The Robot Head "Flobi": A Research Platform for Cognitive Interaction Technology

Founded on a vision of a human-friendly technology that adapts to users’ needs and is easy und intuitive for ordinary people to use, CITEC has established an exciting new field: Cognitive Interaction Technology. It aims to elucidate the principles and mechanisms of cognition in order to find ways of replicating them in technology and thus enable a new deep level of service and assistance. In order to proceed in this highly interdisciplinary field, appropriate research platforms and infrastructure are needed. The anthropomorphic robot head “Flobi” combines state-of-the-art sensing functionality with an exterior that elicits a sympathetic emotion response. In order to support several lines of research and at the same time ensure the maintainability of the software and hardware components, a virtual realization of the Flobi head has been proposed that allows an efficient prototyping, systematic testing, and software development in a continuous integration framework.