Challenge

The Dramaturgy for Devices project is a collaboration between UU, TU Delft, VU, and TU Twente. Each university facilitates young PhD researchers to investigate the combination of robotics and theatre in very different contexts. How can tools and methods from the performing arts help to bridge the gap between robot developers and the end users of those robots?

At HIT, we participate in this project to develop and test meaningful human-robot interactions for our care robot Rose, focusing on the 1:1 interaction between robot and end-user, e.g. during close range passing in a narrow corridor or during the handover of objects (like food, drink, medicine) using a theatrical context.

Solution

A combination of workshops, on-site acting and puppeteering performances including (enacted and real) human – robot interaction testing is used to gather and clarify requirements on the preferred ways for a robot to interact with a human in various scenarios.

Contribution HIT

 HIT contributes to the project by making available its care robot Rose as a ‘puppet’ or ‘actor’ to create performance interactions with (enacted and real) professionals in the care environment.