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The social robotics market is appealing yet challenging. Though social robots are built few remain on the market for long. Many reasons account for their short lifespan with costs and context-specificity ranking high amount them. In this work, we designed, fabricated, and developed FLEXI, a social robot embodiment kit that enabled unlimited customization, making it applicable for a broad range of use cases. The hardware and software of FLEXI were entirely developed by this research team from scratch. FLEXI includes a rich set of materials and attachment pieces to allow for a diverse range of hardware customizations that ensure the embodiment is appropriate for specific customer/researcher projects. It also includes an open-source end-user programming interface to lower the barrier of robotics access to interdisciplinary teams that populate the field of Human-Robot Interaction. We present an iterative development of this cost-effective kit through the lenses of case studies, conceptual research, and soft deployment of FLEXI in three application scenarios: community-support, mental health, and education. Additionally, we provide in open-access the full list of materials and a tutorial to fabricate FLEXI, making it accessible to any maker space, research lab, or workshop space interested in working with or learning about social robots.
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Sensors and Spinach: Increasing Student Agency in Biology Class
This article describes a curricular activity that uses hardware and software for student agency. With IoT hardware and Dataflow software designed to be intuitive, InSPECT’s open-ended, technology-enhanced high school biology experiments facilitate inquiry and integrate computational thinking into core science content and practices. The modular hardware kit includes multiple components so high students have choices as they plan and perform their experiments. The kit includes programmable relays, plus CO2, light, temperature, humidity, and oxygen sensors.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1640054
- PAR ID:
- 10160811
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- @Concord
- Volume:
- 24
- Issue:
- 1
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 8-9
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
