Demola Academy Autumn 2012 project

1. AUTUMN 2012
DEMOLA ACADEMY
ROD WALSH & KIMMO VÄNNI, TAMK
versio date author details
n
0.1 28.08.2012 Rod Created & first
Walsh draft
0.2 29.08.2012 Rod First version ready
Walsh
0.3 03.09.2012 Rod Slightly simplified
Walsh
© TAMK, 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 1

2. WHAT’S IN THESE SLIDES
 What is the need, what problem needs solving?
 What is the project about
 What are you expecting from the project (what could be the concrete result)
 What tools are the team using (programming languages etc.)
 What would the ideal team composition be?
 Picture or embedded video
 Why would someone take part in the project
 Background of the company / organization
© TAMK, 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2

3. PROJECT: THE NEED
Muscle injury, poor life style and advancing age require routine physical activity
and physiological rehabilitation. For this. A professional physiotherapists
provide motivation, instruction, monitoring and feedback with their domain
expertise and by being physically present during physio sessions.
However, it would be too costly to have the physiotherapist one-on-one sessions
every day for every amateur sporting injury, every elderly person and
everyone else; even if there were access to enough professionals around the
globe.
Take-home paper exercise programs, possibly with diaries, provide a low-cost
extension to the professional. And kinetic console games can be used to
practice an exercise program with a professional before repeating the
program self-supervised. However, the lack of physically present instructor
removes important monitoring and feedback, and requires significant self
discipline to stay motivated.
To provide the cost-effectiveness of an avatar without losing many of the
benefits of a physically present instructor, we will develop a smart robot that
can be trained by a professional for an individual or a residential home group
daily instruction.
It will spot correct and wrong movements and give corrective and motivational
feedback. And keep the physiotherapist up-to-date with the routine and
progress.
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4. PROJECT: THE GOAL
Two applications:
• Repeating 7-day stretching routine (e.g. gentle Yoga) suitable for the
elderly at home and in residential care
• Injury/strain physiotherapy rehabilitation program
Enabled by two systems:
• Physio instruction of routines by Avatar and actual robot “at home”
• Instructor “teaching” body action routines, measurement & feedback
using their own body
Based on the 2012 Demola Innosummer software…
• Bioloid biped robot and Unity 3D “mirror robot” avatar
• Messaging/communication code
…and a combination of java, c#, javascript and human touch
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5. SKILLS, EXPERIENCE AND MORE
Ideal team composition to include:
 Body pose and 3D modeling – a few body models, many poses and movements
(blender)
 Game engine UI, animation, (basic) physics & communication (Unity 3D & C#)
 Robot and communications software (java, embedded C, RoboPlus GUI)
 Application & user experience design and testing (inc. instructor/instruction
interviews)
 Possible extensions:
 Including face expressions (with body)
 Kinetic body input (MS Kinect or openNI & Asus)
Demola Academy Social Robotics experience:
 Most fun and rewarding way to learn (and get credits)
 Close support and commitment from client (TAMK)
 Possibly the most exciting application area for now and the future
 Express your passion for ITC, coding, robots and human interaction
© TAMK, 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 5

6. CLIENT: RICTI SOCIAL ROBOTICS @TAMK
A SOCIAL ROBOT
A social robot is an autonomous robot that interacts and communicates with humans or
other autonomous physical agents by following social behaviors and rules attached to its
role.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_robot
SOCIAL
ROBOTICS TEKES RICTI TA M K R D I
R&D project at TAMK RDI TEKES is the Finnish Tampere University of
funded by TEKES RICTI, to Funding Agency for Applied Sciences (TAMK)
build Tampere-region Technology and Research, Development
ecosystem around Social Innovation, which provides and Innovation (RDI)
Robotics for SMEs, the majority of the 3M€ 2 projects organization.
established industry, year budget for the RICTI Separate, but collaborating
universities, and third initiative(Re-establishing with, TAMK teaching
sector organizations. the Finnish ICT industry). departments.
socialrobotics.tamk.fi/ www.tekes.fi/en www.tamk.fi/cms/tamken.nsf/$all/4391
101EB5FD8A01C225767B0034C8BC
© TAMK, 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 6