Varun - Self Reflection

Week 1:

We formed groups this week and met on Friday to brainstorm ideas for our use case. We considered two factors that could assist individuals with dementia, namely providing entertainment and aiding in their day-to-day life. After careful consideration, we decided to focus on entertainment, particularly art, as it has been shown to improve the quality of life for people with dementia. The painting was chosen as the most interesting approach, and each member of the group provided valuable insights during the decision-making process.

We then distributed the remaining tasks among ourselves and established timelines. Shambhawi and I worked on Step 4 of the Quickstart: Claims.

Week 2:

The lectures this week talked about the difficulties in conducting an experiment and evaluating the results when it comes to measuring any sort of improvement of the patient with respect to improving their quality of life, engagement, and motivation. We again met on Friday, this time online to review what each member of the group had written for the Quickstart and based on that made some changes. This time the section "Foundation" and "Specification" was distributed among the team members. The exact distribution along with the deadlines we set for ourselves can be viewed in the "project information" section.

Shambhawi and I will be working on the "Specification" sections 2d, 2e, and 2f.

Week 3:

We saw how the Self Determination Theory (SDT) can influence our design choices when it comes to outlining and prototyping the implementation. The SDT explains how the application can be designed in such a way that the end user is encouraged and motivated to use it. In the Tuesday lab session, the midterm presentations were mentioned which required the completion of the Foundation section. Hence the focus was shifted towards the Foundation section where Shambhawi and I worked on the Foundation section 1c Technology part. I specifically worked on the Humanoid robot section.

Week 4:

We learned about Design patterns and saw how they can depict the flow of interaction between the robot and PwD. This is important since it lets us visualise and in the process anticipate some external factors and edge-case scenarios that we might have not thought of. The first group presentation was done on 7th March and presented by Ilinca, Deepali and I. From this week onwards we are expected to fully work on the actual implementation of the use case on the Pepper robot alongside the xwiki section 2 of Specification. The division for this week was done in our Friday meeting and can be seen in the "project information".

Marijn and I worked on "Specification" sections 2a, and 2b. Next week we both will be working on "Specification" section 2e.

Week 5:

This week we learned about ontologies and the different parameters we should consider while conducting an experiment and evaluating it later. This was important since without being able to evaluate we would not know how useful our implementation and design are. Also from this week's lab session, we started with our initial analysis of the robot and sketched out a rough flow of the interaction keeping in mind certain constraints and workarounds that will need to be taken. Shambhawi and Deepali specifically worked on this. In this week's call, we discussed the timelines for the evaluation and split up the evaluation section.

Marijn and I worked on "Specification" section 2e. She then worked on the Ontologies section. I personally worked on the Design patterns which were related to the Use Cases from the section "Specification" 2d.

Week 6:

This week we learned about fairness and inclusivity and how it plays an important factor to keep into consideration while planning out the design of an application. In the lab session, we sketched out the conversation flow of the overall interaction so that next week we will be prepared for conducting a pilot. On Friday Shambhawi and Deepali conducted the pilot which was successful. Next week Tuesday we are going to conduct the actual evaluation with Pepper.

This week Marijn and I worked on "Evaluation" sections 3b.

Week 7:

This week we learned about situational awareness and how that is an important aspect of project design and how it could be applied. I specifically liked the example of the oil rig tanker simulation and the earthquake disaster drone assistance that was shown. In the Tuesday lab session, Shambhawi, Deepali and I conducted the Final Evaluation with the participants. We got a good amount of data and later in this week Marijn and I will be working on analysing that data and whether it concurs with our research questions. Shambhawi, Marijn and Alex will be working on the final presentation which will be held next week on Tuesday.

Week 8:

This week the final presentations were conducted. Our group got some important suggestions and feedback that we will take into account for the final Xwiki report. Now we will be working on finalising the report, making sure it's complete and ready. I will specifically be revising the Interaction Design Patterns. 

Overall Self-Reflection:

I enjoyed the course as it provided much needed insight towards human-robot collaboration and technology. Exploring this, particularly for the case of People with Dementia showed me the different design considerations and patterns we must take into account while coming up with such systems. The testing and evaluation part of the course was a particular highlight since we got to work with robots and got a glimpse of what it would be like to design an actual system for different domains and use cases like healthcare, disaster management, education and more.