National Instruments (NI) and LEGO MINDSTORMS teamed up to show their products at the Human-Robot Interaction Conference (HRI) in Amsterdam. HRI is an annual conference that seeks to showcase the very best in human-robot interaction. This year's theme was "Living With Robots."

One highlight of the conference was an international design competition for university students. Students were given one MINDSTORMS NXT set and a CODATEX RFID sensor with tags and were challenged to build a model demonstrating human-robot interaction.

A RFID Sensor (Radio-Frequency IDentification) is used with RFID tags (or transponders) and can be useful in all kinds of applications. For example, if your robot moves along a line, you can place the RFID tags along the line to help the robot locate points along the path. If you put the tags into containers, your robot can identify them easily.

The University of Amsterdam team took first place with Phobot, a robot designed to help children overcome their fears. The Phobot uses RFID tags to detect other frightening robots. When Phobot detects a larger robot, it reacts by spinning around in a gesture of anxiety. Then with gentle guidance from human interaction through voice and touch, the robot overcomes its phobia. By allowing children to watch as the robot gradually overcomes its fear of bigger machines, they too can learn to cope with their own phobias. Phobot overcame its fear for Alpha-Rex and danced with joy!

Second place in the competition went to PotBot, a flower robot that is designed to live in harmony with nature. PotBot was a collaborative effort between Carnegie Mellon University (USA) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Other highlights of the conference was a Labview powered Segway that Andy Bell from NI brought from the United States. Daniel Wittenaar and Martyn Boogaarts of the MINDSTORMS Community Partners (MCP), and Steven Canvin from LEGO were also on hand showing off their Labview powered MINDSTORMS robots.

Check out these links for more information on these robots and HRI 2008:
HRI 2008
Phobot
Pot Bot video
CODATEX RFID Sensor
National Instruments National Instruments (NI) and LEGO MINDSTORMS teamed up to show their products at the Human-Robot Interaction Conference (HRI) in Amsterdam. HRI is an annual conference that seeks to showcase the very best in human-robot interaction. This year's theme was "Living With Robots."

One highlight of the conference was an international design competition for university students. Students were given one MINDSTORMS NXT set and a CODATEX RFID sensor with tags and were challenged to build a model demonstrating human-robot interaction.

A RFID Sensor (Radio-Frequency IDentification) is used with RFID tags (or transponders) and can be useful in all kinds of applications. For example, if your robot moves along a line, you can place the RFID tags along the line to help the robot locate points along the path. If you put the tags into containers, your robot can identify them easily.

The University of Amsterdam team took first place with Phobot, a robot designed to help children overcome their fears. The Phobot uses RFID tags to detect other frightening robots. When Phobot detects a larger robot, it reacts by spinning around in a gesture of anxiety. Then with gentle guidance from human interaction through voice and touch, the robot overcomes its phobia. By allowing children to watch as the robot gradually overcomes its fear of bigger machines, they too can learn to cope with their own phobias. Phobot overcame its fear for Alpha-Rex and danced with joy!

Second place in the competition went to PotBot, a flower robot that is designed to live in harmony with nature. PotBot was a collaborative effort between Carnegie Mellon University (USA) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Other highlights of the conference was a Labview powered Segway that Andy Bell from NI brought from the United States. Daniel Wittenaar and Martyn Boogaarts of the MINDSTORMS Community Partners (MCP), and Steven Canvin from LEGO were also on hand showing off their Labview powered MINDSTORMS robots.

Check out these links for more information on these robots and HRI 2008:
HRI 2008
Phobot
Pot Bot video
CODATEX RFID Sensor
National Instruments