In the summer of 2016 prior to my Junior year of college, I interned for Brian Scassellati’s Yale Social Robotics Laboratory, working on the Maki Expedition Project. There, I designed & built the interior & exterior components of a social robot’s articulating face to improve infant-robot interaction. More specifiacally, Maki is a 3D printed robot being used as part of a study to explore whether or not infants could treat robots as social agents to aid in the acquisition of sign language. The researchers found that this study was not widely successful, possibly due to the lack of human qualities in Maki’s face. To address this issue, we decided to give Maki eyebrows that would move up and down to convey various facial expressions. Throughout the summer, I used the software program Solidworks extensively to model both the internal and external components of the robot. Using an Arduino kit programmed in C, I gave a live demonstration of my work. Over the course of the summer, I greatly improved many technical skills, specifically in CAD software and understanding of electromechanical systems. I successfully gave Maki articulating eyebrows.

Below is a video recording of my final presentation. Skip to 7:28 to see the articulating eyebrows!

The powerpoint slides used in the above presentation are presented below: