It is anticipated that the use of assistive robots will be one of the most important service applications of robotic systems of the future. In this paper, the development of a unique noncontact socially assistive robot consisting of a humanlike demeanor is presented for utilization in hospital wards and nursing∕veteran homes to study its role and impact on the well-being of patients, addressing patient’s needs and its overall effect on the quality of patient care. The robot will be an embodied entity that will participate in hands-off noncontact social interaction with a patient during the convalescence, rehabilitation, or end-of-life care stage. The robot has been designed as a platform to incorporate the three design parameters of embodiment, emotion, and nonverbal communication to encourage natural human-robot interactions. Herein, we present the overall mechanical design of the socially assistive robot focusing mainly on the development of the actuation system of the face, head, and upper body. In particular, we propose the development of a unique muscle actuation mechanism for the robotic face to allow for the display of rich facial expressions during social assistive interaction scenarios. The novelty of the actuation system is in its use of the dependency of facial muscle activity to minimize the number of individual actuators required to control the robotic face.
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February 2009
Research Papers
The Design of an Expressive Humanlike Socially Assistive Robot
Brian Allison,
Brian Allison
Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook
, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2300
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Goldie Nejat,
Goldie Nejat
Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: goldie.nejat@stonybrook.edu
State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook
, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2300
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Emmeline Kao
Emmeline Kao
Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook
, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2300
Search for other works by this author on:
Brian Allison
Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook
, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2300
Goldie Nejat
Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook
, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2300e-mail: goldie.nejat@stonybrook.edu
Emmeline Kao
Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook
, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2300J. Mechanisms Robotics. Feb 2009, 1(1): 011001 (8 pages)
Published Online: July 29, 2008
Article history
Received:
March 24, 2008
Revised:
June 21, 2008
Published:
July 29, 2008
Citation
Allison, B., Nejat, G., and Kao, E. (July 29, 2008). "The Design of an Expressive Humanlike Socially Assistive Robot." ASME. J. Mechanisms Robotics. February 2009; 1(1): 011001. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2959097
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