An efficient programming framework for socially assistive robots based on separation of robot behavior description from execution

Abstract

One of the main challenges in socially assistive robotics is providing flexible and easy-to-use programming tools for users. Unlike other robots, designing socially assistive robots includes the subject-matter-experts (SMEs) from nonengineering disciplines. Therefore, the provided tools should be suitable for users with less programming experience. On the other hand, socially assistive robotic research involves field trials and user-centric studies, in which user and subject matter expert comments are used to improve the robot applications. Therefore, field programmability and customizability are key requirements. This paper presents a programming framework for socially assistive robots, which satisfies the above requirements; programmability by non-experts, field programmability and customizability. The proposed framework has been successfully implemented, deployed, and tested. Some robots with the framework presented in this paper are already in the commercialization pathway.