Designed to make cleaning robots more interactive and engage children to learn good cleaning habits through fun activity.
Awarded 2nd place at the IU Household Robot Design Competition.
The design process began with research of robots that currently address similar problem spaces. Examining the flaws or shortcomings of existing robots
allowed our team to root our design concept firmly on the user's needs.
Cleaning robot owners tend to be both young men and women, and have high educational and technical backgrounds. Many of the owners purchase their Roombas
not only for cleaning, but the excitement of owning new technology. The owners do not often give the machine a "living identity", however they tend to give
genders and names to their robot.
The technology within the Roomba pales in comparison to most robots, as well as to many other products already in the home. Despite the simple technology
of the Roomba, it is the only household robot that is widely known and used in America.
Ethnographic studies have shown the social impact of domestic robots and research has shown that men and children become more interested in the the act of
cleaning, when facilitated by a robot. Cleaning was even becoming a family affair. This study, conducted by Jodi Forlizzi, suggested making the robot more
social in the home environment by improving aesthetics, symbolism, emotion, and social attributions.
Our robot would be based on the idea of a home cleaning robot such as the well known Roomba, but more specifically have the functionality of the Scooba by iRobot. The Scooba has a 4-stage cleaning system that preps, washes, scrubs and squeegees the floor.
When examining the current household cleaning methods, we noticed that our robot would need to offer something more than the benefits of a clean home. The robot must have qualities that improve the home environment, the interaction of cleaning and appeal to children.
We wanted the robot's form to follow its function, which lead to generating the concept of a collection of animals; an elephant that uses it's trunk to vacuum, peacock using it's tail feathers to dust, monkey to wash the windows, and a lion to mop the floor with its mane.
Developing "cute" versions of existing robots did not address our goals of improving the home environment, so we focused more on the robot's interaction with humans. Inspired by orb shaped sketches, we adopted a minimalistic approach to the robot's aesthetics.
The robot would be a shaggy dog with fur made from mop material to relate the product to cleaning. The design would improve cleaning tool aesthetics, create symbolism by resembling a household pet and hopefully create an emotional bond between the robot and the user.
A dog bed style charging station would be placed on the floor and will house the robot while inactive. The robot will be outfitted with an infrared motion
sensor that will detect human movement as an individual walks past. When the motion sensor is activated, the robot will take notice and become excited and bring
its ball to the user's feet. The user then has the option of playing fetch with the robot or ignore it and it will go into an automatic cleaning mode or return to
its bed.
If the user chooses to play fetch, they simply throw the ball in the toward an area within the home where the floors need to be cleaned. The robot has an image
sensor that allows it to track the ball once it's thrown and it is able to immediately follow its path. While chasing the ball, the underside of the robot is
cleaning the floor it passes over. Once the ball is retrieved, the robot returns to the user and waits for the ball to be thrown again.
