Study on Human Posture and Gesture Elements for ...

2013 IEEE Business Engineering and Industrial Applications Colloquium (BEIAC)

Study on Human Posture and Gesture Elements for Industrial Ceramic Robotic Artware A. Ali, S. S. Jusoh, R. Anwar, O. H. Hassan and M. F. A. Jalil Department of Industrial Ceramic, Faculty of Art & Design, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. mainly for production processes to produce the industrial ceramic robotic art ware.

Abstract—Gestures and postures are a non-verbal communication because it is translated through human’s physical gestures and not through oral communication. This research focuses on creating a variety of human gestures and postures that are applied into a robotic form. The objective is to apply elements of human gestures and postures to robotic form and create an industrial ceramic art ware hence produce the art ware with an innovated approach. Through the typical design development process and basic manufacturing work, the robotic gestures are successfully produced.

II.

Communication through body gestures as well as postures as one of humans natural ability is being studied increasingly [7]. The human gesture comprises all the body movements such as hand shake, waft, walk, and facial postures. Gesture is also a fundamental element of communication and usually for disabled people such as with the blind and deaf people. Some are ambiguous gestures which are called fidgeting which are massaging, rubbing, holding, and picking that manipulates the body parts. Social scientists call these behaviour manipulators [8]. Non-manual sign presented in many procedures to make sign language.

Keywords: gesture, posture, robots.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Gestures and postures are elements in human non-verbal communication [1]. Gesture identification relates by recognizing meaningful expressions of motion by a human, involving the hands, arms, face, head or body [2]. Usually gestures constitute a space of motion expressed by the body, face or hands [2]. Gesture symbolizes correspondence to a basic natural human communication [3]. Posture is classified based on the appearance of the person’s body and, particularly on its silhouette [4]. Robots are a machine that equipped with actuators and sensors under the control of a computer system which have arms, fingers and wheeled or legged device [5]. Actuators are the motors in charge for the robot’s movement. Robot can be shaped from the basic form and from that, we can elaborate the form to be the part of a robotic body. Basic geometric shapes is essential in most descriptive work, even more so when dealing with robot’s physical. Primary shapes are square, rectangle and circle which can be defined as primary solids in the form of cylinder, cone, sphere, cube and pyramid [6].Therefore, the element of human gestures and postures are applied to robotic form and design forms that is capable of being joined together to create multiple postures. Material used was slip added with marble waste. The slip mixture increases strength and reduces thickness of the product. The forms are produced by a set of mould through slip casting technique.

A. Human Postures Identifying user postures as a first step towards gesture recognition is a challenging task [3]. Shape has to account for shape variability in characterizing a posture [3]. Posture is the position in which you hold your body upright against gravity while standing, sitting or lying down. Good posture involves training your body to stand, walk, sit and lie in positions where the least strain is placed on supporting muscles and ligaments during movement or weight-bearing activities. Posture or human body movements were used in variety of combination movement to show variety of information. Body movements happen when human use the entire body proportion. Human movements have meanings by each proportion. The human balance is detected by a foot force pad where strain gages are embedded [9]. Our body movement can give different responses depending on others. In conclusion, posture is defined as the relative position or attitude of the body at any one period of time. B. Robotic Form

Nowadays, not many ceramic robotic concept art ware product are produced with elements of movement applied to the product. Moreover, there are technicality issues of form design that is suitable for different joining positions hence problems with the suitability of ceramic materials to make robotic form regarding the joining of the material. Information regarding this research was obtained through qualitative and quantitative measures. Qualitative method was done generally to acquire data of human posture, gesture and robots that was used to develop the product design. Quantitative method was

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HUMAN GESTURES AND POSTURES

The humanoid robotic form was studied in this research. Humanoid which means a robot that have body parts like human. Usually humanoid robot has a head, arm and legs and some of them even have faces however, some humanoid robots are built only by some parts of the body. The structure of robot itself is simulated by humans whom it takes in form of human movements and characteristics of human. The successful introduction of robotics into human environments will depend on the competency of a development and practical systems that are dependable, safe and easy to use. To work, cooperate, assist, and interact with humans, this new generation of robots

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needs mechanical structures that accommodate innteraction with humans while fitting into our unstructured,, sizable, and unpredictable environment [10]. Nowadays,, more robot technology is created to make a real like humann robots. Robot was created to help people, using built in technoology and some robots are also to entertain human. The researchh from Human Emotion and the Uncanny Valley found that the android robots are simulating human form, more motion quallity, interaction and also a more realistic shape. Mashahiro Moori, a Japanese robot was created to look more like human [11]. The humanoid robots have the physical look similar like humaans because are divided into four set of joints relating to the lim mb which is the legs and arms [12]. Therefore it can be simple when to apply human gesture to robotic form and produce a few motions and gestures. In this work, we considered the element of human gesture and posture which can be applied to the roboticc form and the proper joining technique for slip casted forms. T This research is made to develop movement in robotic form annd to create an innovation on production methods for multiple roobotic forms. III.

METHODOLOGY

A. Design Development In general design, work begins by choosing a subject matter to explore and designing follows for the intention of developing the subject matter to incorporate wiith the product characteristics suitability. Identifying the huuman posture, human gesture, type of robotic is central for thhe design form development. To apply movement or gesture inn robotic form, the suitable form of robots has been identifiedd as humanoid robots which its body part is similar to a hhuman’s body proportion. The forms and shapes of humanoiid robots were studied to develop the industrial ceramic robbotic art ware designs which have incorporated all the studied ssubject matter. 1)

Figure 2.Sequence of Hum man Legs while Running

2)

Sit

The sitting posture happen when w human body and thigh bend and human back is supporteed by a surface for example a chair or when it is only supporteed by its backbone. Figure 3 show the position of human sitting g with a surface support.

Gait

Researcher also obtained information by doiing observation on the human gesture. Human gesture such as waalking, running and sitting can create posture result. Movement of human foot will hit the floor when walking movement happeened and when arms and legs of human move simultaneously. F Figure 1 shows the legs position of a walking human while figuure 2 shows the sequence of a human running.

Figure 3.Position of Human Sitting Figure 1.Position of Human Legs while Gaaiting

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IV.

PRODUCT DESIGN SPECIFICATTION

including postures and gesturees of sitting, bending and standing. Figure 4 shows the hum manoid robotic part. The combination of body, head, arms and legs will illustrate the variety of gestures because b the part of body will be combined in different position ns. Figure 5 shows the robotic movement and posture after jo oining the parts at different positions.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4.(a) 2D drawing of the robot body parts (b) 3D D drawing of robot body

B. Manufacturing (a)

There were 4 moulds produced which aree for the head, body, arms and legs through the robot from design development which was finalised by technical drawing. Each form was casted and then cautiously joint to foollow a certain posture and create different silhouette.

(b)

Slip casting is done by pouring ceramic liquid into a mould, have been verified as one of the producction technique that is widely used to produce advanced ceramiic [13]. During casting process, material used is porcelain addeed with marble dust. The material preparation of marble w waste was by grinding the marble dust and mixed it into pporcelain body slips. More percentage of marble dust added w will give more improvement of body strength awarded. This iis because it is the suitable material for joining as well as improovement of the ceramic body strength and provides a step forw ward to a better design quality of production [14]. When thhe mould and materials are ready, casting process was done. Casting process took 5 minutes to gain 4mm of wall thickness. The surfaces that are to be joined aree scratched and slip was applied as glue to strengthen the joinning. The most important step to achieve a good joining would bbe to make sure that the joint parts have equal consistency of water content. Drying process needs to be evenly distributed bby covering the joint parts with a plastic container together with a damp sponge [15]. The robot body parts were merged in differrent position to make different movements and gestures similar tto humans.

(c) Figure 5.(a) Robot in sitting posture with h different left and right arm gesture (b) Robot in standing posture with arms liifted up (c) 2 robot with standing and sitting posture from a different angle

The posture and gesture elem ments are combined to form a robotic form with the purpose to illustrate the movement elements. The human posture and gesture that has been identified to apply in robotic fo orm is combination of body movements of one robot form that can produce variety of gestures. The diversity of gesstures can be produced by combination of arm movemen nts, body postures and leg movements. The correct joining of o all limbs of robotic form at the appropriate position resulted to a more resembling human postures and gestures. To have thee gestures and movements, all the parts is joined as if bendin ng, sitting, standing or other movements. Figure 6 shows the t combination of human gestures that have been applied to robotic forms from 2 angles.

Joining process of robotic body parts w was done after casting each part and was left to dry for 244 hours. Dried product was bisque with an electric kiln at the rrate of 5˚C/min up to the temperature of 900 ˚C and soaked foor 1 hour, then was cooled to room temperature. The bisque w ware were then glazed and fired again at the same rate and soaaking as bisque firing but up to the temperature of 1200 ˚C. V.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION N

The final form that has been selected is huumanoid robot which has the body parts similar to humans. H Humanoid robot was chosen due to its form which is rounder andd is suitable for casting and joining. It is completed to show seveeral movements

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[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

(a)

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

(b) Figure 6. (a) Industrial Robotic Ceramic Artware produucts from right isometric angle (b) Industrial Robotic Ceramic Artware prroducts from left isometric angle

CONCLUSION In this investigation, product was produced bby the same set of mould but variety of gestures can be applied. T This is because the part of robotic body was produced by a sett of mould and joined in different positions after casting to apply several gestures. The difficulties when producing thiis art ware is during joining process. Extra care was emphasiized during the joining process. Casting component should be ccared to remain sluggish. It cannot be joined if the componentts are dried or dryer than it should be. Joining process also shoould be careful to avoid defects of product after firing proocess such as cracking. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Authors would like to acknowledge Univerrsiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) for the financial support unnder Research Excellent Fund Scheme. REFERENCE [1] [2] [3] [4]

[5]

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