Robogames

Interactive games with autonomous robots are one of the most challenging robotic research issues. The robot should involve the player, both physically and behaviorally, while acting in the real world. Past experience of the group is related to Robocup, Edutainment, Rehabilitation. Currently we are also evaluating the possibility to integrate information gathered about the emotional state of people involved in games among the information available to the game controller (in this case a robot), which should emotionally react raising the involvement in the game. First steps in this direction have been done with our rehabilitation robot and with a robot interacting with the remote control of a WII console ROBOWII].

An effective robot player needs to integrate edge technologies from robotics, interaction, and psychology. An interesting hardware (body) should be integrated with the needed functionalities to become a game companion. A set of projects have been started to investigate how to design interactive games with autonomous robots.