Anke van Oosterhout 

Project title: Modelling Movement and Materiality through Modularity in Interaction Design

Host Institution: Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)

Host Supervisor: Dr. ir. Miguel Bruns

Co-host Institution: École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Co-host Supervisor: Prof. Jamie Paik, PhD

Summary project: As technology in areas of haptics and robotics advances, there is an emerging need for forms of interaction that support collaboration with systems that exhibit stronger agency. Shape-changing interfaces provide opportunities to facilitate such interactions as they have the ability to take advantage of our haptic sense and intrinsic perception of shape and movement to convey information, meaning, or affect. However, there is a necessity for in-depth evaluations to understand how the dynamic qualities of shape-changing interfaces can be employed to improve collaborations between humans and autonomous actuated interfaces as current systems often lack robustness for in-depth evaluations. As the development of such interfaces requires a high-entry level of expertise in robotics, mechanical engineering, and computer science.

This project aims to bridge the fields of Mechanical Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction. From a Human-Computer Interaction perspective, designers could benefit from design support for the design and control of complex robotic systems with various degrees of freedom, while developments in the area of modular robotics could benefit from a design perspective that addresses the challenges related to collaboration and interaction between humans and autonomous actuated interfaces. To address these challenges, this research focuses on the development of design support for interaction between humans and autonomous actuated interfaces in the form of a design tool and framework that address the aforementioned challenges.