Developing a person guidance module for hospital robots

This dissertation describes the design and implementation of the Person Guidance Module (PGM) that enables the IWARD (Intelligent Robot Swarm for attendance, Recognition, Cleaning and delivery) base robot to offer route guidance service to the patients or visitors inside the hospital arena. One of the common problems encountered in huge hospital buildings today is foreigners not being able to find their way around in the hospital. Although there are a variety of guide robots currently existing on the market and offering a wide range of guidance and related activities, they do not fit into the modular concept of the IWARD project. The PGM features a robust and foolproof non-hierarchical sensor fusion approach of an active RFID, stereovision and cricket mote sensor for guiding a patient to the X-ray room, or a visitor to a patient’s ward in every possible scenario in a complex, dynamic and crowded hospital environment. Moreover, the speed of the robot can be adjusted automatically according to the pace of the follower for physical comfort using this system. Furthermore, the module performs these tasks in any unconstructed environment solely from a robot’s onboard perceptual resources in order to limit the hardware installation costs and therefore the indoor setting support. Similar comprehensive solution in one single platform has remained elusive in existing literature. The finished module can be connected to any IWARD base robot using quick-change mechanical connections and standard electrical connections. The PGM module box is equipped with a Gumstix embedded computer for all module computing which is powered up automatically once the module box is inserted into the robot. In line with the general software architecture of the IWARD project, all software modules are developed as Orca2 components and cross-complied for Gumstix’s XScale processor. To support standardized communication between different software components, Internet Communications Engine (Ice) has been used as middleware. Additionally, plug-and-play capabilities have been developed and incorporated so that swarm system is aware at all times of which robot is equipped with PGM. Finally, in several field trials in hospital environments, the person guidance module has shown its suitability for a challenging real-world application as well as the necessary user acceptance

Error handling in multimodal voice-enabled interfaces of tour-guide robots using graphical models

Mobile service robots are going to play an increasing role in the society of humans. Voice-enabled interaction with service robots becomes very important, if such robots are to be deployed in real-world environments and accepted by the vast majority of potential human users. The research presented in this thesis addresses the problem of speech recognition integration in an interactive voice-enabled interface of a service robot, in particular a tour-guide robot. The task of a tour-guide robot is to engage visitors to mass exhibitions (users) in dialogue providing the services it is designed for (e.g. exhibit presentations) within a limited time. In managing tour-guide dialogues, extracting the user goal (intention) for requesting a particular service at each dialogue state is the key issue. In mass exhibition conditions speech recognition errors are inevitable because of noisy speech and uncooperative users of robots with no prior experience in robotics. They can jeopardize the user goal identification. Wrongly identified user goals can lead to communication failures. Therefore, to reduce the risk of such failures, methods for detecting and compensating for communication failures in human-robot dialogue are needed. During the short-term interaction with visitors, the interpretation of the user goal at each dialogue state can be improved by combining speech recognition in the speech modality with information from other available robot modalities. The methods presented in this thesis exploit probabilistic models for fusing information from speech and auxiliary modalities of the robot for user goal identification and communication failure detection. To compensate for the detected communication failures we investigate multimodal methods for recovery from communication failures. To model the process of modality fusion, taking into account the uncertainties in the information extracted from each input modality during human-robot interaction, we use the probabilistic framework of Bayesian networks. Bayesian networks are graphical models that represent a joint probability function over a set of random variables. They are used to model the dependencies among variables associated with the user goals, modality related events (e.g. the event of user presence that is inferred from the laser scanner modality of the robot), and observed modality features providing evidence in favor of these modality events. Bayesian networks are used to calculate posterior probabilities over the possible user goals at each dialogue state. These probabilities serve as a base in deciding if the user goal is valid, i.e. if it can be mapped into a tour-guide service (e.g. exhibit presentation) or is undefined – signaling a possible communication failure. The Bayesian network can be also used to elicit probabilities over the modality events revealing information about the possible cause for a communication failure. Introducing new user goal aspects (e.g. new modality events and related features) that provide auxiliary information for detecting communication failures makes the design process cumbersome, calling for a systematic approach in the Bayesian network modelling. Generally, introducing new variables for user goal identification in the Bayesian networks can lead to complex and computationally expensive models. In order to make the design process more systematic and modular, we adapt principles from the theory of grounding in human communication. When people communicate, they resolve understanding problems in a collaborative joint effort of providing evidence of common shared knowledge (grounding). We use Bayesian network topologies, tailored to limited computational resources, to model a state-based grounding model fusing information from three different input modalities (laser, video and speech) to infer possible grounding states. These grounding states are associated with modality events showing if the user is present in range for communication, if the user is attending to the interaction, whether the speech modality is reliable, and if the user goal is valid. The state-based grounding model is used to compute probabilities that intermediary grounding states have been reached. This serves as a base for detecting if the the user has reached the final grounding state, or wether a repair dialogue sequence is needed. In the case of a repair dialogue sequence, the tour-guide robot can exploit the multiple available modalities along with speech. For example, if the user has failed to reach the grounding state related to her/his presence in range for communication, the robot can use its move modality to search and attract the attention of the visitors. In the case when speech recognition is detected to be unreliable, the robot can offer the alternative use of the buttons modality in the repair sequence. Given the probability of each grounding state, and the dialogue sequence that can be executed in the next dialogue state, a tour-guide robot has different preferences on the possible dialogue continuation. If the possible dialogue sequences at each dialogue state are defined as actions, the introduced principle of maximum expected utility (MEU) provides an explicit way of action selection, based on the action utility, given the evidence about the user goal at each dialogue state. Decision networks, constructed as graphical models based on Bayesian networks are proposed to perform MEU-based decisions, incorporating the utility of the actions to be chosen at each dialogue state by the tour-guide robot. These action utilities are defined taking into account the tour-guide task requirements. The proposed graphical models for user goal identification and dialogue error handling in human-robot dialogue are evaluated in experiments with multimodal data. These data were collected during the operation of the tour-guide robot RoboX at the Autonomous System Lab of EPFL and at the Swiss National Exhibition in 2002 (Expo.02). The evaluation experiments use component and system level metrics for technical (objective) and user-based (subjective) evaluation. On the component level, the technical evaluation is done by calculating accuracies, as objective measures of the performance of the grounding model, and the resulting performance of the user goal identification in dialogue. The benefit of the proposed error handling framework is demonstrated comparing the accuracy of a baseline interactive system, employing only speech recognition for user goal identification, and a system equipped with multimodal grounding models for error handling

Columbia Chronicle (04/27/2015)

Student newspaper from April 27, 2015 entitled The Columbia Chronicle. This issue is 40 pages and is listed as Volume 50, Number 28. Cover story: Biggest Mouth delivers big sound Editor-in-Chief: Tyler Eaglehttps://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_chronicle/1955/thumbnail.jp

Story composition and process analysis using a computer tool based system

The performance of children in writing is a cause for concern: national testing at age 11 indicates that too many pupils underachieve in writing. The purpose of the project outlined in this thesis was to design a computer tool which would assist children aged between 7 and 11 years achieve a higher standard in narrative writing. The project involved four phases of research. First, a review of the research literature and government documents relating to literacy was undertaken, to establish differences between good and poor narrative writing, differences in the approach of mature and beginner writers, the natural course of children's writing development, effective methods of teaching, ways of assessing writing quality and approaches adopted by other computer applications. Secondly, a computer tool which scaffolds the narrative writing process was designed. HARRY delivers conversational prompts, stored in Microsoft Access databases, in a conference like-sitaation. The tool acts as a bridge between the writing approach adopted by beginner writers and the mature approach whilst demonstrating features of successful narrative writing. Thirdly, a method for automating the assessment of children's written grammar was devised. CHECK TEXT, a computer utility program, provides quantitative analyses of specific grammar features, facilitating comparisons between examples of stories written at Key Stage 2. Both applications use ASP and HTML files, for implementation on a web server. Finally, two small scale studies were conducted in a primary school - the first to investigate the effects of HARRY's assistance upon children's writing performance and behaviour, and the second to investigate the effects of using the system upon children's subsequent writing performance. The first study showed that when supported by HARRY, the children adopted a more reflective writing approach and they produced more successful narratives, provided they followed the advice. The second study showed that HARRY can accelerate children's writing development - most of the children wrote subsequently better stories and they all felt that they had improved. All the children liked using the tool and thought that HARRY made writing stories easier. HARRY's limitations are indicated, and potential developments and further investigations are proposed.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Researching self-evaluation in early childhood education

This study combines the data from three linked research activities which examined how teachers and other practitioners in the Early Years of education (0-8) can improve their practice through evaluating their own work. The major thesis of the research is that the practitioners' observation and research of children's educational interactions and experiences provide effective data both for judging the appropriateness of the curriculum provided and for developing more appropriate ways of providing for learning. Starting with an exploratory pilot stage (Phase One), and a second stage of action research undertaken jointly by the researcher and a number of practitioners (Phase Two), the research proceeded to a third stage (Phase Three) in which it formed a part of a national project in practitioner self-evaluation through action research. Analysis and interpretation of the data from these three research activities highlight aspects of the nature and the requirements of practitioner self-evaluation in the Early Years, and cast light on how educational improvement can be initiated, directed and implemented both by practitioners and by policy makers. In particular, differences between approaches to evaluation are traced to differences in the curriculum model employed, and the important role of observation in self-evaluation and thus in curriculum improvement is shown to be related to the adoption of a developmental approach to the curriculum in the Early Years

Influencia del Inglés sobre cuatro lenguas europeas : anglicísmos crudos y semánticos en francés, italiano, neerlandés y rusoi

En esta tesis se analiza la influencia de la lengua inglesa sobre cuatro lenguas europeas con el fin de entender su evolución desde 1945 hasta nuestros días, conocer la reacción social y gubernamental en los países estudiados, y presentar las buenas prácticas que han funcionado en algunos países en defensa de sus lenguas nacionales. Esta tesis está dividida en cuatro capítulos: francés, italiano, neerlandés y ruso. En cada uno se estudia la evolución de la influencia del inglés, las causas y consecuencias, la política lingüística, y el papel de la prensa, y se llega a la conclusión de que la prensa escrita es la principal introductora, propagadora y legitimadora de anglicismos crudos y semánticos. Nuestra bibliografía procede en su mayor parte de la propuesta por Manfred Görlach en su obra English in Europe publicada en 2002 por Oxford University Press, a la que hemos añadido otros libros de reciente publicación.Departamento de Lengua Español