Use Case

Customer:

Hobbyists of at least twelve years in age

Customer Needs:

Not satisfied with the current market offerings, the customers are seeking remote-controlled robots with a novel mode of locomotion and simple, intuitive controls for recreational use.

Use Case:

Mark is an adult in his early twenties and a radio-controlled (R/C) toy enthusiast. He owns many R/C cars, boats, planes and helicopters but certainly nothing that can jump.

After seeing a review of RooBot on an internet tech blog, Mark races out to the nearest retailer and purchases a RooBot. Upon returning home, he opens the box and removes the RooBot, the controller and the instruction booklet. Mark is excited about the new toy but still takes a quick look at the instruction booklet.

Borrowing design principles from IKEA and Apple, the booklet uses simple, yet effective pictorial instructions. The first step shows that the product consists of RooBot with a power switch and an arrow indicating the robot’s front direction as well as a controller featuring power switch, a Charge button, a Launch button and four buttons for locomotion: Right Rotation, Left Rotation, Forward Movement and Backward Movement. The second step shows RooBot being placed on the ground adjacent to a flat table of twelve inches in height. Mark grabs RooBot and searches around his living room for a proper launch place. He finds a short coffee table that is roughly twelve inches high and puts RooBot beside it. The third step instructs Mark to switch on RooBot and the controller while the following steps illustrate the sequence of control as charge, rotation and planar motion if desired and launch.

At this point, Mark understands the basic instructions of controlling RooBot and is ready to play. He firstly switches on both RooBot and the remote controller and then presses Charge button to wait for RooBot to be fully charged. While charging, RooBot also self-rights to a launching position, which also enables Mark to rotate RooBot at a predefined speed by holding the rotation buttons. The robot stops moving whenever Mark releases the buttons. Similarly, Mark also moves RooBot back and forth by holding the forward and backward motion buttons. After adjusting the jumping angle and the position, Mark presses Launch button.

RooBot leaps into the air, but unfortunately does not make it onto the table because the launching distance from the table is too far. However, Mark is still impressed by RooBot’s jumping power and durability as RooBot can withstand the impact of the fall. Mark places RooBot nearer the table this time and follows the procedure to make RooBot jump again. To his excitement, the RooBot leaps into the air and easily lands on the table.

After Roobot’s landing, Mark follows the instruction and presses Charge button to restore RooBot to its launching position to prepare for planar locomotion and the next jump. Mark continues playing with RooBot and is really satisfied with it.