Comunicação humano-robô através de linguagem falada

Doutoramento em Engenharia ElectrotécnicaNos últimos anos, as tecnologias que dão suporte à robótica avançaram expressivamente. É possível encontrar robôs de serviço nos mais variados campos. O próximo passo é o desenvolvimento de robôs inteligentes, com capacidade de comunicação em linguagem falada e de realizar trabalhos úteis em interação/cooperação com humanos. Torna-se necessário, então, encontrar um modo de interagir eficientemente com esses robôs, e com agentes inteligentes de maneira geral, que permita a transmissão de conhecimento em ambos os sentidos. Partiremos da hipótese de que é possível desenvolver um sistema de diálogo baseado em linguagem natural falada que resolva esse problema. Assim, o objetivo principal deste trabalho é a definição, implementação e avaliação de um sistema de diálogo utilizável na interação baseada em linguagem natural falada entre humanos e agentes inteligentes. Ao longo deste texto, mostraremos os principais aspectos da comunicação por linguagem falada, tanto entre os humanos, como também entre humanos e máquinas. Apresentaremos as principais categorias de sistemas de diálogo, com exemplos de alguns sistemas implementados, assim como ferramentas para desenvolvimento e algumas técnicas de avaliação. A seguir, entre outros aspectos, desenvolveremos os seguintes: a evolução levada a efeito na arquitetura computacional do Carl, robô utilizado neste trabalho; o módulo de aquisição e gestão de conhecimento, desenvolvido para dar suporte à interação; e o novo gestor de diálogo, baseado na abordagem de “Estado da Informação”, também concebido e implementado no âmbito desta tese. Por fim, uma avaliação experimental envolvendo a realização de diversas tarefas de interação com vários participantes voluntários demonstrou ser possível interagir com o robô e realizar as tarefas solicitadas. Este trabalho experimental incluiu avaliação parcial de funcionalidades, avaliação global do sistema de diálogo e avaliação de usabilidade.In recent years, robotics-related technologies have reached a remarkable level of maturity. Service robots can be found in various fields. The next step is the development of intelligent robots, capable of communicating in spoken language and doing useful work in interaction / cooperation with humans. It is then necessary to find a way to efficiently interact with these robots, and with intelligent agents in general, enabling the transmission of knowledge in both directions. We will assume that one can develop a spoken language dialogue system to solve this problem. Therefore, the main goal of this work is the design, implementation and evaluation of a dialogue system that can be used on spoken language interaction between humans and intelligent agents. Throughout this document, we present and discuss the main aspects related to spoken language communication, among humans as well as between humans and machines. We present the main dialogue system categories, with examples of some implemented systems, development tools and a few evaluation techniques. Then, we describe the developed dialog system and its integration in a real robot, including the following aspects: the evolution in the computational architecture of Carl, the robot used in this work; the knowledge acquisition and management module, developed to support the interaction; and the new dialogue manager, based on the “Information State” approach, also designed and implemented within this thesis work. Finally, an experimental evaluation involving the completion of several interaction tasks involving several volunteers proved to be possible to interact with the robot and perform the requested tasks. The evaluation includes a partial evaluation of features, an overall evaluation of the dialogue system and a usability evaluation

Uncanniliy Human - Experimental Investigation of the Uncanny Valley Phenomenon

Seit seiner Einführung in den wissenschaftlichen Diskurs im Jahr 1970 (Mori, 1970; Mori et al., 2012) ist das Uncanny Valley eine der meist diskutierten und referenzierten Theorien in der Robotik. Obwohl die Theorie vor mehr als 40 Jahren postuliert wurde, wurde sie kaum empirisch untersucht. Erst in den letzten sieben Jahren haben Wissenschaftler aus dem Bereich Robotik, aber auch aus anderen Disziplinen, angefangen, das Uncanny Valley systematischer zu erforschen. Allerdings blieben bisher viele Fragen offen. Einiger dieser Fragen wurden in dem vorliegenden Forschungsprojekt im Rahmen von vier aufeinander aufbauenden Studien untersucht. Der Schwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt auf der systematischen Untersuchung des Einflusses von statischen und dynamischen Merkmalen von Robotern, wie etwa dem Design bzw. Erscheinungsbild und der Bewegung, auf die Wahrnehmung und Evaluation von diesen Robotern. Eine Besonderheit der vorliegenden Arbeit ist der multi-methodologische Ansatz, bei dem die durch verschiedenste Methoden und Messinstrumente beobachteten Effekte auf ihre Relevanz für die Uncanny Valley Theorie hin untersucht wurden. Zudem wurden die in der bisherigen Literatur postulierten Erklärungsansätze für den Uncanny Valley Effekt empirisch getestet. In der ersten Studie wurde anhand von qualitativen Interviews, in denen Probanden Bilder und Videos von humanoiden und androiden Robotern gezeigt wurden, untersucht, wie Probanden sehr menschenähnliche Roboter evaluieren, ob sie emotionale Reaktionen zeigen, und wie ihre Einstellungen gegenüber diesen Robotern sind. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass emotionale Reaktion, wenn überhaupt vorhanden, individuell sehr verschieden ausfallen. Das Erscheinungsbild der Roboter war sehr wichtig, denn bestimmte Designmerkmale wurden mit bestimmten Fähigkeiten gleichgesetzt. Ein menschliches Erscheinungsbild ohne Funktionalität wurde eher negativ bewertet. Zudem schienen die Probanden bei androiden Robotern dieselben Maßstäbe zur Bewertung von Attraktivität anzulegen wie sie dies bei Menschen tun. Die Analyse zeigte auch die Relevanz der Bewegungen der Roboter und des Kontextes, in welchem der jeweilige Roboter präsentiert wurde. Es wurde erste Evidenz gefunden für die Annahme, dass Menschen Unsicherheit verspüren bei der Kategorisierung von androiden Robotern als entweder Roboter oder Mensch. Zudem fühlten sich die Probanden unwohl bei dem Gedanken, dass Roboter sie ersetzten könnten. Die zweite Studie untersuchte den Einfluss von robotischer Bewegung. In einem quasi-experimentellen Feldexperiment wurden Passanten mit dem androiden Roboter Geminoid HI-1 konfrontiert, der sich entweder still verhielt oder Bewegungsverhalten zeigte. Die Interaktionen wurden analysiert hinsichtlich des nonverbalen Verhaltens der Passanten (z.B. auf den Roboter gerichtete Aufmerksamkeit, interpersonale Distanz zum Roboter). Die Resultate zeigen, dass das Verhalten der Passanten von dem Verhalten des Roboters beeinflusst wurde, zum Beispiel waren die Interaktionen länger, die Probanden stellten mehr Blickkontakt her und testeten die Fähigkeiten des Roboters wenn dieser Bewegungsverhalten zeigte. Zudem diente das Verhalten des Roboters als Hinweisreiz für die richtige Kategorisierung des Roboters als solchen. Der Aspekt des Erscheinungsbildes wurde in der dritten Studie systematisch untersucht. Zu diesem Zweck wurden in einem webbasierten Fragebogen 40 standardisierte Bilder von Robotern evaluiert, um die Evaluation beeinflussende Designmerkmale zu identifizieren. Eine Clusteranalyse ergab sechs Cluster von Robotern, die auf sechs Dimensionen unterschiedlich bewertet wurden. Mögliche Beziehungen zwischen Designmerkmalen und Evaluationen der Cluster wurden aufgezeigt und diskutiert. Zudem wurde die Aussagekraft des Uncanny Valley Graphen untersucht. Ausgehend von Mori’s Überlegungen ist der Uncanny Valley Effekt eine kubische Funktion. Demnach müssten sich die Daten am besten durch eine kubische Funktion erklären lassen. Die Ergebnisse zeigten allerdings eine bessere Modellpassung für lineare oder quadratische Zusammenhänge. In der letzten Studie wurden perzeptions-orientiert und evolutionsbiologische Erklärungsansätze für das Uncanny Valley systematisch getestet. In dieser Studie wurden Daten aus Selbstauskunft, Verhaltensdaten und funktionelle Bildgebung kombiniert, um zu untersuchen ob sich die Effekte auf Basis der Selbstauskunft und der Verhaltensdaten erklären lassen durch a) zusätzliche Verarbeitungsleistung während der Perzeption von Gesichtern, b) automatisch ablaufende Prozesse sozialer Kognition, oder c) eine Überempfindlichkeit des sogenannten Verhaltensimmunsystems (behavioral immune system). Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die perzeptions-orientierten Erklärungen für den Uncanny Valley Effekt. Zum einen scheinen die Verhaltenseffekte durch neuronale Prozesse während der Wahrnehmung von Gesichtern begründet zu sein. Zum anderen gibt es Befunde, die auf eine kategoriale Wahrnehmung von Robotern und Menschen hinweisen. Evolutionsbiologische Erklärungen konnten durch die vorliegenden Daten nicht gestützt werden.Since its introduction into scientific discourse in 1970 (Mori, 1970; Mori et al., 2012) the uncanny valley has been a highly discussed and referenced theory in the field of robotics. Although the theory was postulated more than 40 years ago, it has barely been tested empirically. However, in the last seven years robot scientists addressed themselves to the task of investigating the uncanny valley more systematically. But there are still open questions, some of which have been addressed within this research in the course of four consecutive studies. This project focussed on the systematic investigation of how static and dynamic characteristics of robots such as appearance and movement determine evaluations of and behavior towards robots. The work applied a multi-methodological approach and the various observed effects were examined with regard to their importance for the assumed uncanny valley. In addition, previously proposed explanations for the uncanny valley effect were tested. The first study utilized qualitative interviews in which participants were presented with pictures and videos of humanoid and android robots to explore participants’ evaluations of very human-like robots, their attitudes about these robots, and their emotional reactions towards these robots. Results showed that emotional experiences, if existent, were very individual. The robots’ appearance was of great importance for the participants, because certain characteristics were equalized with certain abilities, merely human appearance without a connected functionality was not appreciated, and human rules of attractiveness were applied to the android robots. The analysis also demonstrated the importance of the robots’ movements and the social context they were placed in. First evidence was found supporting the assumption that participants experienced uncertainty how to categorize android robots (as human or machine) and that they felt uncomfortable at the thought to be replaced by robots. The influence of movement, as one of the important factors in the uncanny valley hypothesis, was examined in the second study. In a quasi-experimental observational field study people were confronted with the android robot Geminoid HI-1 either moving or not moving. These interactions between humans and the android robot were analyzed with regard to the participants’ nonverbal behavior (e.g. attention paid to the robot, proximity). Results show that participants’ behavior towards the android robot was influenced by the behavior the robot displayed. For instance, when the robot established eye-contact participants engaged in longer interactions, also established more eye-contact and tried to test the robots’ capabilities. The robot’s behavior served as cue for the participants to categorize the robot as such. The aspect of robot appearances was examined systematically in the third study in order to identify certain robot attractiveness indices or design characteristics which determine how people perceive robots. A web-based survey was conducted with standardized pictures of 40 different mechanoid, humanoid and android robots. A cluster analysis revealed six clusters of robots which were rated significantly different on six dimensions. Possible relationships of design characteristics and the evaluation of robots have been outlined. Moreover, it has been tested whether the data of this study can best be explained by a cubic funtion as would be suggested by the graph proposed by Mori. Results revealed that the data can be best explained by linear or quadratic relationships. The last study systematically tested perception-oriented and evolutionary-biological approaches for the uncanny valley. In this multi-methodological study, self-report and behavioral data were combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques in order to examine whether the observed effects in self-report and behavior occur due to a) additional processing during face perception of human and robotic stimuli, b) automatically elicited processes of social cognition, or c) oversensitivity of the behavioral immune system. The study found strong support for perception-oriented explanations for the uncanny valley effect. First, effects seem to be driven by face perception processes. Further, there were indicators for the assumption that categorical perception takes place. In the contrary, evolutionary-biological driven explanations assuming that uncanny valley related reactions are due to oversensitivity of the behavioral immune system were not supported by this work. Altogether, this dissertation explored the importance of characteristics of robots which are relevant for the uncanny valley hypothesis. Uncanny valley related responses were examined using a variety of measures, for instance, self-reporting, behavior, and brain activation, allowing conclusions with regard to the influence of the choice of measurements on the detection of uncanny valley related responses. Most importantly, explanations for the uncanny valley were tested systematically and support was found for cognitive-oriented and perception-oriented explanations

December 1995

ONT Terminal Funding Up in Air Again? 3 Banking on the Inland Empire 19 Human Resources Guide 21 Work Place Considerations for the Disabled 41 Answering Riddles about Employees on Salary 43 Inland Empire Health Care 53 ALSO ... At Deadline 3 Bankruptcies 16 California Venture Forum 58 Chamber of Commerce 14 Classifieds 15 Close Up:Douglas La Belle 7 Commentary 6 Comer on the Market 57 Corporate Profile: Fun Corner 10 Editorial 6 Executive Time Out 61 IEBJ Profile:Bob Hunt 8 Manager\u27s Bookshelf 64 Lists of the Month: see Pages 21-52 People, Places & Events 67 Real Estate Focus 66 Restaurant and Entertainment Guide 62-63 Software Review 6