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We present a novel robotic telepresence platform composed by a semi-autonomous mobile robot based on a cloud robotics framework, which has been developed with the aim of enabling mobility impaired people to enjoy museums and archaeological sites that would be otherwise inaccessible. Such places, in fact, very often are not equipped to provide access for mobility impaired people, in particular because these aids require dedicated infrastructures that may not fit within the environment and large investments. For this reason, people affected by mobility impairments are often unable to enjoy a part or even the entire museum experience. Solutions allowing mobility impaired people to enjoy museum experience are often based on recorded tours, thus they do not allow active participation of the user. On the contrary, the presented platform is intended to allow users to enjoy completely the museum round. A robot equipped with a camera is placed within the museum and users can control it in order to follow predefined tours or freely explore the museum. Our solution ensures that users see exactly what the robot is seing in real-time. The cloud robotics platform controls both navigation capabilities and teleoperation. Navigation tasks are intended to let the robot reliably follow pre-defined tours, while main concern of teleoperation tasks is to ensure robot safety (e.g., by means of dynamic obstacle detection and avoidance software). Proposed platform has been optimized to maximize user experience.

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This paper addresses the issue of screen time, a growing phenomenon triggered by the spread of digital devices, which may cause a health impact. The reduction of screen time emerges as a requirement, especially in games. For this reason, the paper offers an overview of the current Phygital game trend, through some related projects that highlight the potential of physical features in virtual games in terms of attraction and engagement. A new gaming framework is proposed as a step forward in the virtual-physical contamination. The proposed project consists of a projected playground, on which people and robot(s) can physically interact. The role of the robot is enhanced entrusting it different roles, from a companion, to an adversary, to the avatar of a remote player. By abstracting the inherent complexities and providing common functionality, the proposed framework aims to simplify the development of games that wish to exploit both digital and physical elements.

Interest in design methods and tools has been steadily growing in HRI. Yet, design is not acknowledged as a discipline with specific epistemology and methodology. Designerly HRI work is validated through user studies which, we argue, provide a limited account of the knowledge design produces. This paper aims to broaden current understanding of designerly HRI work and its contributions by unpacking what designerly knowledge is and how to produce it. Through a critical analysis of current HRI design literature, we identify a lack of work dedicated to understanding the conceptual implications of robotic artifacts. These, in fact, are implicit carriers of crucial HRI knowledge that can challenge established assumptions about how a robot should look, act, and be like. We conclude by discussing a set of practices desirable to legitimize designerly HRI work, and calling for further research addressing the conceptual implications designerly HRI work.