Author name cluster

Kasper Støy

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

20 papers

1 author row

IROS Conference 2024 Conference Paper

Tactile Comfort: Lowering Heart Rate Through Interactions with a Pocket Robot

Morten Roed Frederiksen
Kasper Støy
Maja J. Mataric

Children diagnosed with anxiety disorders are taught a range of strategies to navigate situations of heightened anxiety. Techniques such as deep breathing and repetition of mantras are commonly employed, as they are known to be calming and reduce elevated heart rates. Although these strategies are often effective, their successful application relies on prior training of the children for successful use when faced with challenging situations. This paper investigates a pocket-sized companion robot designed to offer a relaxation technique requiring no prior training, with a focus on immediate impact on the user’s heart rate. The robot utilizes a tactile game to divert the user’s attention, thereby promoting relaxation. We conducted two studies with children who were not diagnosed with anxiety: a 14-day pilot study with two children (age 8) and a main study with 18 children (ages 7-8). Both studies employed a within-subjects design and focused on measuring heart rate during tactile interaction with the robot and during non-use. Interacting with the robot was found to significantly lower the study participants’ heart rate (p<0. 01) compared to the nonuse condition, indicating a consistent calming effect across all participants. These results suggest that tactile companion robots have the potential to enhance the therapeutic value of relaxation techniques.

IROS Conference 2022 Conference Paper

Physical Neural Cellular Automata for 2D Shape Classification

Kathryn Walker
Rasmus Berg Palm
Rodrigo Moreno
Andrés Faiña
Kasper Støy
Sebastian Risi

Materials with the ability to self-classify their own shape have the potential to advance a wide range of engineering applications and industries. Biological systems possess the ability not only to self-reconfigure but also to self-classify themselves to determine a general shape and function. Previous work into modular robotics systems has only enabled self-recognition and self-reconfiguration into a specific target shape, missing the inherent robustness present in nature to self-classify. In this paper we therefore take advantage of recent advances in deep learning and neural cellular automata, and present a simple modular 2D robotic system that can infer its own class of shape through the local communication of its components. Furthermore, we show that our system can be successfully transferred to hardware which thus opens op-portunities for future self-classifying machines. Code available at https://github.com/kattwalker/projectcube.Video available at https://youtu.be/0TCOkE4keyc.

IROS Conference 2020 Conference Paper

Robots can defuse high-intensity conflict situations

Morten Roed Frederiksen
Kasper Støy

This paper investigates the specific scenario of high-intensity confrontations between humans and robots, to understand how robots can defuse the conflict. It focuses on the effectiveness of using five different affective expression modalities as main drivers for defusing the conflict. The aim is to discover any strengths or weaknesses in using each modality to mitigate the hostility that people feel towards a poorly performing robot. The defusing of the situation is accomplished by making the robot better at acknowledging the conflict and by letting it express remorse. To facilitate the tests, we used a custom affective robot in a simulated conflict situation with 105 test participants. The results show that all tested expression modalities can successfully be used to defuse the situation and convey an acknowledgment of the confrontation. The ratings were remarkably similar, but the movement modality was different (ANON p<; .05) than the other modalities. The test participants also had similar affective interpretations on how impacted the robot was of the confrontation across all expression modalities. This indicates that defusing a high-intensity interaction may not demand special attention to the expression abilities of the robot, but rather require attention to the abilities of being socially aware of the situation and reacting in accordance with it.

IROS Conference 2019 Conference Paper

A Systematic Comparison of Affective Robot Expression Modalities

Morten Roed Frederiksen
Kasper Støy

This paper provides a survey of the different means of expression employed by robots conveying affective states to human recipients. The paper introduces a model of affective expression modalities (MOAM) that describes and compares the emphasis on specific means of expression and applies it to the surveyed robots. Using the model entails viewing the effect of applied expression modalities in light of how well the robot responds to external stimuli and with attention to how aligned the robot’s means of affective expressions are with the intended working scenario. The model-based survey shows that a majority (85%) of the surveyed robots contain a category with room for additional affective means of expression, and a quarter (25. 6%) of the robots use a single or two affective expression modalities to convey affective states. The result of the survey indicates there is an under-researched opportunity in exploring synergies between the different expression modalities to amplify the overall affective impact of a robot.

IROS Conference 2013 Conference Paper

Efficient enumeration of modular robot configurations and shapes

Kasper Støy
David Brandt

A modular robot consists of a set of mechatronic modules that can be connected in many different ways, which makes it possible to build robots of many different shapes from the same basic set of modules. The main contribution of this work is an algorithm that, given the parameters of a module and the number of modules, efficiently can calculate how many different configurations and shapes can be built. These numbers are important because the first is a measure of the self-reconfigurability and the second, given there is a relationship between form and function, the versatility of a modular robot. As an experimental contribution, we enumerate the configuration and shape spaces of square, two-dimensional modules with all possible connector configurations. We proceed to three dimensions and enumerate the spaces of the theoretically interesting sliding cube module, and the M-TRAN and SuperBot modules. Several observations are made, an important one is that the shape spaces of the two physical modules are large even for a small number of modules (103 different shapes using 3 modules). This implies that it is not the lack of shape diversity that holds these modular robots back from being versatile. A result that suggests that if modules are designed right, versatility can potentially be reached even with few modules, which is contrary to the common belief in the community that more is better.

IROS Conference 2011 Conference Paper

Generalized programming of modular robots through kinematic configurations

Mirko Bordignon
Kasper Støy
Ulrik Pagh Schultz

The distinctive feature of modular robots consists in their reconfigurable mechanical structure, as they are assembled on-demand from basic mechatronic units. This implies that kinematic models of the robots need to be computed on a case-by-case basis for each specific assembly, which is a manual and hence time-consuming and error-prone procedure. We propose to automate this process by automatically computing such kinematic models starting from simple descriptions of the modules and their assemblies. This automated computation is supported by our toolchain for programming arbitrary modular robots in arbitrary configurations, presented in this paper. We contribute two novel results through this approach. First, a high-level programming language that provides kinematic abstractions for arbitrary modular robots, in contrast to the robot-specific solutions currently available. Second, a programming abstraction to subsume multiple kinematically equivalent robot assemblies into a so-called kinematic configuration, hence eliminating the need to explicitly enumerate and program each of them. These contributions advance current techniques for modular robot programming by demonstrating a tool that a) targets multiple mechanical platforms, offering the first general solution for modular robot programming, and b) raises the abstraction level by allowing users to reason and program in terms of standardized kinematic models that are automatically mapped to physical robot configurations by the toolchain.

ICRA Conference 2010 Conference Paper

A distributed strategy for gait adaptation in modular robots

David Johan Christensen
Ulrik Pagh Schultz
Kasper Støy

In this paper we study online gait optimization for modular robots. The learning strategy we apply is distributed, independent on robot morphology, and easy to implement. First we demonstrate how the strategy allows an ATRON robot to adapt to faults and changes in its morphology and we study the strategy's scalability. Second we extend the strategy to learn the parameters of gait-tables for ATRON and M-TRAN robots. We conclude that the presented strategy is effective for online learning of gaits for most types of modular robots and that learning can effectively be distributed by having independent processes learning in parallel.

ICRA Conference 2009 Conference Paper

A virtual machine-based approach for fast and flexible reprogramming of modular robots

Mirko Bordignon
Kasper Støy
Ulrik Pagh Schultz

Modular robot programming spans a number of issues ranging from high-level coordination to controller distribution and update in individual modules. The latter issue has received little attention from the research community though in our experience it is one of the main factors hindering agile development and experimentation with physical robots: reprogramming tens or hundreds of modules can be a major overhead in the development process and cannot be done with traditional approaches without restarting the robot, which impedes updating a running system. We propose a solution based on a virtual machine design shaped around three core concepts: the context of a module and its role in the ensemble, the reactive nature of robot controllers, and control programs decomposable into subparts that can be dynamically and separately redefined. We show that by incorporating those concepts into the design we are able to both achieve program conciseness (thus providing fast and efficient code distribution) and program expressiveness (thus providing versatility to represent diverse control algorithms). The virtual machine is programmed in a high-level role-oriented language that allows the programmer to declaratively specify how programs are deployed in the modular robot. Our approach enables fast and incremental on-line updates, allowing the programmer to interactively experiment with the physical robots. We show how this design lends itself to an efficient implementation targeting typical resource-constrained modular robotic hardware by illustrating our prototype implementation for the ATRON self-reconfigurable robot.

IROS Conference 2009 Conference Paper

On the efficiency of local and global communication in modular robots

Ricardo Franco Mendoza Garcia
Ulrik Pagh Schultz
Kasper Støy

As exchange of information is essential to modular robots, deciding between local or global communication is a common design choice. This choice, however, still lacks theoretical support.

IROS Conference 2009 Conference Paper

Representation and shape estimation of Odin, a parallel under-actuated modular robot

Andreas Lyder
Henrik Gordon Petersen
Kasper Støy

To understand the capabilities and behavior of a robot it is important to have knowledge about its physical structure and how its actuators control its shape. In this paper we analyze the kinematics and develop a general representation of a configuration of the heterogeneous modular robot Odin. The basics of estimating the shape of the Odin robot is presented, which leads the way for further research on the Odin robot and similar robots. We present an example of how to represent and estimate the shape of a tetrahedron configuration with various types of modules. We conclude that this representation can be used to find the physical constraints of the Odin robot and estimate the shape of a configuration.

ICRA Conference 2009 Conference Paper

Reusable electronics and adaptable communication as implemented in the odin modular robot

Ricardo Franco Mendoza Garcia
Andreas Lyder
David Johan Christensen
Kasper Støy

This paper describes the electronics and communication system of Odin, a novel heterogeneous modular robot made of links and joints. The electronics is divided into two printed circuit boards: a General board with reusable components and a Specific board with non-reusable components. While the General board is common to the design of every type of module, such as power, actuator, sensor and structure, the Specific board is unique to each type of module. The communication system, one of the most important reusable components of Odin, is based on local buses that can be extended by bridging electrical signals.

IROS Conference 2009 Conference Paper

Robust and reversible self-reconfiguration

Ulrik Pagh Schultz
Mirko Bordignon
Kasper Støy

Modular, self-reconfigurable robots are robots that can change their own shape by physically rearranging the modules from which they are built. Self-reconfiguration can be controlled by e. g. an off-line planner, but numerous implementation issues hamper the actual self-reconfiguration process: the continuous evolution of the communication topology increases the risk of communications failure, generating code that correctly controls the self-reconfiguration process is non-trivial, and hand-tuning the self-reconfiguration process is tedious and error-prone. To address these issues, we have developed a distributed scripting language that controls self-reconfiguration of the ATRON robot using a robust communication scheme that relies on local broadcast of shared state. This language can be used as the target of a planner, offers direct support for parallelization of independent operations while maintaining correct sequentiality of dependent operations, and compiles to a robust and efficient implementation. Moreover, a novel feature of this language is its reversibility: once a self-reconfiguration sequence is described the reverse sequence is automatically available to the programmer, significantly reducing the amount of work needed to deploy self-reconfiguration in larger scenarios. We demonstrate our approach with long-running (reversible) self-reconfiguration experiments using the ATRON robot and a reversible self-reconfiguration experiment using simulated MTRAN modules.

IROS Conference 2008 Conference Paper

A unified simulator for Self-Reconfigurable Robots

David Johan Christensen
David Brandt
Kasper Støy
Ulrik Pagh Schultz

Generic simulation platforms such as player/stage are an essential tool in mobile robotics, but until now no similar platforms have been available for the field of self-reconfigurable robots. We here present a generic simulation platform for modular, self-reconfigurable robots: the unified simulator for self-reconfigurable robots (USSR). USSR is based on a physics engine, allowing simulation of both self-reconfiguration and dynamic interaction with the environment. The simulator is implemented as a framework that provides numerous components that can be combined to form new or existing modular robots, allowing easy experimentation: USSR currently includes support for the ATRON, Odin, and M-TRAN modular robots.

IROS Conference 2008 Conference Paper

Mechanical design of odin, an extendable heterogeneous deformable modular robot

Andreas Lyder
Ricardo Franco Mendoza Garcia
Kasper Støy

Highly sophisticated animals consist of a set of heterogenous modules decided by nature so that they can survive in a complex environment. In this paper we present a new modular robot inspired by biology called Odin. The Odin robot is based on a deformable lattice and consists of an extendable set of heterogeneous modules. We present the design and implementation of a cubic closed-packed (CCP) joint module, a telescoping link, and a flexible connection mechanism. The developed robot is highly versatile and opens up for a wide range of new research in modular robotics.

ICRA Conference 2006 Conference Paper

Selecting a Meta-module to Shape-change the ATRON Self-reconfigurable Robot

David Johan Christensen
Kasper Støy

The ATRON self-reconfigurable robot consists of simple one degree of freedom ATRON modules. The motion capabilities of an individual module are therefore quite limited. To compensate for this, meta-modules composed of more than one module are used to shape-change the system. Meta-modules emerge from the environment created by other modules, move on the surface of other modules and stop at a new position. The flow of meta-modules, from one place to another on the structure of modules, realizes the desired self-reconfiguration. In this paper we compare six different meta-module types composed of ATRON modules. Variations of meta-module morphology and meta-actions are investigated for its ability to shape-change the robot. We conclude that two of the investigated meta-module types are able to shape-change the robot to an acceptable extent

ICRA Conference 2006 Conference Paper

The Deformatron Robot: a Biologically Inspired Homogeneous Modular Robot

Kasper Støy

The Deformatron robot is a homogeneous, modular robot. The Deformatron modules can play one of three roles in the physical structure of the robot: bone, tendon, and muscle. These roles are inspired by their biological counterparts. This combination of roles gives us a modular robot which potentially may have enough structural strength and actuation power to manipulate its environment and work in three dimension even in the presence of gravity. In this paper we present our preliminary LEGO-based prototype of the Deformatron robot. We measure and analyse the properties of the system in terms of structural strength and actuation power. Finally, we conclude that the Deformatron concept may provide an avenue of research which may make modular robots stronger and better suited for real world task environments

IROS Conference 2004 Conference Paper

Self-repair through scale independent self-reconfiguration

Kasper Støy
Radhika Nagpal

Self-reconfigurable robots are built from modules, which are autonomously able to change the way they are connected, thus changing the overall shape of the robot. This self-reconfiguration process is difficult to control, because it involves the distributed coordination of large numbers of identical modules connected in time-varying ways. We present an approach where a desired shape is grown based on a scalable representation of the desired configuration, which is automatically generated from a 3D CAD model. The size of the configuration is adjusted continually to match the number of modules in the system. This has the advantage that if modules are removed or added, the system automatically adjusts its scale and thus self-repair is obtained as a side effect. This capability is achieved by distributed, local rules for module movement that are independent of the goal configuration. We compare the scale independent approach to one where the desired configuration is grown directly at a fixed scale. We find that the features of the scale independent approach come at the expense of an increased number of moves, messages, and time steps taken to reconfigure.

ICRA Conference 2003 Conference Paper

Implementing configuration dependent gaits in a self-reconfigurable robot

Kasper Støy
Wei-Min Shen
Peter M. Will

In this paper we examine locomotion in the context of self-reconfigurable robots. Self-reconfigurable robots are robots built from many connected modules. A self-reconfigurable robot can change its shape and configuration by changing the way these modules are connected. The focus of this paper is to understand how several locomotion gaits can be represented in such a robot and how the robot can select one of these gaits depending on its configuration. We implement a control system based on role based control in a physical self-reconfigurable robot built from seven modules. In several experiments we successfully demonstrate that when the robot is manually reconfigured from a chain to a quadruped configuration the robot changes gait from a sidewinder snake gait to a quadruped walking gait. We conclude that role based control is a promising central method for controlling locomotion of self-reconfigurable robots.

ICRA Conference 2002 Conference Paper

Exploiting Task Regularities to Transform Between Reference Frames in Robot Teams

Richard Vaughan 0001
Kasper Støy
Gaurav S. Sukhatme
Maja J. Mataric

We describe a team of robots that uses a trail of landmarks to navigate between places of interest. The landmarks are not physical; they are waypoint coordinates generated online by each robot and shared with teammates over the network. Waypoints are specified with reference to features in the world that are relevant to the team's task and common to all robots. Using such task-level features as landmarks avoids the need to sense and name physical landmarks. Using these common landmarks, each robot can transform waypoint coordinates into its local reference frame, avoiding the cost of maintaining a fixed global coordinate system. The algorithm is tested in an experiment in which a team of 4 autonomous mobile robots run in our office building for more than 3 hours, travelling a total of 8. 2 km (5. 1 miles). Despite significant divergence of their local coordinate systems, they are able to share waypoints, forming and following a common trail between two fixed locations.

IROS Conference 2001 Conference Paper

Most valuable player: a robot device server for distributed control

Brian P. Gerkey
Richard Vaughan 0001
Kasper Støy
Andrew Howard 0001
Gaurav S. Sukhatme
Maja J. Mataric

Successful distributed sensing and control require data to flow effectively between sensors, processors and actuators on single robots, in groups and across the Internet. We propose a mechanism for achieving this flow that we have found to be powerful and easy to use; we call it Player. Player combines an efficient message protocol with a simple device model. It is implemented as a multithreaded TCP socket server that provides transparent network access to a collection of sensors and actuators, often comprising a robot. The socket abstraction enables platform- and language-independent control of these devices, allowing the system designer to use the best tool for the task at hand Player is freely available from http://robotics.usc.edu/player.