. Upfront she felt guilty to keep her child busy with a robot, but it appears that Noah enjoys it and he also learns from it. Melissa thinks Rubby is a good support for her when Noah is at home and she has to work. He has a nice time and does not distract her. It is not possible to use it the complete day, but it can fill up the gaps Noah do not know what to do. So, Melissa can much better work than during the first lockdown.

Scenario David and Eva

It is Friday morning, around 8.30 AM. Ava wakes up because her father David is opening the curtains in her room. ‘Good morning sweetheart’ he says to her. David let her sleep later on than on school days, so he could already do some work. Today he has some important meetings and he has a deadline in the afternoon, so it is going to be a busy day. But first he breakfast with Ava and goes to the supermarket to do some shopping for the day and the coming weekend. At 10.00 AM, Ava and David are back from the shop. Now, the day can really begin. David opens up his laptop and starts working from the table in the living room. Ava sits in the living room at the carpet and starts playing with her dolls. After half an hour, she starts to get bored. David gives her some fruit and tells her that he has a meeting the next hour. ‘Yes, then I can play with Rubby’ she says and she wonders what the robot has in mind to do for her this time. When David would have announced a meeting 3 months ago, Ava would be disappointed as she had to be silent all time and she got bored. Nowadays, when her father should not be disturbed by Ava she can hang out together with Rubby, a robot that acts a playmate for toddlers so their parents can work or meet without being disturbed. After taking her last little piece of fruit and sip of her drink, David get Rubby out of the charger in the corner of the room. He puts the robot on the carpet, turns it on and set up the robot for an hour to an hour and a half. “See you in an hour darling” he says to Ava, sits down at the table and puts on his noise-cancelling headphones. “Hi Ava, I am Rubby I am not a human like you and your father, but I am a robot” … says to Ava. “Hi Rubby, what are we gonna do today?” Ava asks the robot. “We start with a counting game” and the tablet on his belly light up. After 10 minutes he asks Ava “Do you want to go something else?”. “Yes” she answers. She learned that she can only use little commands for the robot and she has to pronounce it clear. When you talk with humans you can have real conversations, so she knows from this that Rubby is a robot. “Now, we will do a puzzle.” The game on the screen on his belly change and Ava starts putting pieces on the right spots. After 10 minutes Rubby asks again if Ava want to something else, “no” she answers and continues with the puzzle. After 5 minutes he asks again and Ava indicates she want to do something else. “Let’s do some exercise Ava!” Rubby says and he starts to explain what they will do. With his arms the robot indicates what Ava has to with her arms and with his wheels he shows the direction of the steps Ava has to take. After 10 minutes Rubby says “Let’s do a color game” and the screen on the belly lightens up again. This gets on for coming 40 minutes and then David’s meeting is finished. David finds it nice that his daughter does not get bored while he has a meeting and that he is not distracted. It feels good to know that Ava gets a variety of activities to do by … alternated with entertainment, learning and physical tasks. After long meetings he always takes a walk, so today he takes a walk with Ava. After their half an hour walk, they lunch together. After lunch Ava should take some rest and she read some picture books for half an hour. Then she can watch the television for half an hour. After this she can play with her dolls or something else. This afternoon, David has to finish something important and he also has a meeting. Fortunately, Rubby supports him with keeping Ava busy for an hour and a half. Due to Rubby David has an effective working day. And also due to Rubby Ava had a nice day with a lot of fun activities. Before they had Rubby as a support, David had to work in his free time to catch up with his work. This weekend, when the whole family is home, they can do a board game or watch the television together with David.

Appendix D: Consent form survey 1

Information form for participants

This questionnaire being part of a design course is performed by Emma Allemekinders, Paul Hermens, Emma Höngens, Hidde Huitema and Jos Stolk, students under the supervision of Elena Torta of the Control System Technology group at Eindhoven University of Technology. 

Before participating, you should understand the procedure followed in this study, and give your informed consent for voluntary participation. Please read this page carefully.

About this study

This study has the goal to examine what the requirements of parents would be for a robot that assists parents in combining work from home and children. You will fill in this survey with questions about the functions of such a robot.

This study will take 5 minutes to complete and does not involve any risks.

Voluntary Participation

Your participation is completely voluntary. You can stop participation at any time. You can also withdraw your permission to use your data up to after completing this survey.

Confidentiality and use, storage, and sharing of data

This study has been approved by Elena Torta, teacher of the bachelor course Robots Everywhere of Eindhoven University of Technology. In this study experimental data will be stored. The anonymized dataset that, to the best of our knowledge and ability will not contain information that can identify you, will be used in this research and stored on a TU/e OneDrive account.

Further information

If you want more information about this study, the study design, or the results, you can contact Emma Höngens (contact email: e.hongens@student.tue.nl). You can report irregularities related to scientific integrity to confidential advisors of the TU/e, whose contact information can be found on www.tue.nl.

Certificate of consent

By starting this study, I indicate that I have read and understood the study procedure, and I agree to voluntarily participate.

Appendix E: Questions Survey 1

Introduction robot

Rubby is a robot that is made to support parents in focusing on their work at home when their young, school-going children (4- and 5-years old) are around. When a parent has a meeting or another important activity that requires a peaceful work environment, Rubby can keep a child busy during these moments. Rubby moves by wheels, has arms and a body on which a tablet is mounted. It is able to detect the motion of the child. The tablet, motion detection technologies and interaction technologies make it possible for Rubby to entertain the child with games, teach new things (broading vocabulary, learning to write, etc.) and do physical activities like dancing. Every activity has a span of 10 minutes ( meet the limited attention span of 4- and 5-year old children) and when finished, Rubby asks the child if it want to continue or have another activity. In this way, a child has various activities to do in the time a parent does not have time and parents will be able to work without too many disturbances.

• Do you think that Rubby would be able to support you as a parent with working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns?
  • Not at all
  • Slightly
  • Somewhat
  • Really well
• Why/why not?
• What are the most important features of a supporting robot like Rubby do you think?
  • Interaction of the robot with the child
  • Entertainment of the child by a robot
  • Assisting the child in learning new things
  • Motivate the child to do physical activities, using the robot’s movements
  • It does not matter how the robot keeps the child busy, as long as parents can work without too many disturbances
  • Different, namely ….
• Why?

Only for parents that have/had at least one child during one or two of the lockdowns of 4 or 5 years old.

• Do you think that your child(ren) would (have) like(d) to play with Rubby?
  • Yes
  • Sometimes
  • No
• Why?
• How long is your child able to concentrate on something?
• Do you think that your child will be able to keep him/herself busy with the variety of activities or Rubby when you are working?
  • Not at all
  • Slightly
  • Really well

Questions about safety improvement(s) of the robot

This first prototype of Rubby is focused on keeping children busy so their parents can work. Rubby and the child are in the same room as the working parent is responsible for the safety of the child.

• Do you want to have your child in another room than you are with a robot like Rubby?
  • Yes, that’s fine for me
  • Yes, but only if there are extra safety measures taken (like a camera in the room or guidelines for a safer room)
  • No, never

There are several technologies that can keep an eye on a child when interacting with a robot like Rubby. The most common is adding a camera to the robot so parents can look at their child. This has advantages like good monitoring, but a camera also bring disadvantages with it. For example the privacy of the child and the data security.

• Do you think adding a camera to Rubby is a good idea?
  • Yes
  • Yes, but the camera only should be on when the parent activate it
  • No
• Why?

There are also other ways to monitor your child when using Rubby, but these technologies are still in the development phase and do not work optimally. Examples are an emotion bracelet and voice recognition. When the child wears a bracelet, emotions can be measured on basis of bio signals Voice technology also is an option. When the child cries, a signal can be sent to the parent.

• What would you add to Rubby for safety when parent(s) and the child are in a different room?
  • A camera
  • A bracelet with bio signal technology
  • Voice technology
  • Nothing
  • Different, namely:
• Why?

Last questions about the robot

• Do you have any concerns towards Rubby? Please write them down below.
• Do you have any tips/recommendations for Rubby? Please write them down below.

Questions about children

• How many children do you have?
• How many of your children are boys?
• How many of your children are girls?
• In which age range are your children? (Multiple answers possible)
  • 0-3
  • 4-5
  • 6-10
  • 11-15
  • 16 years or older

Demographics

• How old are you?
• To which gender identity do you identify most?
  • Female
  • Male
  • Not listed
  • Prefer not to answer
• What is your highest obtained education level?
  • Primary school
  • Secondary school
  • MBO
  • HBO
  • University
  • Not listed, ...
• Where are you come from?

End Survey

Thank you for participating in this survey about the supporting robot Rubby. Is there anything you want to add or let us know?

Appendix F: Results

Sample description

The participants of the survey were adults with children. The participants were recruited online: the tutor and the group members sent the survey to parents they know. The average age of the participants was 38.8 and ranged between 31 and 50. There were 12 participants: 11 females and 1 males. The children of the participants mostly are in the age range of 0 to 3 years old (9 out of 12). 25% of the parents have children that are in the age range of 4 to 5 years old (3 out of 12). There are 2 parents out of 12 that have children that are 6 to 10 and do not have children between 4 and 5 years old. A third of the participants have children that are 11 years or older. The number of children range between 1 to 4 and the average number of children is 2.25. Participants have 0 to 3 boys with an average of 1.25 and 0 to 3 girls with an average of 1.1.

Data analysis

Support of robot during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns Significant majority of the participants (91%) think that Rubby could have support them during working from home in COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. And a majority is positive about it (70%). The concerns people have toward the use of Rubby are mostly about the interaction between the child and a non-human, listening of the child and the fragility of the robot.

Features of robot There is no clear answer what parents think is the most important feature of Rubby. From this we can conclude that the variety of activities of Rubby fit into most parents view. Parents think that the variety of tasks would be good and that the interaction of robots leads to engagement among children.

Children would like the robot Majority of the parents (8/11) think that their children will like Rubby. The main reason for this is the newness of it and exploring things.

Children will keep themselves busy with the robot The majority (8/10) think that their children probably will keep themselves busy more or less.

Children alone with Rubby in a room 50% of the parents think that they slightly want to have their children in another room than they are. From this we can conclude that an extra safety measure is needed to make this possible.

Safety technology The majority of the participants (9/12) think it is a good idea to adding a camera to the robot is a good idea. However, most of them (8/12) think it is best to only put the camera on, when the parent activate it. Some parents think privacy is important and others think that safety comes for privacy and other parents do not think that safety should not be left to a robot.

Half of the participants think it would be best to add a camera to the robot to provide safety. Others think that voice technology would be a better idea (3/12) and others even nothing. Voice technology is liked because it can recognize and a participant think it would be good to combine this with a camera. Another remark was that a parent was worried about the safety of the house.

Recommendations and concerns Participants were asked to give some tips and share their concerns about the robot. In the table you can find them. Some of them are translated because they were in Dutch. Parents are mainly worried about the safety of the child and the robot, safety of the data and the interaction between child and robot instead of interaction between child and parent. There were not that many recommendations. A good tip was to make the robot distinguishable from human-beings and in particular from parents. And there was also mentioned to set boundaries for the responsibility of the robot.

Conclusion

There are things we learnt from the survey among parents we will use in the design of Rubby.

• Make sure the robot is hard to break and make sure it does not fall.
• Do not use it long or include breaks.
• The variety of activities should be included so many parents will make use of it
• The robot should renew, so it offers new activities and the toddler will maintain its interest
• We should include a camera on the robot, but only film the child when the camera is activated by the parent. Also, including voice technology as an extra check can be handy to monitor the child’s behavior.
• The data of the robot should be safe.
• Good guidelines for the room are needed to keep the safety for the room’s stuff.
• The robot should not look like a human, but more like a toy.
• There should be guidelines for the parents so it is clear what the responsibilities the robot has and which the parents has.

Appendix G: School content

In the Netherlands, education is organized by means of core objectives (SLO, 2020a) per discipline. These have to be obtained by children when they finish primary school. How schools organize their education is free, as long as the core objectives are obtained. This means that schools follow different learning processes and it cannot be said what is learned per year.

However, TULE, an organization consisting of education experts, describes which steps in the learning process has to be taken to obtain the core objectives. These sub objectives are divided per periods of 2 years. This project focusses on children that go to kindergarten, so the information about ‘group 1-2’ (year 1 and 2) is of interest. The objectives focusses on Dutch, English, mathematics, orientation to yourself and the world, artistic orientation and physical education (TULE, n.d.). Apart from the steps per school year, TULE and SLO also made so-called ‘content cards’. These documents describe per discipline where should be focused on for the first years of primary school. Below you can find an overview that describes the discipline and its core objectives and the execution of these for year 1 and 2 of primary school. The information from the tables is all from SLO (2020b).

Dutch

Language education focusses on proficiency in Dutch. This proficiency is divided into four skills: copying, describing, structuring and evaluating. Dutch is used in writing, reading and conversations (TULE, n.d.).

English

Education in English on primary school focusses on speaking and reading simple texts (TULE, n.d.).

Mathematics

During mathematics lessons on primary school, children gradually become familiar with numbers, sizes, shapes, structures and fitted relations and operations (TULE, n.d.).

Orientation to yourself and the world

This proficiency focuses on the children, interaction with people and the world. It is divided in four sections: Humans and society, nature and technology, space, time (TULE, n.d.).

Artistic orientation

This discipline focusses on children’s appreciation of cultural and artistic expression and to express themselves in this domain (TULE, n.d.).

Physical education

Physical education focuses on motoric skills and social skills of children. Children experience physical activity as fun (TULE, n.d.).

Skill category
Balancing
Swinging
Jumping
Climbing
Tumbling
Aiming
Juggling
Playing with a goal
Playing tag
Wrestle games
Moving on music

Appendix H: Sketches external design

Appendix I: Designs in Blender

Appendix J: Visualization of some design aspects

Appendix G: Progress on simulating Rubby in simscape

After looking some more into the robotics toolbox in matlab, I found out that it is quite hard to model a mobile robot with this toolbox. This is due to the fact that this toolbox generates a RigidBodyTree model from a robot. This model basically looks like a tree, so it starts with a fixed (!) base and separate limbs can move with respect to that base. This works great for robot arms that stay in one place, but I was not able to get it to work with our robot.

I therefore went back to Simscape in matlab. Simscape can be used to model moving robots. So I started off with that. I checked the kind of files that can be imported by simscape and ended up with making a .urdf file of a rough version of rubby. It looks nowhere like our robot, but it has similar kinematics and that is what matters for now. The .urdf file that was generated looks as follows:

This little snippet of code shows the two most important things in a .urdf file: Links and joints. Links specify different solid bodies in the model and joints connect the two. The actual file is about 120 lines long, so it is no use showing that here, but when importing this file into matlab, the result can be seen in the figure above.

After this, it was time to import the robot in simscape and to make it move. The first part was making the generated urdf file move the way we wanted to. The simscape model for this looks as follows:

Where the two constants are the inputs for the angular velocity of the right and left wheel. This model resulted in the robot driving around happily. A robot moving through an empty world does have any use for us however, so the next step is to implement it in an environment and try to incorporate path planning/ obstacle avoidance.

To implement the robot in a simulation environment, we have to make another file format, in this case a VRML file. This file can easily be exported from blender, so we can use the real robot model made by Paul and Jos. This can then be used in combination with a living room setting that was taken from the mathworks website. Now our robot looks as follows in the living room environment:

This is still with an ugly Rubby model that I made myself, but this can be replaced with the actual model pretty easily. Now we have to make the robot actually move in this living room environment. This was done by using a VR-sink block in Simulink and providing it with inputs. The results from implementing this looks similar to the picture in the living room, only now Rubby is able to move.

The next step is to incorporate an obstacle avoidance algorithm. This is something I tried but could not get to work yet. For this, virtual sensors have to be implemented, either in the simscape model or in the .urdf file and this has to be coupled to the environment.

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Appendix Y: Logbook

Week 1

Name	Total time	Tasks
Paul Hermens	9 hours	Looking into possible topics, writing about features of the robot
Emma Allemekinders	15 hours	Brainstorm three ideas ,Problem statement, Planning, 5 papers about interaction child-Robot, getting to know the Wiki
Jos Stolk	8 hours	Think of project topics, discuss possibilities, searching for literature (about ethics and SotA)
Emma Höngens	8 hours	Ideas project, brainstorm meeting, literature research about privacy
Hidde Huitema	8 hours	Think of different topics for the project. Find literature about the state of the art and the ethics of a robot nanny

Week 2

Name	Total time	Tasks
Paul Hermens	8 hours	Check planning, added survey questions to surveymonkey, setting requirements and resulting functions necesssary of the robot
Emma Allemekinders	10 hours	New planning, Survey ideas, RPC's, Persona's 5 years old, table with an overview of the three child development states
Jos Stolk	7 hours	Research into educational functions, how should this be implemented; robot description
Emma Höngens	12 hours	Research to children's abilities, persona's, scenario, survey
Hidde Huitema	8 hours	Work on requirements and functions for the robot, find papers about the possible benefits of educational functions and physical activities

Week 3

Name	Total time	Tasks
Paul Hermens	11 hours	Research and writing decision making and understanding of children at young age, wiki updates and adding parts to wiki
Emma Allemekinders	11 hours	Think of solution to RPC's, looking into robot system toolbox, divide RPC's + improve them, make a list of the deliverables, work on the wiki-page
Jos Stolk	11 hours	Research on mechanical design aspects, investigate key factors robot appearance, define design choices, start conception external design, adding parts to wiki.
Emma Höngens	12 hours	Putting survey in program, improving survey with feedback, research to Dutch education system, structuring and completing wiki
Hidde Huitema	9 Hours	Figuring out the potential uses of URDF and simcenter for this project. Learning the basics of URDF. Working on the list of deliverables

Week 4

Name	Total time	Tasks
Paul Hermens	7 hours	Look into design and recreate in 3D. First look at mechanical design.
Emma Allemekinders	8 hours	Figure out path planning model + add it to wiki
Jos Stolk	7 hours	Mechanical design: create 3d model based on 2d sketches.
Emma Höngens	8 hours	Survey, data analyses, results description
Hidde Huitema	15 Hours	Start Working on simulating Rubby in a living room setting

Week 5

Name	Total time	Tasks
Paul Hermens	9 hours	Refining some of the 3D model and then looking for a solution to create the whole robot including Bill of Materials.
Emma Allemekinders	10 hours	Trying to get a file format from blender to URDF-format, wiki
Jos Stolk	9 hours	Refine the preliminary designs into concrete final design, add technical specifications, bill of materials, work on wiki
Emma Höngens	12 hours	Wiki, improving cohesion, scenario, user needs
Hidde Huitema	15 hours	Trying to get co-simulation between matlab and gazebo working

Appendix Z: Planning

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References

Specifications

(Lundberg, 2007) Lundberg, Shelly & Romich, Jennifer & Tsang, Kwok P., 2007. "Decision-Making by Children," IZA Discussion Papers 2952, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

(Herodotou, 20188) Herodotou, C. (2018), Mobile games and science learning: A comparative study of 4 and 5 years old playing the game Angry Birds. Br J Educ Technol, 49: 6-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12546

User specifications [Development child] Engelhart, E., Win, H., Vinke, J. G., & de Win, H. (2010). Ontwikkelmeter jeugd (2nd ed.). CPS Onderwijsontwikkeling en advies.

Educational functions

[Robot use for childcare] J. Ruiz-del-Solar, “Additional elements on the use of robots for childcare,” Gesture, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 285–301, 2010, doi: 10.1075/gest.8.3.02str.

[Robots as social partners] Kanda, T., Hirano, T., Eaton, D., & Ishiguro, H. (2004). Interactive Robots as Social Partners and Peer Tutors for Children: A Field Trial. Human-Computer Interaction, 19(1), 61–84. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327051hci1901&2_4

[Socialization toddlers] Tanaka, F., Cicourel, A., & Movellan, J. R. (2007). Socialization between toddlers and robots at an early childhood education center. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(46), 17954–17958. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0707769104

[Talking to children] Weisleder, A., & Fernald, A. (2013). Talking to Children Matters. Psychological Science, 24(11), 2143–2152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613488145

[Education Games] Passolunghi, M. C., & Costa, H. M. (2014). Working memory and early numeracy training in preschool children. Child Neuropsychology, 22(1), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2014.971726

[Escribo games] Amorim, A. N., Jeon, L., Abel, Y., Felisberto, E. F., Barbosa, L. N. F., & Dias, N. M. (2020). Using Escribo Play Video Games to Improve Phonological Awareness, Early Reading, and Writing in Preschool. Educational Researcher, 49(3), 188–197. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x20909824

[QRIO] Tanaka, F., Cicourel, A., & Movellan, J. R. (2007). Socialization between toddlers and robots at an early childhood education center. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(46), 17954–17958. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0707769104

[IROBI] Jeonghye Han, Miheon Jo, Sungju Park and Sungho Kim, "The educational use of home robots for children," ROMAN 2005. IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2005., Nashville, TN, USA, 2005, pp. 378-383, doi: 10.1109/ROMAN.2005.1513808

[Robovie (1)] Kanda, T., Hirano, T., Eaton, D., & Ishiguro, H. (2004). Interactive Robots as Social Partners and Peer Tutors for Children: A Field Trial. Human-Computer Interaction, 19(1), 61–84. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327051hci1901&2_4

[Robovie (2)] Ishiguro, H., Ono, T., Imai, M., Maeda, T., Kanda, T., & Nakatsu, R. (2001). Robovie: an interactive humanoid robot. Industrial Robot: An International Journal, 28(6), 498–504. https://doi.org/10.1108/01439910110410051

[Breazeal] J. Kory and C. Breazeal, "Storytelling with robots: Learning companions for preschool children's language development," The 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, Edinburgh, 2014, pp. 643-648, doi: 10.1109/ROMAN.2014.6926325.

Persona’s

Content   Bevolking | Cijfers & Context | Huishoudens | Volksgezondheidenzorg.info. (2019, August 14). Volksgezondheidenzorg.Info. https://www.volksgezondheidenzorg.info/onderwerp/bevolking/cijfers-context/huishoudens#node-huishoudsamenstelling  Nederlands Jeugdinstituut. (2020, April 2). Gezinnen - Cijfers | NJi. https://www.nji.nl/nl/Databank/Cijfers-over-Jeugd-en-Opvoeding/Cijfers-per-onderwerp/Cijfers-per-onderwerp-Gezinnen#ch313917  Images 

[Mother with Toddler]. (2017, February 28). Proeves. https://www.proeves.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Desktop_Symptom_Children_Earache_Tile.jpg 

[8 Books About Daddy Your Toddler Will Love]. (2017, June 15). Scholastic. http://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/parents/migrated-assets/blogs/header-images-6/father-child-reading-ages-1-2.jpg 

Robot specification

[Robot following] Development of a Person Following Robot with Vision Based Target Detection - IEEE Conference Publication

[Child robot] Designing for Robust Movement in a Child-Friendly Robot - IEEE Conference Publication

[Tablets children] The use of touch-screen tablets in early childhood: Children's knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards tablet technology - ScienceDirect

[Music robot] Do a humanoid robot and music increase the motivation to perform physical activity? A quasi-experimental cohort in typical developing children and preliminary findings in hospitalized children in neutropenia - ScienceDirect

[Physical activity overweight] Trost, S., Sirard, J., Dowda, M. et al. Physical activity in overweight and nonoverweight preschool children. Int J Obes 27, 834–839 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802311

[Physical activity preschool] Timmons, B. W., Naylor, P.-J., & Pfeiffer, K. A. (2007). Physical activity for preschool children — how much and how? Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 32(S2E), S122–S134. https://doi.org/10.1139/h07-112

[Crying shame of robot nannies] Sharkey, N., & Sharkey, A. (2010). The crying shame of robot nannies. Interaction Studies, 11(2), 161–190. https://doi.org/10.1075/is.11.2.01sha

[iPad use children] Flewitt, R., Messer, D., & Kucirkova, N. (2014). New directions for early literacy in a digital age: The iPad. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 15(3), 289–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798414533560

[Grabbing attention] Torta, E., van Heumen, J., Cuijpers, R. H., & Juola, J. F. (2012). How Can a Robot Attract the Attention of Its Human Partner? A Comparative Study over Different Modalities for Attracting Attention. Social Robotics, 288–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34103-8_29

Deliverable 2

[sound addition],[eye-contact] Torta, E., van Heumen, J., Cuijpers, R. H., & Juola, J. F. (2012). How Can a Robot Attract the Attention of Its Human Partner? A Comparative Study over Different Modalities for Attracting Attention. In Social Robotics (pp. 288–297). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34103-8_29

[shape importance] Goetz, J., Kiesler, S., & Powers, A. (n.d.). Matching robot appearance and behavior to tasks to improve human-robot cooperation. The 12th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2003. Proceedings. ROMAN 2003. Proceedings. RO-Man 2003. The 12th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication. https://doi.org/10.1109/roman.2003.1251796

[human-likeness], [antropomorpic appearance], [attribution], [humanoid features] Tung, F.-W. (2016). Child Perception of Humanoid Robot Appearance and Behavior. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 32(6), 493–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2016.1172808

[general appearance], [impression] Walters, M. L., Syrdal, D. S., Dautenhahn, K., te Boekhorst, R., & Koay, K. L. (2007). Avoiding the uncanny valley: robot appearance, personality and consistency of behavior in an attention-seeking home scenario for a robot companion. Autonomous Robots, 24(2), 159–178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-007-9058-3

[Hitec HS-422 Servo Motor] https://www.robotshop.com/en/hitec-hs-422-servo-motor.html

[DC 12V Motor] https://www.amazon.com/5-2RPM-30KG-cm-Diameter-Planetary-Reducer/dp/B06X985DTB

Deliverable 4

[Hitec HS-422 Servo Motor] https://www.robotshop.com/en/hitec-hs-422-servo-motor.html

[DC 12V Motor] https://www.amazon.com/5-2RPM-30KG-cm-Diameter-Planetary-Reducer/dp/B06X985DTB

[distance sensor] https://www.tinytronics.nl/shop/en/sensors/distance/sharp-optical-distance-sensor-gp2y0a02yk0f

[720p camera] https://dutch.alibaba.com/product-detail/1mp-android-free-drive-160-degree-wide-angle-hd-720p-manual-focus-usb-advertising-machine-camera-module-62065653620.html?spm=a2700.8699010.29.37.56aa4a0e1B1e5i

[track gears] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Customized-large-diameter-100mm-5mm-standard_62338174330.html?spm=a2700.7724857.normal_offer.d_title.19a41769HUTg9N