CAREER: End-User Programming of General-Purpose Robots

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Robots that can assist humans in everyday tasks have the potential to improve people's quality of life and bring independence to persons with disabilities. A key challenge in realizing such robots is programming them to meet the unique and changing needs of users and to robustly function in their unique environments. Most research in robotics targets this challenge by attempting to develop universal or adaptive robotic capabilities. This approach has had limited success because it is extremely difficult to anticipate all possible scenarios and use-cases for general-purpose robots. Instead, this research aims to develop robots that can be programmed in-context and by end-users after they are deployed. The PI's approach is to apply and extend methods from the broad research area of end-user programming, which has previously been limited to personal computers, smart phones, and Web applications, to programming robots. Project outcomes will have long-term societal and economic impacts, particularly on individuals with varying levels of motor impairments. To further broaden the impacts of this research, the project will involve several outreach and educational activities focused on broadening participation of women and individuals with disabilities in computer science education, research, and careers. These activities will directly integrate tools developed in the project, within three educational outreach modules for K-12 students and one undergraduate course. Outreach modules will target three venues with different time scales; a week-long summer camp for students with disabilities organized by the UW DO-IT center, a three-hour exercise for a "Girls who Code" field trip, and one-hour exercise for an "Hour of Code" event. The Robotics Capstone course developed by the PI will be updated to integrate tools developed in this project and to focus on projects within assistive robotics with the involvement of an actual customer. All tools will be implemented on a state-of-the-art mobile manipulator robot, PR2, and will be released as open-source projects. A truly unique aspect of this research is that developed tools will be deployed on two privately-owned in-home PR2 robots, leading to first insights from real-world evaluations. To achieve her goal the PI will address challenges related to distinct characteristics of robots including situatedness, ability to influence the environment, mobility, distributed concurrent processing, and overall complexity. This research will produce a suite of new methods and tools within three programming paradigms: (i) "situated programming" which involves programming through direct interactions with the robot and its environment, (ii) "simplified programming" which involves actual programming but with highly simplified languages, and (iii) "abstracted programming" which involves manipulating abstractions of program entities for which programs are synthesized automatically. All methods will be instantiated as tools for programming robots at multiple levels, including programming of new knowledge, skills, tasks, and rules. The main objectives of the projects are to make these tools (i) expressive enough to capture useful real-world tasks, (ii) usable by people with no technical background, and (iii) accessible to people with diverse abilities. The first objective will be evaluated through systematic experiments with a comprehensive user-centered benchmark for domestic assistive robots, including programming of tasks such as fetching, organizing, or preparing, and skills such as opening or closing cabinets, drawers, appliances, and faucets in different homes. The second and third objectives will be evaluated through user studies with both able-bodied and motor-impaired individuals.