Safety experiments for small robots investigating the potential of soft materials in mitigating the harm to the head due to impacts

There is a growing interest in social robots to be considered in the therapy of children with autism due to their effectiveness in improving the outcomes. However, children on the spectrum exhibit challenging behaviors that need to be considered when designing robots for them. A child could involuntarily throw a small social robot during meltdown and that could hit another person's head and cause harm (e.g. concussion). In this paper, the application of soft materials is investigated for its potential in attenuating head's linear acceleration upon impact. The thickness and storage modulus of three different soft materials were considered as the control factors while the noise factor was the impact velocity. The design of experiments was based on Taguchi method. A total of 27 experiments were conducted on a developed dummy head setup that reports the linear acceleration of the head. ANOVA tests were performed to analyze the data. The findings showed that the control factors are not statistically significant in attenuating the response. The optimal values of the control factors were identified using the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio optimization technique. Confirmation runs at the optimal parameters (i.e. thickness of 3 mm and 5 mm) showed a better response as compared to other conditions. Designers of social robots should consider the application of soft materials to their designs as it help in reducing the potential harm to the head

Influence of the shape and mass of a small robot when thrown to a dummy human head

Social robots have shown some efficacy in assisting children with autism and are now being considered as assistive tools for therapy. The physical proximity of a small companion social robot could become a source of harm to children with autism during aggressive physical interactions. A child exhibiting challenging behaviors could throw a small robot that could harm another child 0 s head upon impact. In this paper, we investigate the effects of the mass and the shape of objects thrown on impact at different impact velocities on the linear acceleration of a developed dummy head. This dummy head could be the head of another child or a caregiver in the room. A total of 27 main experiments were conducted based on Taguchi’s orthogonal array design. The data were then analyzed using ANOVA and signal-to-noise (S/N). Our results revealed that the two design factors considered (i.e. mass and shape) and the noise factor (i.e. impact velocities) affected the resultant response. Finally, confirmation runs at the optimal identified shape and mass (i.e. mass of 0.3 kg and shape of either cube or wedge) showed an overall reduction in the resultant peak linear acceleration of the dummy head as compared to the other conditions. These results have implications on the design and manufacturing of small social robots whereby minimizing the mass of the robots can aid in mitigating harm to the head due to impact

Safety experiments for small robots investigating the potential of soft materials in mitigating the harm to the head due to impacts

There is a growing interest in social robots to be considered in the therapy of children with autism due to their effectiveness in improving the outcomes. However, children on the spectrum exhibit challenging behaviors that need to be considered when designing robots for them. A child could involuntarily throw a small social robot during meltdown and that could hit another person’s head and cause harm (e.g. concussion). In this paper, the application of soft materials is investigated for its potential in attenuating head’s linear acceleration upon impact. The thickness and storage modulus of three different soft materials were considered as the control factors while the noise factor was the impact velocity. The design of experiments was based on Taguchi method. A total of 27 experiments were conducted on a developed dummy head setup that reports the linear acceleration of the head. ANOVA tests were performed to analyze the data. The findings showed that the control factors are not statistically significant in attenuating the response. The optimal values of the control factors were identified using the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio optimization technique. Confirmation runs at the optimal parameters (i.e. thickness of 3 mm and 5 mm) showed a better response as compared to other conditions. Designers of social robots should consider the application of soft materials to their designs as it help in reducing the potential harm to the head

Safety experiments for small robots investigating the potential of soft materials in mitigating the harm to the head due to impacts

There is a growing interest in social robots to be considered in the therapy of children with autism due to their effectiveness in improving the outcomes. However, children on the spectrum exhibit challenging behaviors that need to be considered when designing robots for them. A child could involuntarily throw a small social robot during meltdown and that could hit another person’s head and cause harm (e.g. concussion). In this paper, the application of soft materials is investigated for its potential in attenuating head’s linear acceleration upon impact. The thickness and storage modulus of three different soft materials were considered as the control factors while the noise factor was the impact velocity. The design of experiments was based on Taguchi method. A total of 27 experiments were conducted on a developed dummy head setup that reports the linear acceleration of the head. ANOVA tests were performed to analyze the data. The findings showed that the control factors are not statistically significant in attenuating the response. The optimal values of the control factors were identified using the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio optimization technique. Confirmation tests at the optimal parameters (e.g. thickness of 3 mm or 5 mm) showed better responses as compared to other conditions. Designers of social robots should consider the application of soft materials to their designs as it helps in reducing the potential harm to the head.Other Information Published in: SN Applied Sciences License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0467-7</p