Human Robotic Interaction prototyping toolkit
Interaction Design relies on prototyping methods to help envisage future design concepts and elicit feedback from potential users. A key challenge the design of human-robot interaction (HRI) with collaborative robots is the current lack of prototyping tools, techniques, and materials. Without good prototyping tools, it is difficult to move beyond existing solutions and develop new ways of interacting with robots that make them more accessible and easier for people to use.
This Project will develop a robot collaboration prototyping toolkit that combines physical and simulated robotic systems to explore, develop and test new processes and work routines. The team will explore a range of prototyping techniques and work with real-world industry partners and investigate the use of technologies such as motion tracking, mixed-reality interfaces, and lightweight interactive components to allow for exploration of new interaction concepts in a safe way.
The research team will also investigate the use of physical markers, and interactive output components that can augment commercially available collaborative robotic equipment to test other interaction modalities. This project will enable designers, engineers, and end-users to work together to improve the future of human-robotic interaction.
Outcomes
Upon completing this research, we expect to develop:
- New tools for designing and prototyping human robot interactions
- Techniques for using these tools with end-users in co-design sessions
- A framework for applying the prototyping toolkit in a design process
- New knowledge about the nature of prototyping for HRI
Principal Supervisor: Dr Jared Donovan
Associated Researchers