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Manufacture and development of Taban: a cute back-projected head social robot for educational purposes

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Abstract

One of the most important aspects in the design of a social robot is its visual appeal, with the design of its head playing a particularly important role in this regard. The head design for social robots has been developed using a variety of ways; one that has become popular today is the use of an in-head projector to create a 3D face for the robot. In this research, we review the design specifications and development stages of the Taban 1 and Taban 2 social robots, which were developed for communication with children in educational sessions. One notable feature of these robots is the presence of a projector located inside the back of the head, which displays the image of different characters on various 3D masks, enhancing the robot's appeal and preventing children from getting bored with the interaction. Due to the low attractiveness of the Taban 1, the Taban 2 robot was developed to increase its desirability. The study explores the conceptual and detailed design of the robots, including their hardware and software components. As children prefer a more cartoon-like horizontal face, this study also highlights the advantages of a horizontal face design, allowing for more cartoon-like characters. To evaluate the effectiveness of child–robot interaction and to study whether the Taban 2 robot is more attractive to children than the Taban 1 or not, acceptance sessions were conducted. The participants expressed high satisfaction and positive reception towards Taban 2, considering it a likable, intelligent, and safe technological teaching aid.

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Availability of data and materials

(data transparency). All data from this project (photos and videos of the sessions, results of the questionnaires, etc.) are available in the Social & Cognitive Robotics Laboratory archive.

Code availability

All of the robots’ codes are available in the archive of the Social and Cognitive Robotics Laboratory.

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Acknowledgements

The funding for this study was provided by the “Cognitive Sciences and Technologies Council, Iran” and “Dr. Ali Akbar Siassi Memorial Research Grant Award. We would like to express our gratitude to our friends Mr. Mohammad Sohrabipour and Ms. Shakiba Ahmadi for their cooperation and helps with the fabrication of the Taban 2 robot, as well as, Ms. Fatemeh Absalan for her contribution to the design of the robot’s characters. We also thank Mrs. Shari Holderread for the English editing of the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social and Cognitive Robotics Laboratory, Center of Excellence in Design, Robotics, and Automation (CEDRA), Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Mojtaba Shahab, Alireza Taheri, Mohammad Mokhtari, AmirReza AsemanRafat, Mehdi Kermanshah, Azadeh Shariati & Ali F. Meghdari

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, WC1E 7JE, UK

    Azadeh Shariati

  3. Fereshtegaan International Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Ali F. Meghdari

Authors
  1. Mojtaba Shahab
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study's conception and design. Robots’ design was performed by Mojtaba Shahab, Mohammad Mokhtari, and Mehdi Kermanshah. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Mojtaba Shahab. Alireza Taheri, Azadeh Shariati, and Ali F. Meghdari supervised this research and the robots’ design/fabrications. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Mojtaba Shahab and Amirreza Asemanrafat, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Alireza Taheri or Ali F. Meghdari.

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Conflict of interest

Author Alireza Taheri has received a research grant from the “Cognitive Sciences and Technologies Council, Iran”. The authors Mojtaba Shahab, Mohammad Mokhtari, Amirreza Asemanrafat, Mehdi Kermanshah, Azadeh Shariati, and Ali F. Meghdari declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for the protocol of this study was provided by the Iran University of Medical Sciences (#IR.IUMS.REC.1395.95301469).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication of all images. All of the participants have consented to the submission of the results of this study to the journal.

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Shahab, M., Taheri, A., Mokhtari, M. et al. Manufacture and development of Taban: a cute back-projected head social robot for educational purposes. Intel Serv Robotics 17, 871–889 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11370-024-00545-2

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