Robots That Make Sense : Transparent Intelligence Through Augmented Reality

Autonomous robots can be difficult to understand by their develop-ers, let alone by end users. Yet, as they become increasingly integralparts of our societies, the need for affordable easy to use tools toprovide transparency grows. The rise of the smartphone and theimprovements in mobile computing performance have graduallyallowed Augmented Reality (AR) to become more mobile and afford-able. In this paper we review relevant robot systems architectureand propose a new software tool to provide robot transparencythrough the use of AR technology. Our new tool, ABOD3-AR pro-vides real-time graphical visualisation and debugging of a robot’sgoals and priorities as a means for both designers and end usersto gain a better mental model of the internal state and decisionmaking processes taking place within a robot. We also report onour on-going research programme and planned studies to furtherunderstand the effects of transparency to naive users and experts.