Maria Luce Lupetti

A cloud robotics system for telepresence enabling mobility impaired people to enjoy the whole museum experience

We present a novel robotic telepresence platform composed by a semi-autonomous mobile robot based on a cloud robotics framework, which has been developed with the aim of enabling mobility impaired people to enjoy museums and archaeological sites that would be otherwise inaccessible. Such places, in fact, very often are not equipped to provide access for mobility impaired people, in particular because these aids require dedicated infrastructures that may not fit within the environment and large investments. For this reason, people affected by mobility impairments are often unable to enjoy a part or even the entire museum experience. Solutions allowing mobility impaired people to enjoy museum experience are often based on recorded tours, thus they do not allow active participation of the user. On the contrary, the presented platform is intended to allow users to enjoy completely the museum round. A robot equipped with a camera is placed within the museum and users can control it in order to follow predefined tours or freely explore the museum. Our solution ensures that users see exactly what the robot is seing in real-time. The cloud robotics platform controls both navigation capabilities and teleoperation. Navigation tasks are intended to let the robot reliably follow pre-defined tours, while main concern of teleoperation tasks is to ensure robot safety (e.g., by means of dynamic obstacle detection and avoidance software). Proposed platform has been optimized to maximize user experience.

Design for Learning Through Play. An Exploratory Study on Chinese Perspective

This work focuses on the role of design for novel edutainment robots for children. The theme is addressed by adopting a holistic approach, aimed at framing the complexity of a phenomenon that is changing the children educational and play habits. The main aspects of this phenomenon were further investigated through a preliminary study carried out in Beijing, China. The study consisted in a questionnaire and forms about children’s habits submitted to parents, and in hands-on activities supported by probes for children. The results of the questionnaire provided information that help to get a better understanding of the relation between education and play in children’s life that can be used as basis for developing new design scenarios. The activities with children, instead, allowed to collect inspirational data and to identify design principles that could be adopted as drivers in the development of novel robotic products for children.

Design for Children’s Playful Learning with Robots

This article presents an investigation of the implications of designing for children’s playful learning with robots. This study was carried out by adopting a Research through Design approach that resulted in the development of a novel low-anthropomorphic robot called Shybo. The article reports the main phases of the project: the preliminary and exploratory research that was carried out to define a list of design requirements; the design of the robot and its supplementary materials for carrying out playful learning experiences; and the evaluation of the project that involved both parents and children. The robot, in fact, was finally tested as part of a two-hour experience that engaged children in activities related to the associations between sounds and colours. The article presents and discusses the results of this evaluation to point out positive aspects of the experience, emerging issues and hints for future works. These are documented to share lessons learned that might be supportive of the general development of children’s playful learning and cognitive experiences with robots.

Robots and cultural heritage: new museum experiences

The introduction of new technologies to enhance the visiting museum experience is not a novelty. A large variety of interactive systems are nowadays available, including virtual tours, which makes cultural heritage accessible remotely. The theme of increase in accessibility and attractiveness has lately been faced with the employment of the service robotics, covering various types of applications. Regrettably, many of robotics solutions appear not really successful in terms of utility and usability. On the basis of this awareness, a design for a new robotic solution for cultural heritage has been proposed. The project, developed at the royal residence of Racconigi Castle, consists of a telepresence robot designed as a tool to explore inaccessible areas of the heritage. The employed robot, called Virgil, was expressly designed for the project. The control of the robot is entrusted to the museum guides in order to enhance their work and enrich the cultural storytelling.

Design and Evaluation of a Mixed-Reality Playground for Child‒Robot Games

In this article we present the Phygital Game project, a mixed-reality game platform in which children can play with or against a robot. The project was developed by adopting a human-centered design approach, characterized by the engagement of both children and parents in the design process, and situating the game platform in a real context—an educational center for children. We report the results of both the preliminary studies and the final testing session, which focused on the evaluation of usability factors. By providing a detailed description of the process and the results, this work aims at sharing the findings and the lessons learned about both the implications of adopting a human-centered approach across the whole design process and the specific challenges of developing a mixed-reality playground.

Human-Robot Interaction

The spread of robotics in many sectors of human life is driving researchers to focus more and more on human-robot interaction (HRI). This multidisciplinary field addresses all of the issues related to the interaction between robots and people. HRI incorporates contributions from artificial intelligence, cognitive science, human factors, psychology and social science, among others. This paper provides a summary of the main themes of HRI from the point of view of both technology and the user experience.

Interaction design for cultural heritage. A robotics cultural game to visit the museum’s inaccessible areas

Abstract Nowadays many museum areas are not accessible to visitors because of issues related to security or architectural barriers. Make explorable these areas is one of the sensible topics in the cultural debate about the enhancing of the visiting experience. The paper describes the design of a roboethics activity conceived in codesign with museum stakeholders (Museum Guides, Museum Curators, Telecommunication Experts, Designers and Final Users) with the purpose to face this problem. After a first stage, in which a telepresence robot piloted by the Museum Guide it has been used a to show the inaccessible areas of the museum; it is going to be performed a second stage of the project with the scope of building a more interactive visiting experience. To satisfy this need an interactive game, it has been developed. The game is based both on the robot ability to be driven by the visitors and also on the capacity of the robot to been used as a platform for the digital storytelling. The whole experience it has been designed and tested with the support of high school students.Nowadays many museum areas are not accessible to visitors because of issues related to security or architectural barriers. Make explorable these areas is one of the sensible topics in the cultural debate about the enhancing of the visiting experience. The paper describes the design of a roboethics activity conceived in codesign with museum stakeholders (Museum Guides, Museum Curators, Telecommunication Experts, Designers and Final Users) with the purpose to face this problem. After a first stage, in which a telepresence robot piloted by the Museum Guide it has been used a to show the inaccessible areas of the museum; it is going to be performed a second stage of the project with the scope of building a more interactive visiting experience. To satisfy this need an interactive game, it has been developed. The game is based both on the robot ability to be driven by the visitors and also on the capacity of the robot to been used as a platform for the digital storytelling. The whole experience it has been designed and tested with the support of high school students.

Designing Playful HRI: Acceptability of Robots in Everyday Life through Play

The spread of edutainment robotics in everyday life raises new opportunities that can lead to a redefinition of the traditional game scenarios. Robots, indeed, represents a challenge for designer since allows a physical embodiment of a game character/element. These new opportunities have been analyzed in parallel with the world of childhood, its main characteristics, current topics and emerging issues. This analysis is at the basis of the Phygital Play project, a mixed-reality playground in which children can play with or against a robot. The project aims to encourage children to play physically in order to reduce sedentary behaviors, which are recently increasing accordingly to the spread of screen-based activities.

Ethic Design for Robotics: Place Man and Cultural Context on the Center of the Project: Case Study on Robotics in Museums

A reflection about Roboethics and its declinations has been conducted starting from the analysis of the robot semantic and the cultural perception that has arisen towards these machines. The analysis faces also the meanings, the technological limits and the expectations about Robotics today, laying the foundations to define a design approach that put the man at the centre of the project, with its community and the context. As a case study is introduced Virgil, example of museum robotic activity carried out in the spirit of ethic design for a specific Cultural Heritage, which consist in the Savoia’s Royal Residences, in Piedmont, Italy.

From a Robotic Vacuum Cleaner to Robot Companion: Acceptance and Engagement in Domestic Environments

This paper shows preliminary results of the project DR4GHE (Domestic Robot 4 Gaming Health and Eco-sustainability). The main purpose is to develop a Robot Companion for domestic applications able to advise and suggest good practices to users. Interaction and engagement with the user are introduced providing to the Robot Vacuum Cleaner RVC an additional intelligence and leveraging the existing level of acceptance. Morphological aspects, in addition to behavioral traits, assume a key role in the perceptual transition of the RVC from object to subject. Human-robot interaction takes place on two levels: direct interaction, in particular with visual and sound signals; and mediated interaction, through a GUI for smartphone and tablets.