Berrick: a low-cost robotic head platform for human-robot interaction

We propose a low-cost, open-source platform to encourage large-scale study and research on human-robot social interaction. The paramount of social interaction lies on face-to-face dynamics, so we focus on realizing an anthropomorphic robotic head, Berrick, with multimodal sensing and acting capabilities. Taking from the InMoov robot [1], we isolate its head and redesign its electronics, exploiting the implementation of a new board able to combine an autonomous vision system with the already present motorized facial platform, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity for multiagent communication. At the present moment, Berrick is capable of running fundamental yet sophisticated tasks of face detection and gazing, which are crucial to trigger and drive situated social exchanges. In particular, we present here a novel social cue embedded into Berrick, dubbed light-based gazing, functional to communicate the internal state of the robot during a dyadic interaction, thus facilitating situated social exchanges. With a 250€ cost, a 3 days time-to-build (with fully 3D printable parts) and a publicly available documentation, Berrick can become a reference for approaching human robot social interaction at a large-scale at the universities as well as at lower education degrees.