Stop Robot Abuse with Shelly the Tortoise

While robot abuse isn’t a hot topic other than perhaps attempting to use an underpowered arm to move something outside of its mass ratings, as robots become more common in our everyday lives, this may start to become more of an issue. Sure, it might be fun to kick a security android, knock boxes out of a humanoid’s hand, or place a sticky note over a bot’s vision sensor… but should you?

Young kids can also be “abusive” to robots, though this interaction is more out of curiosity and playfulness than anything else, not understanding that sensitive robotic equipment doesn’t respond well to smacks and rough handling.

As seen on IEEE Spectrum, researchers from Naver Labs and Seoul National University in South Korea have come up with a tortoise-like robot named Shelly to address this problem.

This turtle-bot features a series of LEDs on its shell plates that light up when petted nicely, along with a head and legs that stick out and even convey dancing motions to show that it’s happy. However, its embedded vibration sensors can even detect when it’s smacked harshly, causing it to retract its head and legs into the shell for a period of time to show that it is scared.

You can see how children react to Shelly in the video, some even defending the robot against potential abusers. More details can be found in the linked article, including an interview with Naver Lab’s Jason J. Choi about the motivation for this project.