TESIS DOCTORAL - Robotics Lab - Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

88 Chapter 5. The social robot Maggie and its decision making systemFigure 5.1: The social robot Maggie interacting with childrenIn relation to its hardware, Maggie is a computer-controlled system built on a wheelbase which allows the robot to move through the environment. Its arms, neck, and eyelidsmovements can be moved in a human-like manner. The vision system uses a camera inthe head and, thanks to it, Maggie can recognize people and play several games. Lasertelemeter and ultrasound sensors are used by the navigation system. By means of an infraredemitter/receiver, Maggie also operates different home appliances such as televisionsor music players. Touch sensors on the surface of the body and a touch screen situated inthe breast are used for a direct interaction with people. Inside the head, an RFID antenna isplaced for identifying objects. In order to provide verbal interaction, the robot is equippedwith a text-to-speech module and an automatic speech recognition system.More precisely, Maggie is endowed with 12 touch sensors located in different places onthe robot’s surface. In the head, two eyes with two mobile eyelids and voiced-synchronizedleds in the mouth improve its expressiveness. Moreover, an OBID RFID reader placedinside the head provides low-range capacity for reading passive rfid tags. The neck hasa two degrees-of-freedom (dof), pan and tilt, several speakers are around it. The bodyhas two one-dof arms and the infrared device is placed inside the robot’s belly, behind ascreen which signals can go through. The sensory capacity is extended by another twoRFID readers situated in the body that are able to read rfid tags from longer distances.In the base, it has 12 sonar sensors, 12 infrared sensors, 12 bumpers, and a Sick LMS200 telemeter laser. A differential drive systems moves the robot around. The “brain” incharge of controlling all these components is an on board computer where a Linux systemis running.The required energy for all devices is received from two batteries which provide a power