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Cellulo is a social, cognitive-motor assistive tabletop robot, created in the CHILI Lab at EPFL, originally under the scope of the doctoral thesis of Dr. Ayberk Özgür under the supervision of Profesor Pierre Dillenbourg.
The project would not be the same without a large list of contributors.
Cellulo is a graspable robot that through autonomous and precise movement on top of a paper-printed map allows users to take part in a series of entertaining activities. Research has proved Cellulo to be effective in several applications: in the primary school curriculum, handwriting skills training for children with Neuro-Developmental Disorders, upper limb rehabilitation for stroke survivors, and cognitive/motor training for older adults.
The Cellulo robot is a project started in 2013. And as such, it has come a long way, with iterative processes and improvements. The project is composed of two core versions. A legacy version, a.k.a. Version 1, has been running for a long time, however, many of the electronic parts that constitute the robot has been discontinued or are out of stock. A new iteration started in 2021. It is still under revision, with one stable prototype.
Robot Version 1 github. Wiki
Robot Version 2 github. Wiki
An SDK tool to develop activities for Cellulo using Unity.
A multi-platform (iOS, Android, PC) application has been developed as a marketplace for activities, as well as integrating data analytics from the user. It has been specifically tailored for elderly people users.
In the Cellulo Project, we are aiming to design and build the pencils of the future’s classroom, in the form of robots. We imagine these as swarm robots, each of them very simple and affordable, that reside on large paper sheets that contain the learning activities. Our vision is that these be ubiquitous, namely a natural part of the classroom ecosystem, as to shift the focus from the robot to the activity. With Cellulo you can grab and move a planet to see what happens to its orbit or vibrate a molecule with your hands to see how it behaves. Cellulo makes tangible what is intangible in learning.
Cellulo has been used as a tool to improve the psychomotor capacities of the user. This is achieved via activities that require the player to move the robot along the specific scenario of the map, solving different challenges which might require speed, strength, dexterity, accuracy, or strategic thinking. Such challenges help to maintain or even improve the player’s psychomotor capacities, as well as provide an environment to combat loneliness and boredom, thereby having a positive influence on the overall health status of the player. Our studies and interactions with potential users highlighted the potential of Cellulo as a gamified tool to assist older adults in maintaining a healthy life through activities that stimulate the user physically and cognitively while participating in social interaction.