| Achieving fluency through perceptual-symbol practice in human-robot collaboration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-8 | |
| Guy Hoffman; Cynthia Breazeal | |||
| We have developed a cognitive architecture for robotic teammates based on
the neuro-psychological principles of perceptual symbols and simulation, with
the aim of attaining increased fluency in human-robot teams. An instantiation
of this architecture was implemented on a robotic desk lamp, performing in a
human-robot collaborative task. This paper describes initial results from a
human-subject study measuring team efficiency and team fluency, in which the
robot works on a joint task with untrained subjects. We find significant
differences in a number of efficiency and fluency metrics, when comparing our
architecture to a purely reactive robot with similar capabilities. Keywords: anticipation, cognitive architectures, fluency, human subject studies,
human-robot interaction, perceptual symbols, robotics, teamwork | |||
| Assessing cooperation in human control of heterogeneous robots | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 9-16 | |
| Jijun Wang; Michael Lewis | |||
| Human control of multiple robots has been characterized by the average
demand of single robots on human attention. While this matches situations in
which independent robots are controlled sequentially it does not capture
aspects of demand associated with coordinating dependent actions among robots.
This paper presents an extension of Crandall's neglect tolerance model intended
to accommodate both coordination demands (CD) and heterogeneity among robots.
The reported experiment attempts to manipulate coordination demand by varying
the proximity needed to perform a joint task in two conditions and by
automating coordination within subteams in a third. Team performance and the
process measure CD were assessed for each condition. Automating cooperation
reduced CD and improved performance. We discuss the utility of process measures
such as CD to analyze and improve control performance. Keywords: evaluation, human-robot interaction, metrics, multi-robot system | |||
| Behaviour delay and robot expressiveness in child-robot interactions: a user study on interaction kinesics | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 17-24 | |
| Ben Robins; Kerstin Dautenhahn; Rene te Boekhorst; Chrystopher L. Nehaniv | |||
| This paper presents results of a novel study on interaction kinesics where
18 children interacted with a humanoid child-sized robot called KASPAR. Based
on findings in psychology and social sciences we propose the temporal behaviour
matching hypothesis which predicts that children will adapt to and match the
robot's temporal behaviour. Each child took part in six experimental trials
involving two games in which the dynamics of interactions played a key part: a
body expression imitation game, where the robot imitated expressions
demonstrated by the children, and a drumming game where the robot mirrored the
children's drumming. In both games KASPAR responded either with or without a
delay. Additionally, in the drumming game, KASPAR responded with or without
exhibiting facial/gestural expressions. Individual case studies as well as
statistical analysis of the complete sample are presented. Results show that a
delay of the robot's drumming response lead to larger pauses (with and without
robot nonverbal gestural expressions) and longer drumming durations (with
nonverbal gestural expressions only). In the imitation game, the robot's delay
lead to longer imitation eliciting behaviour with longer pauses for the
children, but systematic individual differences are observed in regards to the
effects on the children's pauses. Results are generally consistent with the
temporal behaviour matching hypothesis, i.e. children adapted the timing of
their behaviour, e.g. by mirroring to the robot's temporal behaviour. Keywords: human-robot interaction, humanoid, interaction kinesics | |||
| Beyond dirty, dangerous and dull: what everyday people think robots should do | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 25-32 | |
| Leila Takayama; Wendy Ju; Clifford Nass | |||
| We present a study of people's attitudes toward robot workers, identifying
the characteristics of occupations for which people believe robots are
qualified and desired. We deployed a web-based public-opinion survey that asked
respondents (n=250) about their attitudes regarding robots' suitability for a
variety of jobs (n=812) from the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET occupational
information database. We found that public opinion favors robots for jobs that
require memorization, keen perceptual abilities, and service-orientation.
People are preferred for occupations that require artistry, evaluation,
judgment and diplomacy. In addition, we found that people will feel more
positively toward robots doing jobs with people rather than in place of people. Keywords: human-robot interaction, jobs, occupations, survey | |||
| Combining dynamical systems control and programming by demonstration for teaching discrete bimanual coordination tasks to a humanoid robot | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 33-40 | |
| Elena Gribovskaya; Aude Billard | |||
| We present a generic framework that combines Dynamical Systems movement
control with Programming by Demonstration (PbD) to teach a robot bimanual
coordination task. The model consists of two systems: a learning system that
processes data collected during the demonstration of the task to extract
coordination constraints and a motor system that reproduces the movements
dynamically, while satisfying the coordination constraints learned by the first
system. We validate the model through a series of experiments in which a robot
is taught bimanual manipulatory tasks with the help of a human. Keywords: bimanual coordination, dynamical systems, human-robot interaction (hri),
humanoid robot, learning by imitation, programming by demonstration (pbd) | |||
| A comparative psychophysical and EEG study of different feedback modalities for HRI | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 41-48 | |
| Xavier Perrin; Ricardo Chavarriaga; Céline Ray; Roland Siegwart; José del R. Millán | |||
| This paper presents a comparison between six different ways to convey
navigational information provided by a robot to a human. Visual, auditory, and
tactile feedback modalities were selected and designed to suggest a direction
of travel to a human user, who can then decide if he agrees or not with the
robot's proposition. This work builds upon a previous research on a novel
semi-autonomous navigation system in which the human supervises an autonomous
system, providing corrective monitoring signals whenever necessary.
We recorded both qualitative (user impressions based on selected criteria and ranking of their feelings) and quantitative (response time and accuracy) information regarding different types of feedback. In addition, a preliminary analysis of the influence of the different types of feedback on brain activity is also shown. The result of this study may provide guidelines for the design of such a human-robot interaction system, depending on both the task and the human user. Keywords: auditory feedback, brain-computer interface, multimodal interaction, robot
navigation, vibro-tactile feedback, visual feedback | |||
| Compass visualizations for human-robotic interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 49-56 | |
| Curtis M. Humphrey; Julie A. Adams | |||
| Compasses have been used for centuries to express directions and are
commonplace in many user interfaces; however, there has not been work in
human-robotic interaction (HRI) to ascertain how different compass
visualizations affect the interaction. This paper presents a HRI evaluation
comparing two representative compass visualizations: top-down and in-world
world-aligned. The compass visualizations were evaluated to ascertain which one
provides better metric judgment accuracy, lowers workload, provides better
situational awareness, is perceived as easier to use, and is preferred.
Twenty-four participants completed a within-subject repeated measures
experiment. The results agreed with the existing principles relating to 2D and
3D views, or projections of a three-dimensional scene, in that a top-down (2D
view) compass visualization is easier to use for metric judgment tasks and a
world-aligned (3D view) compass visualization yields faster performance for
general navigation tasks. The implication for HRI is that the choice in compass
visualization has a definite and non-trivial impact on operator performance
(world-aligned was faster), situational awareness (top-down was better), and
perceived ease of use (top-down was easier). Keywords: compass visualization, human-robotic interaction (hri) | |||
| Concepts about the capabilities of computers and robots: a test of the scope of adults' theory of mind | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 57-64 | |
| Daniel T. Levin; Stephen S. Killingsworth; Megan M. Saylor | |||
| We have previously demonstrated that people apply fundamentally different
concepts to mechanical agents and human agents, assuming that mechanical agents
engage in more location-based, and feature-based behaviors whereas humans
engage in more goal-based, and category-based behavior. We also found that
attributions about anthropomorphic agents such as robots are very similar to
those about computers, unless subjects are asked to attend closely to specific
intentional-appearing behaviors. In the present studies, we ask whether
subjects initially do not attribute intentionality to robots because they
believe that temporary limits in current technology preclude real intelligent
behavior. In addition, we ask whether a basic categorization as an artifact
affords lessened attributions of intentionality. We find that subjects assume
that robots created with future technology may become more intentional, but
will not be fully equivalent to humans, and that even a fully human-controlled
robot will not be as intentional as a human. These results suggest that
subjects strongly distinguish intelligent agents based on intentionality, and
that the basic living/mechanical distinction is powerful enough, even in
adults, to make it difficult for adults to assent to the possibility that
mechanical things can be fully intentional. Keywords: cognitive modeling/science, philosophical foundations of hri, user modeling
and awareness | |||
| Construction and evaluation of a model of natural human motion based on motion diversity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 65-72 | |
| Takashi Minato; Hiroshi Ishiguro | |||
| A natural human-robot communication is supported by a person's interpersonal
behavior for a robot. The condition to elicit interpersonal behavior is thought
to be related to a mechanism to support natural communication. In the present
study, we hypothesize that motion diversity produced independently of a
subject's intention contributes to the human-like nature of the motions of an
android that closely resembles a human being. In order to verify this
hypothesis, we construct a model of motion diversity through the observation of
human motion, specifically, a touching motion. Psychological experiments have
shown that the presence of motion diversity in android motion influences the
impression toward the android. Keywords: android, human motion model, natural motion | |||
| Crew roles and operational protocols for rotary-wing micro-uavs in close urban environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 73-80 | |
| Robin R. Murphy; Kevin S. Pratt; Jennifer L. Burke | |||
| A crew organization and four-step operational protocol is recommended based
on a cumulative descriptive field study of teleoperated rotary-wing micro air
vehicles (MAV) used for structural inspection during the response and recovery
phases of Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. The use of MAVs for real civilian
missions in real operating environments provides a unique opportunity to
consider human-robot interaction. The analysis of the human-robot interaction
during 8 days, 14 missions, and 38 flights finds that a three person crew is
currently needed to perform distinct roles: Pilot, Mission Specialist, and
Flight Director. The general operations procedure is driven by the need for
safety of bystanders, other aircraft, the tactical team, and the MAV itself,
which leads to missions being executed as a series of short, line-of-sight
flights rather than a single flight. Safety concerns may limit the utility of
autonomy in reducing the crew size or enabling beyond line-of-sight-operations
but autonomy could lead to an increase in flights per mission and reduced Pilot
training demands. This paper is expected to contribute to set a foundation for
future research in HRI and MAV autonomy and to help establish regulations and
acquisition guidelines for civilian operations. Additional research in
autonomy, interfaces, attention, and out-of-the-loop (OOTL) control is
warranted. Keywords: human-robot interaction, robot, unmanned aerial vehicle | |||
| Crossmodal content binding in information-processing architectures | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 81-88 | |
| Henrik Jacobsson; Nick Hawes; Geert-Jan Kruijff; Jeremy Wyatt | |||
| Operating in a physical context, an intelligent robot faces two fundamental
problems. First, it needs to combine information from its different sensors to
form a representation of the environment that is more complete than any
representation a single sensor could provide. Second, it needs to combine
high-level representations (such as those for planning and dialogue) with
sensory information, to ensure that the interpretations of these symbolic
representations are grounded in the situated context. Previous approaches to
this problem have used techniques such as (low-level) information fusion,
ontological reasoning, and (high-level) concept learning. This paper presents a
framework in which these, and related approaches, can be used to form a shared
representation of the current state of the robot in relation to its environment
and other agents. Preliminary results from an implemented system are presented
to illustrate how the framework supports behaviours commonly required of an
intelligent robot. Keywords: symbol grounding | |||
| Decision-theoretic human-robot communication | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 89-96 | |
| Tobias Kaupp; Alexei Makarenko | |||
| Humans and robots need to exchange information if the objective is to
achieve a task cooperatively. Two questions are considered in this paper: what
type of information to communicate, and how to cope with the limited resources
of human operators. Decision-theoretic human-robot communication can provide
answers to both questions: the type of information is determined by the
underlying probabilistic representation, and value-of-information theory helps
decide when it is appropriate to query operators for information. A robot
navigation task is used to evaluate the system by comparing it to conventional
teleoperation. The results of a user study show that the developed system is
superior with respect to performance, operator workload, and usability. Keywords: decision making, human-robot communication, human-robot information fusion | |||
| Design patterns for sociality in human-robot interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 97-104 | |
| Peter H. Kahn; Nathan G. Freier; Takayuki Kanda; Hiroshi Ishiguro; Jolina H. Ruckert; Rachel L. Severson; Shaun K. Kane | |||
| We propose that Christopher Alexander's idea of design patterns can benefit
the emerging field of HRI. We first discuss four features of design patterns
that appear particularly useful. For example, a pattern should be specified
abstractly enough such that many different instantiations of the pattern can be
uniquely realized in the solution to specific problems in context. Then, after
describing our method for generating patterns, we offer and describe eight
possible design patterns for sociality in human robot interaction: initial
introduction, didactic communication, in motion together, personal interests
and history, recovering from mistakes, reciprocal turn-taking in game context,
physical intimacy, and claiming unfair treatment or wrongful harms. We also
discuss the issue of validation of design patterns. If a design pattern program
proves successful, it will provide HRI researchers with basic knowledge about
human robot interaction, and save time through the reuse of patterns to achieve
high levels of sociality. Keywords: design patterns, human-robot interaction, sociality | |||
| Development and evaluation of a flexible interface for a wheelchair mounted robotic arm | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 105-112 | |
| Katherine Tsui; Holly Yanco; David Kontak; Linda Beliveau | |||
| Accessibility is a challenge for people with disabilities. Differences in
cognitive ability, sensory impairments, motor dexterity, behavioral skills, and
social skills must be taken into account when designing interfaces for
assistive devices. Flexible interfaces tuned for individuals, instead of
custom-built solutions, may benefit a larger number of people. The development
and evaluation of a flexible interface for controlling a wheelchair mounted
robotic arm is described in this paper. There are four versions of the
interface based on input device (touch screen or joystick) and a moving or
stationary shoulder camera. We describe results from an eight week experiment
conducted with representative end users who range in physical and cognitive
ability. Keywords: assistive technology, human-robot interaction, robotic arm | |||
| Enjoyment intention to use and actual use of a conversational robot by elderly people | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 113-120 | |
| Marcel Heerink; Ben Kröse; Bob Wielinga; Vanessa Evers | |||
| In this paper we explore the concept of enjoyment as a possible factor
influencing acceptance of robotic technology by elderly people. We describe an
experiment with a conversational robot and elderly users (n=30) that
incorporates both a test session and a long term user observation. The
experiment did confirm the hypothesis that perceived enjoyment has an effect on
the intention to use a robotic system. Furthermore, findings show that the
general assumption in technology acceptance models that intention to use
predicts actual use is also applicable to this specific technology used by
elderly people. Keywords: assistive technology, eldercare, human-robot interaction, technology
acceptance models | |||
| Governing lethal behavior: embedding ethics in a hybrid deliberative/reactive robot architecture | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 121-128 | |
| Ronald C. Arkin | |||
| This paper provides the motivation and philosophy underlying the design of
an ethical control and reasoning system potentially suitable for constraining
lethal actions in an autonomous robotic system, so that its behavior will fall
within the bounds prescribed by the Laws of War and Rules of Engagement. This
research, funded by the U.S. Army Research Office, is intended to ensure that
robots do not behave illegally or unethically in the battlefield. Reasons are
provided for the necessity of developing such a system at this time, as well as
arguments for and against its creation. Keywords: ethics, robotics | |||
| Housewives or technophiles?: understanding domestic robot owners | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 129-136 | |
| Ja-Young Sung; Rebecca E. Grinter; Henrik I. Christensen; Lan Guo | |||
| Despite the growing body of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research focused
on domestic robots, surprisingly little is known about the demographic profile
of robot owners and their influence on usage patterns. In this paper, we
present the results of a survey of 379 iRobot's Roomba owners, that identified
their demographic and usage trends. The outcome of the survey suggests that
Roomba users are equally likely to be men or women, and they tend to be younger
with high levels of education and technical backgrounds. Their adoption and use
patterns illustrate the important role that gift exchange plays in adoption,
and how the robot changes cleaning routines and creates non-cleaning
activities. More generally, we argue that domestic robot adoption is growing,
and suggest some of the factors that lead to a positive experience. Keywords: domestic robot, user study | |||
| How close?: model of proximity control for information-presenting robots | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 137-144 | |
| Fumitaka Yamaoka; Takayuki Kanda; Hiroshi Ishiguro; Norihiro Hagita | |||
| This paper describes a model for a robot to appropriately control its
position when it presents information to a user. This capability is
indispensable since in the future many robots will be functioning in daily
situations as shopkeepers presenting products to customers or museum guides
presenting information to visitors. Psychology research suggests that people
adjust their positions to establish a joint view toward a target object.
Similarly, when a robot presents an object, it should stand at an appropriate
position that considers the positions of both the listener and the object to
optimize the listener's field of view and to establish a joint view. We
observed human-human interaction situations where people presented objects and
developed a model for an information-presenting robot to appropriately adjust
its position. Our model consists of four constraints for establishing O-space:
(1) proximity to listener, (2) proximity to object, (3) listener's field of
view, and (4) presenter's field of view. We also present an experimental
evaluation of the effectiveness of our model. Keywords: communication robot, human-robot interaction | |||
| How people anthropomorphize robots | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 145-152 | |
| Susan R. Fussell; Sara Kiesler; Leslie D. Setlock; Victoria Yew | |||
| We explored anthropomorphism in people's reactions to a robot in social
context vs. their more considered judgments of robots in the abstract.
Participants saw a photo and read transcripts from a health interview by a
robot or human interviewer. For half of the participants, the interviewer was
polite and for the other half, the interviewer was impolite. Participants then
summarized the interactions in their own words and responded true or false to
adjectives describing the interviewer. They later completed a post-task survey
about whether a robot interviewer would possess moods, attitudes, and feelings.
The results showed substantial anthropomorphism in participants' interview
summaries and true-false responses, but minimal anthropomorphism in the
abstract robot survey. Those who interacted with the robot interviewer tended
to anthropomorphize more in the post-task survey, suggesting that as people
interact more with robots, their abstract conceptions of them will become more
anthropomorphic. Keywords: human-robot interaction, social robots | |||
| How quickly should communication robots respond? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 153-160 | |
| Toshiyuki Shiwa; Takayuki Kanda; Michita Imai; Hiroshi Ishiguro; Norihiro Hagita | |||
| This paper reports a study about system response time (SRT) in communication
robots that utilize human-like social features, such as anthropomorphic
appearance and conversation in natural language. Our research purpose
established a design guideline for SRT in communication robots. The first
experiment observed user preferences toward different SRTs in interaction with
a robot. In other existing user interfaces, faster response is usually
preferred. In contrast, our experimental result indicated that user preference
for SRT in a communication robot is highest at one second, and user preference
ratings level off at two seconds.
However, a robot cannot always respond in such a short time as one or two seconds. Thus, the important question is "What should a robot do if it cannot respond quickly enough?" The second experiment tested the effectiveness of a conversational filler: behavior to notify listeners that the robot is going to respond. In Japanese "etto" is used to buy time to think and resembles "well..." and "uh..." In English. We used the same strategy in a communication robot to shadow system response time. Our results indicated that using a conversational filler by the robot moderated the user's impression toward a long SRT. Keywords: communication robots, conversational filler, system response time | |||
| How training and experience affect the benefits of autonomy in a dirty-bomb experiment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 161-168 | |
| David J. Bruemmer; Curtis W. Nielsen; David I. Gertman | |||
| A dirty-bomb experiment conducted at the INL is used to evaluate the
effectiveness and suitability of three different modes of robot control. The
experiment uses three distinct user groups to understand how participants'
background and training affect the way in which they use and benefit from
autonomy. The results show that the target mode, which involves automated
mapping and plume tracing together with a point and click tasking tool,
provides the best performance for each group. This is true for objective
performance such as source detection and localization accuracy as well as
subjective measures such as perceived workload, frustration and preference. The
best overall performance is achieved by the Explosive Ordinance Disposal group
which has experience in both robot teleoperation and dirty bomb response. The
user group that benefits least from autonomy is the Nuclear Engineers that have
no experience with either robot operation or dirty bomb response. The group
that benefits most from autonomy is the Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil
Support Team that has extensive experience related to the task, but no robot
training. Keywords: expert user, human-robot interaction, map-building, seamless autonomy | |||
| Human emotion and the uncanny valley: a GLM, MDS, and Isomap analysis of robot video ratings | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 169-176 | |
| Chin-Chang Ho; Karl F. MacDorman; Z. A. D. Dwi Pramono | |||
| The eerie feeling attributed to human-looking robots and animated characters
may be a key factor in our perceptual and cognitive discrimination of the human
and humanlike. This study applies regression, the generalized linear model
(GLM), factor analysis, multidimensional scaling (MDS), and kernel isometric
mapping (Isomap) to analyze ratings of 27 emotions of 18 moving figures whose
appearance varies along a human likeness continuum. The results indicate (1)
Attributions of eerie and creepy better capture our visceral reaction to an
uncanny robot than strange. (2) Eerie and creepy are mainly associated with
fear but also shocked, disgusted, and nervous. Strange is less strongly
associated with emotion. (3) Thus, strange may be more cognitive, while eerie
and creepy are more perceptual/emotional. (4) Human features increase ratings
of human likeness. (5) Women are slightly more sensitive to eerie and creepy
than men; and older people may be more willing to attribute human likeness to a
robot despite its eeriness. Keywords: android science, data visualization, emotion, uncanny valley | |||
| Human to robot demonstrations of routine home tasks: exploring the role of the robot's feedback | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 177-184 | |
| Nuno Otero; Aris Alissandrakis; Kerstin Dautenhahn; Chrystopher Nehaniv; Dag Sverre Syrdal; Kheng Lee Koay | |||
| In this paper, we explore some conceptual issues, relevant for the design of
robotic systems aimed at interacting with humans in domestic environments. More
specifically, we study the role of the robot's feedback (positive or negative
acknowledgment of understanding) on a human teacher's demonstration of a
routine home task (laying a table). Both the human and the system's
perspectives are considered in the analysis and discussion of results from a
human-robot user study, highlighting some important conceptual and practical
issues. These include the lack of explicitness and consistency on people's
demonstration strategies. Furthermore, we discuss the need to investigate
design strategies to elicit people's knowledge about the task and also
successfully advertize the robot's abilities in order to promote people's
ability to provide appropriate demonstrations. Keywords: correspondence problem, effect metrics, gestures, human-robot interaction,
routine home tasks, social learning, spatial configuration tasks | |||
| A hybrid algorithm for tracking and following people using a robotic dog | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 185-192 | |
| Martijn Liem; Arnoud Visser; Frans Groen | |||
| The capability to follow a person in a domestic environment is an important
prerequisite for a robot companion. In this paper, a tracking algorithm is
presented that makes it possible to follow a person using a small robot. This
algorithm can track a person while moving around, regardless of the sometimes
erratic movements of the legged robot. Robust performance is obtained by fusion
of two algorithms, one based on salient features and one on color histograms.
Re-initializing object histograms enables the system to track a person even
when the illumination in the environment changes. By being able to
re-initialize the system on run time using background subtraction, the system
gains an extra level of robustness. Keywords: awareness and monitoring of humans, robot companion | |||
| Hybrid tracking of human operators using IMU/UWB data fusion by a Kalman filter | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 193-200 | |
| J. A. Corrales; F. A. Candelas; F. Torres | |||
| The precise localization of human operators in robotic workplaces is an
important requirement to be satisfied in order to develop human-robot
interaction tasks. Human tracking provides not only safety for human operators,
but also context information for intelligent human-robot collaboration. This
paper evaluates an inertial motion capture system which registers full-body
movements of an user in a robotic manipulator workplace. However, the presence
of errors in the global translational measurements returned by this system has
led to the need of using another localization system, based on Ultra-WideBand
(UWB) technology. A Kalman filter fusion algorithm which combines the
measurements of these systems is developed. This algorithm unifies the
advantages of both technologies: high data rates from the motion capture system
and global translational precision from the UWB localization system. The
developed hybrid system not only tracks the movements of all limbs of the user
as previous motion capture systems, but is also able to position precisely the
user in the environment. Keywords: data fusion, human tracking and monitoring, indoor location, inertial
sensors, kalman filter, motion capture, uwb | |||
| Integrating vision and audition within a cognitive architecture to track conversations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 201-208 | |
| J. Gregory Trafton; Magda D. Bugajska; Benjamin R. Fransen; Raj M. Ratwani | |||
| We describe a computational cognitive architecture for robots which we call
ACT-R/E (ACT-R/Embodied). ACT-R/E is based on ACT-R [1, 2] but uses different
visual, auditory, and movement modules. We describe a model that uses ACT-R/E
to integrate visual and auditory information to perform conversation tracking
in a dynamic environment. We also performed an empirical evaluation study which
shows that people see our conversational tracking system as extremely natural. Keywords: act-r, cognitive modeling, conversation following, human-robot interaction | |||
| Learning polite behavior with situation models | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 209-216 | |
| Rémi Barraquand; James L. Crowley | |||
| In this paper, we describe experiments with methods for learning the
appropriateness of behaviors based on a model of the current social situation.
We first review different approaches for social robotics, and present a new
approach based on situation modeling. We then review algorithms for social
learning and propose three modifications to the classical Q-Learning algorithm.
We describe five experiments with progressively complex algorithms for learning
the appropriateness of behaviors. The first three experiments illustrate how
social factors can be used to improve learning by controlling learning rate. In
the fourth experiment we demonstrate that proper credit assignment improves the
effectiveness of reinforcement learning for social interaction. In our fifth
experiment we show that analogy can be used to accelerate learning rates in
contexts composed of many situations. Keywords: credit assignment, learning by analogy, q-learning, social interaction,
social learning, social robotics | |||
| Loudness measurement of human utterance to a robot in noisy environment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 217-224 | |
| Satoshi Kagami; Yoko Sasaki; Simon Thompson; Tomoaki Fujihara; Tadashi Enomoto; Hiroshi Mizoguchi | |||
| In order to understand utterance based human-robot interaction, and to
develop such a system, this paper initially analyzes how loud humans speak in a
noisy environment. Experiments were conducted to measure
how loud humans speak with 1) different noise levels, 2) different number of sound sources, 3) different sound sources, and 4) different distances to a robot. Synchronized sound sources add noise to the auditory scene, and resultant utterances are recorded and compared to a previously recorded noiseless utterance. From experiments, we understand that humans generate basically the same level of sound pressure level at his/her location irrespective of distance and background noise. More precisely, there is a band according to a distance, and also according to sound sources that is including language pronounce. According to this understanding, we developed an online spoken command recognition system for a mobile robot. System consists of two key components: 1) Low side-lobe microphone array that works as omini-directional telescopic microphone, and 2) DSBF combined with FBS method for sound source localization and segmentation. Caller location and segmented sound stream are calculated, and then the segmented sound stream is sent to voice recognition system. The system works with at most five sound sources at the same time with about at most 18[dB] sound pressure differences. Experimental results with the modile robot are also shown. Keywords: human utterance, sound localization, sound pressure level | |||
| Multi-thresholded approach to demonstration selection for interactive robot learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 225-232 | |
| Sonia Chernova; Manuela Veloso | |||
| Effective learning from demonstration techniques enable complex robot
behaviors to be taught from a small number of demonstrations. A number of
recent works have explored interactive approaches to demonstration, in which
both the robot and the teacher are able to select training examples. In this
paper, we focus on a demonstration selection algorithm used by the robot to
identify informative states for demonstration. Existing automated approaches
for demonstration selection typically rely on a single threshold value, which
is applied to a measure of action confidence. We highlight the limitations of
using a single fixed threshold for a specific subset of algorithms, and
contribute a method for automatically setting multiple confidence thresholds
designed to target domain states with the greatest uncertainty. We present a
comparison of our multi-threshold selection method to confidence-based
selection using a single fixed threshold, and to manual data selection by a
human teacher. Our results indicate that the automated multi-threshold approach
significantly reduces the number of demonstrations required to learn the task. Keywords: human-robot interaction, learning from demonstration | |||
| Object schemas for responsive robotic language use | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 233-240 | |
| Kai-yuh Hsiao; Soroush Vosoughi; Stefanie Tellex; Rony Kubat; Deb Roy | |||
| The use of natural language should be added to a robot system without
sacrificing responsiveness to the environment. In this paper, we present a
robot that manipulates objects on a tabletop in response to verbal interaction.
Reactivity is maintained by using concurrent interaction processes, such as
visual trackers and collision detection processes. The interaction processes
and their associated data are organized into object schemas, each representing
a physical object in the environment, based on the target of each process. The
object schemas then serve as discrete structures of coordination between
reactivity, planning, and language use, permitting rapid integration of
information from multiple sources. Keywords: affordances, behavior-based, language grounding, object schema, robot | |||
| A point-and-click interface for the real world: laser designation of objects for mobile manipulation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 241-248 | |
| Charles C. Kemp; Cressel D. Anderson; Hai Nguyen; Alexander J. Trevor; Zhe Xu | |||
| We present a novel interface for human-robot interaction that enables a
human to intuitively and unambiguously select a 3D location in the world and
communicate it to a mobile robot. The human points at a location of interest
and illuminates it ("clicks it") with an unaltered, off-the-shelf, green laser
pointer. The robot detects the resulting laser spot with an omnidirectional,
catadioptric camera with a narrow-band green filter. After detection, the robot
moves its stereo pan/tilt camera to look at this location and estimates the
location's 3D position with respect to the robot's frame of reference.
Unlike previous approaches, this interface for gesture-based pointing requires no instrumentation of the environment, makes use of a non-instrumented everyday pointing device, has low spatial error out to 3 meters, is fully mobile, and is robust enough for use in real-world applications. We demonstrate that this human-robot interface enables a person to designate a wide variety of everyday objects placed throughout a room. In 99.4% of these tests, the robot successfully looked at the designated object and estimated its 3D position with low average error. We also show that this interface can support object acquisition by a mobile manipulator. For this application, the user selects an object to be picked up from the floor by "clicking" on it with the laser pointer interface. In 90% of these trials, the robot successfully moved to the designated object and picked it up off of the floor. Keywords: 3d point estimation, assistive robotics, autonomous manipulation,
catadioptric camera, deictic, human-robot interaction, laser pointer interface,
mobile manipulation, object fetching, robot | |||
| Reasoning for a multi-modal service robot considering uncertainty in human-robot interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 249-254 | |
| Sven R. Schmidt-Rohr; Steffen Knoop; Martin Lösch; Rüdiger Dillmann | |||
| This paper presents a reasoning system for a multi-modal service robot with
human-robot interaction. The reasoning system uses partially observable Markov
decision processes (POMDPs) for decision making and an intermediate level for
bridging the gap of abstraction between multi-modal real world sensors and
actuators on the one hand and POMDP reasoning on the other. A filter system
handles the abstraction of multi-modal perception while preserving uncertainty
and model-soundness. A command sequencer is utilized to control the execution
of symbolic POMDP decisions on multiple actuator components. By using POMDP
reasoning, the robot is able to deal with uncertainty in both observation and
prediction of human behavior and can balance risk and opportunity. The system
has been implemented on a multi-modal service robot and is able to let the
robot act autonomously in modeled human-robot interaction scenarios.
Experiments evaluate the characteristics of the proposed algorithms and
architecture. Keywords: HRI, pomdp, robot decision making | |||
| Relational vs. group self-construal: untangling the role of national culture in HRI | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 255-262 | |
| Vanessa Evers; Heidy C. Maldonado; Talia L. Brodecki; Pamela J. Hinds | |||
| As robots (and other technologies) increasingly make decisions on behalf of
people, it is important to understand how people from diverse cultures respond
to this capability. Thus far, much design of autonomous systems takes a Western
view valuing individual preferences and choice. We challenge the assumption
that Western values are universally optimal for robots. In this study, we
sought to clarify the effects of users' cultural background on human-robot
collaboration by investigating their attitudes toward and the extent to which
people accepted choices made by a robot or human assistant. A 2x2x2 experiment
was conducted with nationality (US vs. Chinese), in group strength (weak vs.
strong) and human vs. robot assistant as dimensions. US participants reported
higher trust of and compliance with the assistants (human and robot) although
when the assistant was characterized as a strong ingroup member, Chinese as
compared with the US subjects were more comfortable. Chinese also reported a
stronger sense of control with both assistants and were more likely to
anthropomorphize the robot than were US subjects. This pattern of findings
confirms that people from different national cultures may respond differently
to robots, but also suggests that predictions from human-human interaction do
not hold universally. Keywords: cross-cultural design, human-robot collaboration | |||
| Robot social presence and gender: do females view robots differently than males? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 263-270 | |
| Paul Schermerhorn; Matthias Scheutz; Charles R. Crowell | |||
| Social-psychological processes in humans will play an important role in
long-term human-robot interactions. This study investigates people's
perceptions of social presence in robots during (relatively) short
interactions. Findings indicate that males tend to think of the robot as more
human-like and accordingly show some evidence of "social facilitation" on an
arithmetic task as well as more socially desirable responding on a survey
administered by a robot. In contrast, females saw the robot as more
machine-like, exhibited less socially desirable responding to the robot's
survey, and were not socially facilitated by the robot while engaged in the
arithmetic tasks. Various alternative accounts of these findings are explored
and the implications of these results for future work are discussed. Keywords: human-robot interaction, robot social presence | |||
| Robotic animals might aid in the social development of children with autism | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 271-278 | |
| Cady M. Stanton; Peter H., Jr. Kahn; Rachel L. Severson; Jolina H. Ruckert; Brian T. Gill | |||
| This study investigated whether a robotic dog might aid in the social
development of children with autism. Eleven children diagnosed with autism
(ages 5-8) interacted with the robotic dog AIBO and, during a different period
within the same experimental session, a simple mechanical toy dog (Kasha),
which had no ability to detect or respond to its physical or social
environment. Results showed that, in comparison to Kasha, the children spoke
more words to AIBO, and more often engaged in three types of behavior with AIBO
typical of children without autism: verbal engagement, reciprocal interaction,
and authentic interaction. In addition, we found suggestive evidence (with p
values ranging from .07 to .09) that the children interacted more with AIBO,
and, while in the AIBO session, engaged in fewer autistic behaviors. Discussion
focuses on why robotic animals might benefit children with autism. Keywords: aibo, animals, autism, reciprocity, robots, social development | |||
| Robotics operator performance in a military multi-tasking environment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 279-286 | |
| Jessie Y. C. Chen; Michael J. Barnes | |||
| We simulated a military mounted environment and examined the performance of
the combined position of gunner and robotics operator and how aided target
recognition (AiTR) capabilities (delivered either through tactile or tactile +
visual cueing) for the gunnery task might benefit the concurrent robotics and
communication tasks. Results showed that participants' teleoperation task
improved significantly when the AiTR was available to assist them with their
gunnery task. However, the same improvement was not found for semi-autonomous
robotics task performance. Additionally, when teleoperating, those participants
with higher spatial ability outperformed those with lower spatial ability.
However, performance gap between those with higher and lower spatial ability
appeared to be narrower when the AiTR was available to assist the gunnery task.
Participants' communication task performance also improved significantly when
the gunnery task was aided by AiTR. Finally, participant's perceived workload
was significantly higher when they teleoperated a robotic asset and when their
gunnery task was unassisted. Keywords: human robot interaction, individual differences., reconnaissance,
simulation, tactile display, ugv | |||
| Robots in organizations: the role of workflow, social, and environmental factors in human-robot interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 287-294 | |
| Bilge Mutlu; Jodi Forlizzi | |||
| Robots are becoming increasingly integrated into the workplace, impacting
organizational structures and processes, and affecting products and services
created by these organizations. While robots promise significant benefits to
organizations, their introduction poses a variety of design challenges. In this
paper, we use ethnographic data collected at a hospital using an autonomous
delivery robot to examine how organizational factors affect the way its members
respond to robots and the changes engendered by their use. Our analysis
uncovered dramatic differences between the medical and post-partum units in how
people integrated the robot into their workflow and their perceptions of and
interactions with it. Different patient profiles in these units led to
differences in workflow, goals, social dynamics, and the use of the physical
environment. In medical units, low tolerance for interruptions, a discrepancy
between the perceived cost and benefits of using the robot, and breakdowns due
to high traffic and clutter in the robot's path caused the robot to have a
negative impact on the workflow and staff resistance. On the contrary,
post-partum units integrated the robot into their workflow and social context.
Based on our findings, we provide design guidelines for the development of
robots for organizations. Keywords: autonomous robots, ethnography, groupware, organizational interfaces,
organizational technology, robots in organizations | |||
| The roles of haptic-ostensive referring expressions in cooperative, task-based human-robot dialogue | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 295-302 | |
| Mary Ellen Foster; Ellen Gurman Bard; Markus Guhe; Robin L. Hill; Jon Oberlander; Alois Knoll | |||
| Generating referring expressions is a task that has received a great deal of
attention in the natural-language generation community, with an increasing
amount of recent effort targeted at the generation of multimodal referring
expressions. However, most implemented systems tend to assume very little
shared knowledge between the speaker and the hearer, and therefore must
generate fully-elaborated linguistic references. Some systems do include a
representation of the physical context or the dialogue context; however, other
sources of contextual information are not normally used. Also, the generated
references normally consist only of language and, possibly, deictic pointing
gestures.
When referring to objects in the context of a task-based interaction involving jointly manipulating objects, a much richer notion of context is available, which permits a wider range of referring options. In particular, when conversational partners cooperate on a mutual task in a shared environment, objects can be made accessible simply by manipulating them as part of the task. We demonstrate that such expressions are common in a corpus of human-human dialogues based on constructing virtual objects, and then describe how this type of reference can be incorporated into the output of a humanoid robot that engages in similar joint construction dialogues with a human partner. Keywords: multimodal dialogue, referring expressions | |||
| A semi-autonomous communication robot: a field trial at a train station | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 303-310 | |
| Masahiro Shiomi; Daisuke Sakamoto; Kanda Takayuki; Carlos Toshinori Ishi; Hiroshi Ishiguro; Norihiro Hagita | |||
| This paper reports an initial field trial with a prototype of a
semiautonomous communication robot at a train station. We developed an
operator-requesting mechanism to achieve semiautonomous operation for a
communication robot functioning in real environments. The operator-requesting
mechanism autonomously detects situations that the robot cannot handle by
itself; a human operator helps by assuming control of the robot.
This approach gives semi-autonomous robots the ability to function naturally with minimum human effort. Our system consists of a humanoid robot and ubiquitous sensors. The robot has such basic communicative behaviors as greeting and route guidance. The experimental results revealed that the operator-requesting mechanism correctly requested operator's help in 85% of the necessary situations; the operator only had to control 25% of the experiment time in the semi-autonomous mode with a robot system that successfully guided 68% of the passengers. At the same time, this trial provided the opportunity to gather user data for the further development of natural behaviors for such robots operating in real environments. Keywords: field trial, human-robot interaction, operator-requesting mechanism,
semi-autonomous commutation robot | |||
| Simultaneous teleoperation of multiple social robots | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 311-318 | |
| Dylan F. Glas; Takayuki Kanda; Hiroshi Ishiguro; Norihiro Hagita | |||
| Teleoperation of multiple robots has been studied extensively for
applications such as robot navigation; however, this concept has never been
applied to the field of social robots. To explore the unique challenges posed
by the remote operation of multiple social robots, we have implemented a system
in which a single operator simultaneously controls up to four robots, all
engaging in communication interactions with users. We present a user inter-face
designed for operating a single robot while monitoring several others in the
background, then we propose methods for characterizing task difficulty and
introduce a technique for improving multiple-robot performance by reducing the
number of conflicts between robots demanding the operator's attention. Finally,
we demonstrate the success of our system in laboratory trials based on
real-world interactions. Keywords: adjustable autonomy, communication robots, human-robot interaction, multiple
robots, social robots, supervisory control | |||
| Spiral response-cascade hypothesis: intrapersonal responding-cascade in gaze interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 319-326 | |
| Yuichiro Yoshikawa; Shunsuke Yamamoto; Hidenobu Sumioka; Hiroshi Ishiguro; Minoru Asada | |||
| A spiral response-cascade hypothesis is proposed to model the mechanism that
enables human communication to emerge or be maintained among agents. In this
hypothesis, we propose the existence of three cascades each of which indicates
intrapersonal or interpersonal mutual facilitation in the formation of
someone's feelings about one's communication partners and the exhibition of
behaviors in communicating with them, i.e., responding. In this paper, we
discuss our examination of an important part of the hypothesis, i.e., what we
call an intrapersonal responding cascade, through an experiment where the gaze
interactions between a participant and a communication robot were controlled
not only by controlling the robot's gaze but also by signaling participants
when to shift their gaze. We report that the participants' experiences in
responding to the robot enable them to regard the robot as a communicative
being, which partially supports the hypothesis of the intrapersonal responding
cascade. Keywords: cascade effect, feelings about communication, psychological experiment with
robots, responsive behavior | |||
| Supervision and motion planning for a mobile manipulator interacting with humans | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 327-334 | |
| Emrah Akin Sisbot; Aurelie Clodic; Rachid Alami; Maxime Ransan | |||
| Human Robot collaborative task achievement requires adapted tools and
algorithms for both decision making and motion computation. The human presence
as well as its behavior must be considered and actively monitored at the
decisional level for the robot to produce synchronized and adapted behavior.
Additionally, having a human within the robot range of action introduces
security constraints as well as comfort considerations which must be taken into
account at the motion planning and control level. This paper presents a robotic
architecture adapted to human robot interaction and focuses on two tools: a
human aware manipulation planner and a supervision system dedicated to
collaborative task achievement. Keywords: hri, motion planning, robot architecture, supervision | |||
| Theory of mind (ToM) on robots: a functional neuroimaging study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 335-342 | |
| Frank Hegel; Soeren Krach; Tilo Kircher; Britta Wrede; Gerhard Sagerer | |||
| Theory of Mind (ToM) is not only a key capability for cognitive development
but also for successful social interaction. In order for a robot to interact
successfully with a human both interaction partners need to have an adequate
representation of the other's actions. In this paper we address the question of
how a robot's actions are perceived and represented in a human subject
interacting with the robot and how this perception is influenced by the
appearance of the robot. We present the preliminary results of an fMRI-study in
which participants had to play a version of the classical Prisoners' Dilemma
Game (PDG) against four opponents: a human partner (HP), an anthropomorphic
robot (AR), a functional robot (FR), and a computer (CP). The PDG scenario
enables to implicitly measure mentalizing or Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities, a
technique commonly applied in functional imaging. As the responses of each game
partner were randomized unknowingly to the participants, the attribution of
intention or will to an opponent (i.e. HP, AR, FR or CP) was based purely on
differences in the perception of shape and embodiment.
The present study is the first to apply functional neuroimaging methods to study human-robot interaction on a higher cognitive level such as ToM. We hypothesize that the degree of anthropomorphism and embodiment of the game partner will modulate cortical activity in previously detected ToM networks as the medial prefrontal lobe and anterior cingulate cortex. Keywords: FMRI, anthropomorphism, social robots, theory of mind | |||
| Three dimensional tangible user interface for controlling a robotic team | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 343-350 | |
| Paul Lapides; Ehud Sharlin; Mario Costa Sousa | |||
| We describe a new method for controlling a group of robots in
three-dimensional (3D) space using a tangible user interface called the 3D
Tractus. Our interface maps the task space into an interactive 3D space,
allowing a single user to intuitively monitor and control a group of robots. We
present the use of the interface in controlling a group of virtual software
bots and a physical Sony AIBO robot dog in a simulated Explosive Ordnance
Disposal (EOD) environment involving a bomb hidden inside of a building. We
also describe a comparative user study we performed where participants were
asked to use both the 3D physical interface and a traditional 2D graphical user
interface in order to try and demonstrate the benefits and drawbacks of each
approach for HRI tasks. Keywords: evaluation, explosive ordnance disposal (eod), human-robot interaction,
interaction techniques, physical interfaces, robotic team control, tangible
user interfaces | |||
| Towards combining UAV and sensor operator roles in UAV-enabled visual search | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 351-358 | |
| Joseph Cooper; Michael A. Goodrich | |||
| Wilderness search and rescue (WiSAR) is a challenging problem because of the
large areas and often rough terrain that must be searched. Using mini-UAVs to
deliver aerial video to searchers has potential to support WiSAR efforts, but a
number of technology and human factors problems must be overcome to make this
practical. At the source of many of these problems is a desire to manage the
UAV using as few people as possible, so that more people can be used in
ground-based search efforts. This paper uses observations from two informal
studies and one formal experiment to identify what human operators may be
unaware of as a function of autonomy and information display. Results suggest
that progress is being made on designing autonomy and information displays that
may make it possible for a single human to simultaneously manage the UAV and
its camera in WiSAR, but that adaptable displays that support systematic
navigation are probably needed. Keywords: ecological interface, human-robot interaction, unmanned aerial vehicle, user
study | |||
| Towards multimodal human-robot interaction in large scale virtual environment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 359-366 | |
| Pierre Boudoin; Christophe Domingues; Samir Otmane; Nassima Ouramdane; Malik Mallem | |||
| Human Operators (HO) of telerobotics systems may be able to achieve complex
operations with robots. Designing usable and effective Human-Robot Interaction
(HRI) is very challenging for system developers and human factors specialists.
The search for new metaphors and techniques for HRI adapted to telerobotics
systems emerge on the conception of Multimodal HRI (MHRI). MHRI allows to
interact naturally and easily with robots due to combination of many devices
and an efficient Multimodal Management System (MMS). A system like this should
bring a new user's experience in terms of natural interaction, usability,
efficiency and flexibility to HRI system. So, a good management of
multimodality is very. Moreover, the MMS must be transparent to user in order
to be efficient and natural.
Empirical evaluation is necessary to have an idea about the goodness of our MMS. We will use an Empirical Evaluation Assistant (EEA) designed in the IBISC laboratory. EEA permits to rapidly gather significant feedbacks about the usability of interaction during the development lifecycle. However the HRI would be classically evaluated by ergonomics experts at the end of its development lifecycle. Results from a preliminary evaluation on a robot teleoperation tasks using the ARITI software framework for assisting the user in piloting the robot, and the IBISC semi-immersive VR/AR platform EVR@, are given. They compare the use of a Flystick and Data Gloves for the 3D interaction with the robot. They show that our MMS is functional although multimodality used in our experiments is not sufficient to provide an efficient Human-Robot Interaction. The EVR@ SPIDAR force feedback will be integrated in our MMS to improve the user's efficiency. Keywords: empirical evaluation, human-robot interaction, multimodal interaction,
usability, virtual environment | |||
| Understanding human intentions via hidden markov models in autonomous mobile robots | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 367-374 | |
| Richard Kelley; Alireza Tavakkoli; Christopher King; Monica Nicolescu; Mircea Nicolescu; George Bebis | |||
| Understanding intent is an important aspect of communication among people
and is an essential component of the human cognitive system. This capability is
particularly relevant for situations that involve collaboration among agents or
detection of situations that can pose a threat. In this paper, we propose an
approach that allows a robot to detect intentions of others based on experience
acquired through its own sensory-motor capabilities, then using this experience
while taking the perspective of the agent whose intent should be recognized.
Our method uses a novel formulation of Hidden Markov Models designed to model a
robot's experience and interaction with the world. The robot's capability to
observe and analyze the current scene employs a novel vision-based technique
for target detection and tracking, using a non-parametric recursive modeling
approach. We validate this architecture with a physically embedded robot,
detecting the intent of several people performing various activities. Keywords: hidden markov models, human-robot interaction, intention modeling, theory of
mind, vision-based methods | |||
| Using a robot proxy to create common ground in exploration tasks | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 375-382 | |
| Kristen Stubbs; David Wettergreen; Illah Nourbakhsh | |||
| In this paper, we present a user study of a new collaborative communication
method between a user and remotely-located robot performing an exploration
task. In the studied scenario, our user possesses scientific expertise but not
necessarily detailed knowledge of the robot's capabilities, resulting in very
little common ground
between the user and robot. Because the robot is not available during mission planning, we introduce a robot proxy to build common ground with the user. Our robot proxy has the ability to provide feedback to the user about the user's plans before the plans are executed. Our study demonstrated that the use of the robot proxy resulted in improved performance and efficiency on an exploration task, more accurate mental models of the robot's capabilities, a stronger perception of effectiveness at the task, and stronger feelings of collaboration with the robotic system. Keywords: common ground, exploration robotics, human-robot interaction, robot proxy | |||
| HRI caught on film 2 | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 383-388 | |
| Christoph Bartneck | |||
| Following the great success of the first video session at the HRI2007
conference (Bartneck & Kanda, 2007), the Human Robot Interaction 2008
conference hosted the second video session, in which movies of interesting,
important, illustrative, or humorous HRI research moments were shown. Robots
and humans do not always behave as expected and the results can be entertaining
and even enlightening -- therefore instances of failures have also been
considered in the video session. Besides the importance of the lessons learned
and the novelty of the situation, the videos have also an entertaining value.
The video session had the character of a design competition. Keywords: film, human, interaction, robot | |||
| Joint action in man and autonomous systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 389-390 | |
| Harold Bekkering; Estela Bicho; Ruud G. J. Meulenbroek; Wolfram Erlhagen | |||
| This talk presents recent functional insights derived from behavioural and
neuroimaging studies into the cognitive mechanisms underlying human joint
action. The main question is how the cognitive system of one actor can organize
the perceptual consequences of the movements of another actor such that
effective joint action in the two actors can take place. Particularly, the
issue of complementing each other's action in contrast to merely imitating the
actions that one observes will be discussed. Other issues that have been
investigated are motivational states (cooperative or competitive),
error-monitoring and the interaction between actors at the level of motor
control. The talk is completed with presenting recent attempts to implement the
functional insights from these experiments into autonomous systems being
capable of collaborating intelligently on shared motor tasks. Keywords: miscellaneous | |||
| Toward cognitive robot companions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 391-392 | |
| Raja Chatila | |||
| If robots have to be, one day, part of our environment and assist humans in
their daily life, they will have to be endowed not only with the necessary
functions for sensing, moving and acting, but also and inevitably, with more
advanced cognitive capacities. Indeed a robot that will interact with people
will need to be able to understand the spatial and dynamic structure of its
environment, to exhibit a social behavior, to communicate with humans at the
appropriate level of abstraction, to focus its attention and to take decisions
for achieving tasks, to learn new knowledge and to evolve new capacities in an
open-ended fashion.
The COGNIRON (The Cognitive Robot Companion) project studies the development of robots whose ultimate task would be serve and assist humans. The talk will overview the achievements of the project and its results that are demonstrated in three main experimental settings, enabling to exhibit cognitive capacities: the robot home tour, the curious and proactive robot and the robot learner. Keywords: cognitive robots, human robot interaction | |||
| Talking as if | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 393-394 | |
| Herbert H. Clark | |||
| If ordinary people are to work with humanoid robots, they will need to
communicate with them. But how will they do that? For many in the field, the
goal is to design robots that people can talk to just as they talk to actual
people. But a close look at actual communication suggests that this goal isn't
realist. It may even be untenable in principle.
An alternative goal is to design robots that people can talk to just as they talk to dynamic depictions of other people-what I will call characters. As it happens, ordinary people have a great deal of experience in interpreting the speech, gestures, and other actions of characters, and even in interacting with them. But talking to characters is different from talking to actual people. So once we view robots as characters, we will need a model of communication based on different principles. That, in turn, may change our ideas of what people can and cannot do with robots. Keywords: robotics | |||