Kiwi

A 30 cm cartoonish robot with a green shell and feather like outfit that gives it the appearance of an owl with a smiling yellow face.
Kiwi has helped children with autism to talk, smile, interact, and play. Photo: University of Southern California

Kiwi is a tabletop robot tutor and friend. It has a bird-like appearance, LCD face, and is used in classroom activities and for working with children with autism spectrum disorder.

Creator

University of Southern California

Year
2016
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Categories
Features
A short film on robots helping kids with autism. Video: USC Viterbi School of Engineering

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Appearance

Neutral

Did you know?

Kiwi has been in its own movie about how it can play with kids in an elementary school setting.

The robot sits on a table surrounded by children looking at computers that will control it.
Teacher, helper, friend. Photo: University of Southern California
A view inside the robots cute exterior shows a smiling cartoonish face on a display, and a red base with electronics.
Kiwi's robotic skeleton. Photo: University of Southern California

Specs

Overview

Interchangeable skins for varying appearance. The SPRITE (Stewart Platform Robot for Interactive Tabletop Engagement) robot is built around a 6 degrees-of-freedom Stewart platform base, with a bracket that holds a mobile device, on which the robot's face is displayed.

Status

Ongoing

Year

2016

Website
Height
30 cm
Actuators

Power HD 1235MG servo with Micro Maestro 6-channel USB servo controller

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
6
Compute

Mobile phone, held by a bracket attached to the base.

Cost
$4,500