Kamikaze Aibo Interface Stephen Chow Lena Mac Abstract Dept. of Computer Science Dept. of Computer Science The Kamikaze Aibo Interface aims to provide a simple and intuitive way for users to control a Sony Aibo robot University of Calgary University of Calgary dog in a simulated disaster zone. Specific steps were 2500 University Drive NW 2500 University Drive NW taken in the design of this interface to make it easy to Calgary, AB, Canada, T2N 1N4 Calgary, AB, Canada, T2N 1N4 use. These include using a large vision screen and map [email protected] [email protected] located at the top of the interface. Important interface elements are grouped around the vision screen to Ian Hern Phillipa Sessini reduce the amount of effort required by the user to use these items. Dept. of Computer Science Dept. of Computer Science University of Calgary University of Calgary Evaluation of this interface shows that in its current 2500 University Drive NW 2500 University Drive NW form users are able to learn to use basic features of the Calgary, AB, Canada, T2N 1N4 Calgary, AB, Canada, T2N 1N4 interface quite quickly. Additional features could be [email protected] [email protected] added to improve the user’s ability to navigate particularly difficult sections of the disaster zone. Introduction As humans encounter increasingly dangerous disaster situations the need for robots designed for these situations is growing. For example, events such as the World Trade Center attack [2] and other disasters require robots designed to maneuver challenging terrains. These robots also need to be easy to control using intuitive interfaces in addition to being able to operate in disaster zones. One of the primary causes of critical events in robots Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). deployed in urban search and rescue environments is a lack of awareness [3, 4]. The Kamikaze Aibo Interface aims to develop an interface that improves the user’s situational awareness of the robot to reduce critical incidents. The robotic platform used in this project is the Sony efficiency. They found that since users focused mainly Aibo robot with the Tekkotsu programming framework. on the video screen for data, interface elements that The primary objective of our robot is to navigate a required attention should be placed around the video simulated field of rubble and diffuse a simulated bomb. area. Also, they reduced the users cognitive load by Although the purpose of this interface is to diffuse a replacing most of the numerical data displayed in the bomb, methods used in the development of the original interface with icons and colors that were interface may also be applied in urban search and intuitive to the user. rescue (USAR) environments. Although the objective of this study is not search and The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. rescue, the robot will still be in a simulated USAR Studies relevant to the development of the interface are terrain. As a result of this, many lessons learned discussed in Related Work. The development of the studying interfaces for USAR are applicable to our interface over the course of the project is discussed in application. Evolution of the Design. The implemented interface is described in the Interface, Vision Screen, Map, Evolution of the Design Command Center and Indicator sections. Controlling The original design for the Kamikaze Aibo Interface the Robot describes methods of interacting with the consisted of a 3 column layout as illustrated in Figure 1. interface. The interface is evaluated and limitations are The map and vision screen were both large and at the discussed in the Evaluation and Future Work sections. same level. However, indicators were placed to the left of the vision screen in their own column at eye level. Related Work This interface was expected to be quite large Many studies of robotic interfaces for urban search and (approximately 1024x768) and had a lot of white space rescue tasks have taken place. The studies highlight the in its design. The majority of elements contained in the need for awareness in interfaces [3, 4] as well as final interface are present in this preliminary sketch. provide insights into interface design for urban search This included the distance sensor bars above the vision and rescue operations [1]. screen, crosshairs to indicate head movement and a box grouping items around the vision panel. Scholtz et. al [4] evaluated human-robotic interfaces at the Robocup 2003 USAR competition. They found that Figure 1 hints at the future directions of the Kamikaze the most common critical incident that occurred Aibo interface. This is evident in the arrow suggesting happened when robots encountered obstacles. They moving the indicators to a position below the map. The note that the team with the fewest critical incidents design presented in the proposal (Figure 2), illustrated relating to obstacles used a camera that could be this conversion from a 3 column to a 2 column layout manipulated. They also note that the same team was and the development of a more compact layout. The able to have fewer local navigation critical incidents, placement of indicators and less common actions were again due to their easily movable camera to view the still quite preliminary at this point. Also, a point in the robots position in relation to objects. center of the vision screen with a numerical value of distance between the Aibo and objects in front of it is Baker et. al [1] examine an existing robotic interface present. At this point in time the interface allowed for and redesign it to be more efficient by enhancing no autonomy on the part of the robot and anticipated awareness, lowering cognitive load and increasing complete user involvement in controlling the Aibo’s actions. The proposal version of the interface illustrated a milestone in the design of the Kamikaze Aibo Interface. This is the inclusion of a border surrounding the vision screen to indicate battery levels to the user. The low fidelity prototype presented an interface design that was more consistent with our final implementation (Figure 3). The number of items below the vision panel was reduced and a drop down menu of less commonly used actions was added. This drop down menu decreased the number of buttons present on the interface and reduced the amount of clutter in the design. The drop down menu of less commonly used actions also included a “look at sound” behavior. This marked the beginning of autonomy for the Aibo in the interface. Awareness of the Aibo’s body position is included in the low fidelity prototype in the form of paw sensor Figure 1: Original Layout of Kamikaze Interface indicators. These are included to inform the user when the Aibo has fallen over. Along with the paw indicators an array of recovery methods were also made available to the user. The current interface is illustrated in Figure 4 and is described in the following sections. Interface The overall design of the interface aims to make using the interface as simple and intuitive as possible (Figure 4). Commonly used menus, buttons and indicators are grouped around the main vision screen for easy access. Less commonly used functions are located further away from the main focus area. The map is located at the same level as the vision screen to facilitate use of the map. The interface also aims to reduce clutter and unnecessary information. This is accomplished by the Figure 2: Proposed layout of the Kamikaze Interface use of drop-down menus rather than many buttons. Also, items on the interface are grouped according to function to help the user quickly find desired options. Vision Screen The vision screen is the largest component of the Kamikaze Aibo Interface (Figure 5). It presents a relatively large video feed to increase the user’s situational awareness of the Aibo. The vision screen is also used to convey relevant information about the status of the Aibo. Bars above the vision panel are meant to indicate the robot’s distance from objects in front of the robot. The border of the vision screen also provides information about the amount of battery power that the Aibo has remaining (Figure 6). Information about the Aibo’s head position is conveyed using crosshairs overlaid on the video screen. This is Figure 3: Low fidelity prototype of the interface illustrated in Figure 5. A slider to the right of the vision screen conveys information about the Aibo’s neck position. Buttons, menus and indicators that will be used frequently are located below the vision screen for easy access. These items include the walk selector, walk speed selector as well as paw sensor indicators. The walk selector is a drop down menu that makes use of icons to facilitate selection of an appropriate walk. This is illustrated in Figure 7. Map A map is provided to the user at the right of the interface, illustrated in Figure 8 (a). The map is quite large and located at the same level as the vision screen to make use of the map convenient. The map is based on a grid layout to increase the user’s ability to create precise maps. The user can define colors to mark various objects on the map. The user defined colors Figure 4: Current layout of the Kamikaze Interface give the user an opportunity to pick colors that are meaningful for them and create an easy to understand map. A button to clear the entire map space is also provided. Command Center The command center features less commonly used actions and behaviors. These include recovery actions that can be used to bring the Aibo back to a standing position if it falls over.