Joggobot/Exertion Games Lab

VISUAL: Screenshot – RMITUniversity.

VISUAL: Screenshot – Joggobot – The Exertion Games Lab operates within the RMIT Games program. The Joggobot project explores how robots might make jogging more engaging in the future – RMITUniversity.

VISUAL: To the sound of fast-paced music we see the words Joggobot appear on a blue checked screen.

VISUAL: Eberhard Grather – Exertion Games Lab, Visiting Researcher (FH Salzburg, Austria) speaking to camera.

Eberhard Grather: With this research we try to investigate the bigger picture of how people exercise in the future and what role robots will play in it.

VISUAL: We see someone tying the shoelaces on a running shoe and then pan back to Eberhard.

Eberhard Grather: People enjoy jogging together but a lot of people they just don’t have anyone who jogs with them or ...

VISUAL: We see someone jogging on a track.

Eberhard Grather: ... they just start off jogging and they need someone to run at their pace ...

VISUAL: Camera pans back to Eberhard.

Eberhard Grather: ... so maybe it’s good for them to have this embodied system of Joggobot that motivates them. For Joggabot we use an AR Drone, which is a flying quadcopter.

VISUAL: Camera pans to the quadcopter and to someone in a t-shirt with coloured squares on it.

Eberhard Grather: It has a built in camera which allows the system to track the markers on the t-shirt of the jogger. As soon as Joggerbot sees the jogger with the markers on the t-shirt ...

VISUAL: We see Joggerbot taking off and then pan to a screen showing us what Joggerbot sees.

Eberhard Grather: ... it starts going up, then it tries to stay in a certain distance. It means if you start running it slowly speeds up ...

VISUAL: Camera pans back to Eberhard.

Eberhard Grather: ... and ... until it reaches the same pace as you.

VISUAL: We move back to the view of the Joggerbot and Eberhard testing it.

Eberhard Grather: And as soon as it doesn’t recognise any markers anymore it just goes down safely.

VISUAL: Camera shows Joggerbot landing and then back to Eberhard speaking.

Eberhard Grather: People suggested that they might feel chased if the Joggerbot is behind them ...

VISUAL: We see Eberhard jogging with the Joggobot in front of him tracking the markers on his t-shirt.

Eberhard Grather: ... so we designed the system in a way that it always stays in front of you. As soon as a physical system has a form ...

VISUAL: Camera pans on Joggobot hovering and then back to Eberhard.

Eberhard Grather: ... it needs motors and makes a sound and the sound has an impact on the experience and ...

VISUAL: Camera pans back to Joggobot and we hear the buzzing of it in motion.

Eberhard Grather: ... designers need to address that. People enjoy that both are physical, the activity and the Joggobot, unlike jogging [unclear] which are not physical. Instead they have something which they can relate to. Thank you for running with Joggobot.

VISUAL: Screenshot – Researcher, Eberhard Gräther, exertuingameslab dot org.

VISUAL: RMITUniversity logo.