About BeatBots

BeatBots LLC develops robotic characters that defy entrenched notions of robots as impersonal mechanical tools. The company’s core design philosophy centers around cuteness, personality, simplicity, and rhythmic interaction. BeatBots is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a growing nexus of innovative robotic technology and artistic activity.

The company was founded in 2007 by Marek Michalowski, a doctoral student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and Dr. Hideki Kozima, formerly a Senior Research Scientist at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and currently a professor at Miyagi University. The two worked together on Keepon, a robot used for over five years in peer-reviewed research on social development and interpersonal coordination as well as in therapeutic practice for children with developmental disorders such as autism.

BeatBots’ products span the domains of research, therapy, and entertainment. The first product, developed in collaboration with NICT and Kokoro Dreams, is Keepon Pro, a commercially available platform for institutional use in research and education. Keepon Pro consists of hardware and software for situating and operating the robot in laboratory or playroom settings for study or therapeutic practice, in exhibit-like settings for educational or entertainment purposes, or in settings and applications of the user’s own design.

Keepon’s simple appearance and dynamic behavior have been embraced by children, parents, and practitioners alike. These same qualities have made Keepon resonate with a general audience through internet exposure and public engagements. This bridge between the worlds of research and entertainment defines the BeatBots vision.

Keepon has quickly gained wide recognition by the public and in the media. Keepon won the €10,000 Robots at Play Prize in 2007 in Odense, Denmark and the ICRA Human-Robot Interaction Challenge in 2008 in Pasadena. Keepon has been exhibited at WIRED NextFest 2007 in Los Angeles, at the Nordic Exceptional Trendshop in 2008 in Aarhus, Denmark, at the Webby Film & Video Awards in 2008 in NY, at the Carnegie Science Center’s Robot 250 Block Party in 2008 in Pittsburgh, and at WIRED NextFest 2008 in Chicago. Research involving Keepon has been published in numerous international conferences and journals, including Progress in Brain Research and the International Journal of Social Robotics. Keepon has appeared in news outlets such as History Channel, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, SPIN, Gizmodo, Engadget, BoingBoing, Pitchfork, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New Scientist, PBS, ABC, NHK, and NPR.

Contact BeatBots at info@beatbots.org.

Research

Keepon is a small creature-like robot designed to interact with children by directing attention and expressing emotion. Keepon’s minimal design makes its behaviors easy to understand, resulting in interactions that are enjoyable and comfortable—particularly important in our research on human social development.

Keepon has soft rubber skin, cameras in its eyes, and a microphone in its nose:

Keepon has four degrees of freedom. Attention is directed by turning +/-180° and nodding +/-40°, while emotion is expressed by rocking side-to-side +/-25° and bobbing up to 15mm:

Keepon has been used since 2003 in research on social development and communication. We have studied behaviors such as eye-contact, joint attention, touching, emotion, and imitation between Keepon and children of different ages and levels of social development. In the case of children with autism and other developmental disorders, we have had encouraging results with the use of Keepon as a tool for therapists, pediatricians, and parents to observe, study, and facilitate social interactions.

• H. Kozima, C. Nakagawa.
  Interactive robots as facilitators of children’s social development.
  Mobile Robots: Toward New Applications, pp. 269-286, 2006.
• H. Kozima, C. Nakagawa, Y. Yasuda.
  Children-robot interaction: a pilot study in autism therapy.
  Progress in Brain Research, Vol. 164, pp. 385-400, 2007.
• H. Kozima, M.P. Michalowski, C. Nakagawa.
  Keepon: A Playful Robot for Research, Therapy, and Entertainment.
  International Journal of Social Robotics, Vol. 1, 2008.

Rhythmic human-robot social interaction

Human social behavior shares much in common with dance. Our speech, as well as the movement of our body, head, and hands, is periodic and rhythmic. Social scientists such as William S. Condon and Adam Kendon have identified interactional synchrony as a phenomenon that plays an important role in the regulation and coordination of movements, vocalizations, and other social cues. We have been developing technology to allow robots like Keepon to synchronize with these social rhythms in their interactions. We believe that rhythmic synchrony is as important for establishing engagement, rapport, and comfort between a robot and a person as it is between people.

We are using Max/MSP from Cycling ‘74 to design our architecture for rhythmic social interaction. While we are focusing on dance-oriented play as a domain for developing and evaluating our technologies, the technologies and methods for perceiving, modeling, and generating rhythmic behaviors will be useful in less constrained interactions.

• M.P. Michalowski, H. Kozima.
  Methodological issues in facilitating rhythmic play with robots.
  Proceedings of RO-MAN 2007, August, 2007.
• M.P. Michalowski, S. Sabanovic, H. Kozima.
  A dancing robot for rhythmic social interaction.
  Proceedings of HRI 2007, March, 2007.
• M.P. Michalowski, S. Sabanovic, P. Michel.
  Roillo: Creating a social robot for playrooms.
  Proceedings of RO-MAN 2006, September, 2006.

Products

Research

Keepon^TM Pro, a comprehensive robotic platform consisting of hardware, software, and service, is now available for professional institutional users. If you are an institution interested in obtaining Keepon for research and educational purposes, please contact us directly at info@beatbots.org for more information.

T-Shirts

BeatBots apparel is available at our Zazzle shop.

Services

BeatBots provides consulting services to corporations and individuals on issues related to robot interaction and design. Please contact us for more information.

BeatBots creates robots for research, therapy, and entertainment.

Watch these videos in high-res at blip.tv.

As seen in:

More press and appearances…

Contact

Contact BeatBots with questions, comments, and requests at:

info@beatbots.org

BeatBots is:

• Marek P. Michalowski, a Ph.D. student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
• Hideki Kozima, a professor in the School of Project Design at Miyagi University, Japan.

BeatBots has benefited from collaboration with Jodi Forlizzi, Phil Michel, Illah Nourbakhsh, Selma Sabanovic, and Reid Simmons.