AIO robot: A EDI modular robotic dramatization platform

This article presents a logical architecture of a modular robotic platform oriented to dramatization that was implemented and tested in a robotic prototype. The theater play is controlled by a multi-agent system; a director agent synchronizes several robotic actors to perform a theater script. The architectural decisions of the actor agent are based on the BDI model which includes an emotional module that influences the way the agent performs actions. A centralized multi-agent protocol controls the simultaneous motion of several robotic actors. Furthermore, each actor agent has an intermediary module, called SOCA, connecting it with its sensor and action modules. The SOCA module makes flexible and transparent the communication and serves as coordinator and synchronizer; the aim is to make easier to modify the robot physical and logical configuration as required by an actor that must change accordingly to the represented character. A robotic prototype was implemented to validate this architecture and the communication scheme. It includes four modules: processing, mobility, audiovisual and manipulation. The basic experimental results show that the robot actor is well suited to perform drama scripts in educational contexts.