The perception of emotion in artificial agents

Given recent technological developments in robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, it is perhaps unsurprising that the arrival of emotionally expressive and reactive artificial agents is imminent. However, if such agents are to become integrated into our social milieu, it is imperative to establish an understanding of whether and how humans perceive emotion in artificial agents. In this review, we incorporate recent findings from social robotics, virtual reality, psychology, and neuroscience to examine how people recognize and respond to emotions displayed by artificial agents. First, we review how people perceive emotions expressed by an artificial agent, such as facial and bodily expressions and vocal tone. Second, we evaluate the similarities and differences in the consequences of perceived emotions in artificial compared to human agents. Besides accurately recognizing the emotional state of an artificial agent, it is critical to understand how humans respond to those emotions. Does interacting with an angry robot induce the same responses in people as interacting with an angry person? Similarly, does watching a robot rejoice when it wins a game elicit similar feelings of elation in the human observer? Here we provide an overview of the current state of emotion expression and perception in social robotics, as well as a clear articulation of the challenges and guiding principles to be addressed as we move ever closer to truly emotional artificial agents

Evolution of humanoid robot and contribution of various countries in advancing the research and development of the platform

A human like autonomous robot which is capable to adapt itself with the changing of its environment and continue to reach its goal is considered as Humanoid Robot. These characteristics differs the Android from the other kind of robots. In recent years there has been much progress in the development of Humanoid and still there are a lot of scopes in this field. A number of research groups are interested in this area and trying to design and develop a various platforms of Humanoid based on mechanical and biological concept. Many researchers focus on the designing of lower torso to make the Robot navigating as like as a normal human being do. Designing the lower torso which includes west, hip, knee, ankle and toe, is the more complex and more challenging task. Upper torso design is another complex but interesting task that includes the design of arms and neck. Analysis of walking gait, optimal control of multiple motors or other actuators, controlling the Degree of Freedom (DOF), adaptability control and intelligence are also the challenging tasks to make a Humanoid to behave like a human. Basically research on this field combines a variety of disciplines which make it more thought-provoking area in Mechatronics Engineering. In this paper a various platforms for Humanoid Robot development are identified and described based on the evolutionary research on robotics. The paper also depicts a virtual map of humanoid platform development from the ancient time to present time. It is very important and effective to analyze the development phases of androids because of its Business, Educational and Research value. Basic comparisons between the different designs of Humanoid Structures are also analyzed in this paper. ©ICROS

Perceiving Sociable Technology: Exploring the Role of Anthropomorphism and Agency Perception on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

With the arrival of personal assistants and other AI-enabled autonomous technologies, social interactions with smart devices have become a part of our daily lives. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to understand how these social interactions emerge, and why users appear to be influenced by them. For this reason, I explore questions on what the antecedents and consequences of this phenomenon, known as anthropomorphism, are as described in the extant literature from fields ranging from information systems to social neuroscience. I critically analyze those empirical studies directly measuring anthropomorphism and those referring to it without a corresponding measurement. Through a grounded theory approach, I identify common themes and use them to develop models for the antecedents and consequences of anthropomorphism. The results suggest anthropomorphism possesses both conscious and non-conscious components with varying implications. While conscious attributions are shown to vary based on individual differences, non-conscious attributions emerge whenever a technology exhibits apparent reasoning such as through non-verbal behavior like peer-to-peer mirroring or verbal paralinguistic and backchanneling cues. Anthropomorphism has been shown to affect users’ self-perceptions, perceptions of the technology, how users interact with the technology, and the users’ performance. Examples include changes in a users’ trust on the technology, conformity effects, bonding, and displays of empathy. I argue these effects emerge from changes in users’ perceived agency, and their self- and social- identity similarly to interactions between humans. Afterwards, I critically examine current theories on anthropomorphism and present propositions about its nature based on the results of the empirical literature. Subsequently, I introduce a two-factor model of anthropomorphism that proposes how an individual anthropomorphizes a technology is dependent on how the technology was initially perceived (top-down and rational or bottom-up and automatic), and whether it exhibits a capacity for agency or experience. I propose that where a technology lays along this spectrum determines how individuals relates to it, creating shared agency effects, or changing the users’ social identity. For this reason, anthropomorphism is a powerful tool that can be leveraged to support future interactions with smart technologies

An emotion and memory model for social robots : a long-term interaction

In this thesis, we investigate the role of emotions and memory in social robotic companions. In particular, our aim is to study the effect of an emotion and memory model towards sustaining engagement and promoting learning in a long-term interaction. Our Emotion and Memory model was based on how humans create memory under various emotional events/states. The model enabled the robot to create a memory account of user's emotional events during a long-term child-robot interaction. The robot later adapted its behaviour through employing the developed memory in the following interactions with the users. The model also had an autonomous decision-making mechanism based on reinforcement learning to select behaviour according to the user preference measured through user's engagement and learning during the task. The model was implemented on the NAO robot in two different educational setups. Firstly, to promote user's vocabulary learning and secondly, to inform how to calculate area and perimeter of regular and irregular shapes. We also conducted multiple long-term evaluations of our model with children at the primary schools to verify its impact on their social engagement and learning. Our results showed that the behaviour generated based on our model was able to sustain social engagement. Additionally, it also helped children to improve their learning. Overall, the results highlighted the benefits of incorporating memory during child-Robot Interaction for extended periods of time. It promoted personalisation and reflected towards creating a child-robot social relationship in a long-term interaction

Intelligent support technologies for older people : an analysis of characteristics and roles

For almost two decades there have been many developments in using intelligent technologies to support older people, with many different terms proposed to describe these technologies including assistive robots, embodied conversational agents and relational agents. Many technologies have been proposed in many different configurations and many assistance roles have been explored. Characteristics of these technologies include tangible or virtual; anthropomorphic, biomorphic, creature or object-like; level of visual realism; paralinguistic abilities; interactivity; adaptability; movement; and positioning. The assistive roles proposed include providing information, advice and reminders, helping with physical tasks, monitoring, providing companionship and emotional support. This paper provides an overview of the characteristics and roles of these technologies and attempts to clarify some of the terminology used. It aims to provide a guide for researchers from the wide range of disciplines working on such technologies for supporting older people

Researching interactions between humans and machines: methodological challenges

Communication scholars are increasingly concerned with interactions between humans and communicative agents. These agents, however, are considerably different from digital or social media: They are designed and perceived as life-like communication partners (i.e., as “communicative subjects”), which in turn poses distinct challenges for their empirical study. Hence, in this paper, we document, discuss, and evaluate potentials and pitfalls that typically arise for communication scholars when investigating simulated or non-simulated interactions between humans and chatbots, voice assistants, or social robots. In this paper, we focus on experiments (including pre-recorded stimuli, vignettes and the “Wizard of Oz”-technique) and field studies. Overall, this paper aims to provide guidance and support for communication scholars who want to empirically study human-machine communication. To this end, we not only compile potential challenges, but also recommend specific strategies and approaches. In addition, our reflections on current methodological challenges serve as a starting point for discussions in communication science on how meaning-making between humans and machines can be investigated in the best way possible, as illustrated in the concluding section

또 다른 인간의 동반자: 동물의 권리를 로봇에게도?

학위논문 (석사) -- 서울대학교 대학원 : 국제대학원 국제학과(국제협력전공), 2020. 8. Jiyeoun Song.This paper considers the academic debate on and different responses to the emergence of lifelike social robots as others from humans in society. The philosophical issues surrounding legal rights that are raised by this regulatory issue will be analyzed by deploying a 2x2 matrix based on two modalities: can and should social robots have rights? On these two questions, this thesis examines how the legal treatment of animals, the original others, has evolved historically, and how the animal-robot analogy, which encourages an understanding of social robots as analogues of animals, has risen to prominence as a line of argument to push for the extension of legal rights to protect social robots akin to animals. Using the same modalities, other positions on robot rights will be examined to suggest that the debate on robot rights shows parallels to the debate on animal rights and can be modeled along similar lines. In doing so, this thesis provides an overview of the current rights debate and suggests that the robot rights debate may follow a similar trajectory to the animal rights debate in the future.I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. LITERATURE REVIEW 8 II.1. ANALYSIS 9 II.1.1. On Social Robots 9 II.1.2. On Anthropomorphism 12 II.1.3. On the Comparison between Animal and Robot Rights 14 II.2. LIMITATIONS 16 III. METHODOLOGY 18 IV. DEFINING SOCIAL ROBOTS: WHY DO WE TALK ABOUT THEM? 22 IV.1. BACKGROUND 22 IV.2. EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL ROBOTS 25 IV.3. ANTHROPOMORPHISM AS INTENTIONAL DESIGN CHOICE 27 V. THE ANIMAL RIGHTS DEBATE 34 V.1. BACKGROUND 34 V.2. DEBATE ANALYSIS: FROM INDIFFERENCE TO ADVOCACY 35 V.3. CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE 44 VI. THE ROBOT RIGHTS DEBATE 49 VI.1. BACKGROUND 49 VI.2. DEBATE ANALYSIS: FROM TOOLS TO SOCIAL ENTITIES 51 VI.2.1. Q1: Since social robots cannot have rights, they should not have rights. 52 VI.2.2. Q2: Even though social robots cannot have rights, they should have rights. 55 VI.2.3. Q3: Even though social robots can have rights, they should not have rights. 59 VI.2.4. Q4: Since social robots can have rights, they should have rights. 62 VI.2.5. The Dynamics of The Discourse 64 VI.3. THE ANIMAL-ROBOT ANALOGY 73 VI.4. CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE 86 VII. CONCLUSION 89 VIII. REFERENCES 92Maste