TapeBot: Modular Robotic Kit for Creating an Interactive Environment

Various types of modular robotic kits such as the Lego Mindstorm [1], edutainment robot kit by ROBOTIS [2], and the interactive face components, FacePartBot [3] have been developed and suggested to increase children's creativity and to learn robotic technologies. By adopting a modular design scheme, these robotic kits enable children to design various robotic characters with plenty of flexibility and creativity, such as humanoids, robotic animals, and robotic faces. However, because a robot is an artifact that perceives an environment and responds to it accordingly, it can also be characterized by the environment it encounters. Thus, in this study, we propose a modular robotic kit that is aimed at creating an interactive environment for which a robot produces various responses. We chose intelligent tapes to build the environment for the following reasons: First, we presume that decreasing the expectations of consumers toward the functionalities of robotic products may increase their acceptance of the products, because this hinders the mismatch between the expected functions based on their appearances, and the actual functions of the products [4]. We believe that the tape, which is found in everyday life, is a perfect material to lower the consumers' expectation toward the product and will be helpful for the consumer's acceptance of it. Second, the tape is a familiar and enjoyable material for children, and it can be used as a flexible module, which users can cut into whatever size they want and can be attached and detached with ease. In this study, we developed a modular robotic kit for creating an interactive environment, called the TapeBot. The TapeBot is composed of the main character robot and the modular environments, which are the intelligent tapes. The main character robot consists of a main board, an RFID reader, a tilt sensor, and a speaker. The main character robot detects the RFIDs embedded in the intelligent tapes on which various images of environments, such as grass, water waves, and roads are printed and generates the corresponding sound. In addition, different sounds are produced according to the specific settings of an environment by using the tilt sensor. For example, when the grass printed tape is attached to a flat floor, a sheep's bleating sound is generated, which indicates a lawn at low altitude. On the other hand, when the grass printed tape is attached to a slope, the mountain birds' chirping sound is generated, which indicates a mountain at high altitude. Although previous robotic kits focused on building a robot, the TapeBot allows its users to focus on the environment that the robot encounters. By reversing the frame of thinking, we expect that the TapeBot will promote children's imagination and creativity by letting them develop creative environments to design the interactions of the main character robot.