The functional requirements that our Beta prototype addressed were remain with user, make the user feel safer, illuminate surroundings, and bring attention to user. These were the most important functional requirements for us to accomplish with this prototype. Each of these requirements have set targets for their performance.
The remain with user functional requirement was evaluated through testing the robot’s following abilities. This was tested on a variety of terrain including the lab room, asphalt, concrete, and brick walkway. The robot was also tested in both daylight and nightlight conditions. This metric was evaluated as a pass/fail test of the robot following the user. The robot was able to follow a human in all the above-mentioned testing trials. This included two lengthy tests lasting upwards of 10 minutes. It is important to note that given the tracking capabilities of the robot the user does need to be conscious of how sharp their turns are.
The make the user feel safer functional requirement was evaluated using survey data and feedback from design expositions. The survey tracked campuses openness to the solution at approximately 79.3% and found that 84.5% said that it would make them feel safer when traversing campus. With fewer time constraints this requirement would have been further evaluated by surveying students after they were able to use the robot. The design of the structure of the robot was also softened to further meet this goal following feedback from the prototype presentation. This feedback was used to round out the sharp external lines of the robot that could make it seem more threatening.
The illuminate surroundings functional requirement was evaluated on how much light it added to the surroundings. The robot has a lower power surround light to illuminate the base of the robot and provide some light in all directions. The robot then also has headlights that provide light for the user on the path. This was accomplished with two 120 lumen spotlights which surpass the target metric for this requirement. This requirement was also evaluated in the nighttime test as the lights illuminated both the path for the user to walk on and the user so that the robot could follow them. This was a success for this functional requirement.
The bring attention to user functional requirement is the last feature of the beta prototype. The led strips flash, which visually draw attention to the robot and surrounding situation. This is accompanied by a siren that produces 118 dB of sound. This was tested to make sure that the robot would function properly in this state. When triggered the emergency state was successful in drawing the attention of team members who were otherwise occupied. The siren also exceeds the target metric that was set for how much sound the robot should produce to attract attention.