In good company? : Perception of movement synchrony of a non-anthropomorphic robot

Copyright: © 2015 Lehmann et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Recent technological developments like cheap sensors and the decreasing costs of computational power have brought the possibility of robotic home companions within reach. In order to be accepted it is vital for these robots to be able to participate meaningfully in social interactions with their users and to make them feel comfortable during these interactions. In this study we investigated how people respond to a situation where a companion robot is watching its user. Specifically, we tested the effect of robotic behaviours that are synchronised with the actions of a human. We evaluated the effects of these behaviours on the robot’s likeability and perceived intelligence using an online video survey. The robot used was Care-O-bot®3, a non-anthropomorphic robot with a limited range of expressive motions. We found that even minimal, positively synchronised movements during an object-oriented task were interpreted by participants as engagement and created a positive disposition towards the robot. However, even negatively synchronised movements of the robot led to more positive perceptions of the robot, as compared to a robot that does not move at all. The results emphasise a) the powerful role that robot movements in general can have on participants’ perception of the robot, and b) that synchronisation of body movements can be a powerful means to enhance the positive attitude towards a non-anthropomorphic robot.Peer reviewe

ECA Perspectives - Requirements, Applications, Technology

In the last years we have developed a platform for the realization of embodied (conversational) agents, in a distributed logic programming framework. In this paper we will present an overview of our work, by discussing the requirements that acted as our guidelines for design decisions during development, some of the applications that have served as target demonstrators for developing and testing new functionality, and the (distributed logic programming) technology which we used for the realization of the platform and the implementation of our STEP scripting language. Although the focus of our paper will primarily be our own DLP+X3D platform, we believe that our discussion along the perspectives of requirements, applications and technology might be more generally worthwhile in establishing the relative merits of the operational use of ECA-technology. At the end of this paper, we will moreover provide some hints of how to approach the experimental validation of the (possible) benefits of embodied conversational agents in user applications

Learning and Composing Primitive Skills for Dual-Arm Manipulation

In an attempt to confer robots with complex manipulation capabilities, dual-arm anthropomorphic systems have become an important research topic in the robotics community. Most approaches in the literature rely upon a great understanding of the dynamics underlying the system's behaviour and yet offer limited autonomous generalisation capabilities. To address these limitations, this work proposes a modelisation for dual-arm manipulators based on dynamic movement primitives laying in two orthogonal spaces. The modularity and learning capabilities of this model are leveraged to formulate a novel end-to-end learning-based framework which (i) learns a library of primitive skills from human demonstrations, and (ii) composes such knowledge simultaneously and sequentially to confront novel scenarios. The feasibility of the proposal is evaluated by teaching the iCub humanoid the basic skills to succeed on simulated dual-arm pick-and-place tasks. The results suggest the learning and generalisation capabilities of the proposed framework extend to autonomously conduct undemonstrated dual-arm manipulation tasks.Comment: Annual Conference Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS19

Robot mediated communication: Enhancing tele-presence using an avatar

In the past few years there has been a lot of development in the field of tele-presence. These developments have caused tele-presence technologies to become easily accessible and also for the experience to be enhanced. Since tele-presence is not only used for tele-presence assisted group meetings but also in some forms of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), these activities have also been facilitated. One of the lingering issues has to do with how to properly transmit presence of non-co-located members to the rest of the group. Using current commercially available tele-presence technology it is possible to exhibit a limited level of social presence but no physical presence. In order to cater for this lack of presence a system is implemented here using tele-operated robots as avatars for remote team members and had its efficacy tested. This testing includes both the level of presence that can be exhibited by robot avatars but also how the efficacy of these robots for this task changes depending on the morphology of the robot. Using different types of robots, a humanoid robot and an industrial robot arm, as tele-presence avatars, it is found that the humanoid robot using an appropriate control system is better at exhibiting a social presence. Further, when compared to a voice only scenario, both robots proved significantly better than with only voice in terms of both cooperative task solving and social presence. These results indicate that using an appropriate control system, a humanoid robot can be better than an industrial robot in these types of tasks and the validity of aiming for a humanoid design behaving in a human-like way in order to emulate social interactions that are closer to human norms. This has implications for the design of autonomous socially interactive robot systems

Feasibility Study of a Socially Assistive Humanoid Robot for Guiding Elderly Individuals during Walking

The impact of the world-wide ageing population has commenced with respect to society in developed countries. Several researchers focused on exploring new methods to improve the quality of life of elderly individuals by allowing them to remain independent and healthy to the maximum possible extent. For example, new walking aids are designed to allow elderly individuals to remain mobile in a safe manner because the importance of walking is well-known. The aim of the present study involves designing a humanoid robot guide as a walking trainer for elderly individuals. It is hypothesized that the same service robot provides an assistive and social contribution with respect to interaction between elderly users by motivating them to walk more and simultaneously provides assistance, such as physical assistance and gait monitoring, while walking. This study includes a detailed statement of the research problem as well as a literature review of existing studies related to walking companion robots. A user-centred design approach is adopted to report the results of the current first feasibility study by using a commercially available humanoid robot known as Pepper developed by Softbank-Aldebaran. A quantitative questionnaire was used to investigate all elements that assess intrinsic motivation in users while performing a given activity. Conversely, basic gait data were acquired through a video analysis to test the capability of the robot to modify the gait of human users. The results in terms of the feedback received from elderly subjects and the literature review improve the design of the walking trainer for elderly individuals

Transport coopératif d'un objet par deux robots humanoïdes dans un environnement encombré

Il y a présentement de la demande dans plusieurs milieux cherchant à utiliser des robots afin d'accomplir des tâches complexes, par exemple l'industrie de la construction désire des travailleurs pouvant travailler 24/7 ou encore effectuer des operation de sauvetage dans des zones compromises et dangereuses pour l'humain. Dans ces situations, il devient très important de pouvoir transporter des charges dans des environnements encombrés. Bien que ces dernières années il y a eu quelques études destinées à la navigation de robots dans ce type d'environnements, seulement quelques-unes d'entre elles ont abordé le problème de robots pouvant naviguer en déplaçant un objet volumineux ou lourd. Ceci est particulièrement utile pour transporter des charges ayant de poids et de formes variables, sans avoir à modifier physiquement le robot. Un robot humanoïde est une des plateformes disponibles afin d'effectuer efficacement ce type de transport. Celui-ci a, entre autres, l'avantage d'avoir des bras et ils peuvent donc les utiliser afin de manipuler précisément les objets à transporter. Dans ce mémoire de maîtrise, deux différentes techniques sont présentées. Dans la première partie, nous présentons un système inspiré par l'utilisation répandue de chariots de fortune par les humains. Celle-ci répond au problème d'un robot humanoïde naviguant dans un environnement encombré tout en déplaçant une charge lourde qui se trouve sur un chariot de fortune. Nous présentons un système de navigation complet, de la construction incrémentale d'une carte de l'environnement et du calcul des trajectoires sans collision à la commande pour exécuter ces trajectoires. Les principaux points présentés sont : 1) le contrôle de tout le corps permettant au robot humanoïde d'utiliser ses mains et ses bras pour contrôler les mouvements du système à chariot (par exemple, lors de virages serrés) ; 2) une approche sans capteur pour automatiquement sélectionner le jeu approprié de primitives en fonction du poids de la charge ; 3) un algorithme de planification de mouvement qui génère une trajectoire sans collisions en utilisant le jeu de primitive approprié et la carte construite de l'environnement ; 4) une technique de filtrage efficace permettant d'ignorer le chariot et le poids situés dans le champ de vue du robot tout en améliorant les performances générales des algorithmes de SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) défini ; et 5) un processus continu et cohérent d'odométrie formés en fusionnant les informations visuelles et celles de l'odométrie du robot. Finalement, nous présentons des expériences menées sur un robot Nao, équipé d'un capteur RGB-D monté sur sa tête, poussant un chariot avec différentes masses. Nos expériences montrent que la charge utile peut être significativement augmentée sans changer physiquement le robot, et donc qu'il est possible d'augmenter la capacité du robot humanoïde dans des situations réelles. Dans la seconde partie, nous abordons le problème de faire naviguer deux robots humanoïdes dans un environnement encombré tout en transportant un très grand objet qui ne peut tout simplement pas être déplacé par un seul robot. Dans cette partie, plusieurs algorithmes et concepts présentés dans la partie précédente sont réutilisés et modifiés afin de convenir à un système comportant deux robot humanoides. Entre autres, nous avons un algorithme de planification de mouvement multi-robots utilisant un espace d'états à faible dimension afin de trouver une trajectoire sans obstacle en utilisant la carte construite de l'environnement, ainsi qu'un contrôle en temps réel efficace de tout le corps pour contrôler les mouvements du système robot-objet-robot en boucle fermée. Aussi, plusieurs systèmes ont été ajoutés, tels que la synchronisation utilisant le décalage relatif des robots, la projection des robots sur la base de leur position des mains ainsi que l'erreur de rétroaction visuelle calculée à partir de la caméra frontale du robot. Encore une fois, nous présentons des expériences faites sur des robots Nao équipés de capteurs RGB-D montés sur leurs têtes, se déplaçant avec un objet tout en contournant d'obstacles. Nos expériences montrent qu'un objet de taille non négligeable peut être transporté sans changer physiquement le robot

Path and Motion Planning for Autonomous Mobile 3D Printing

Autonomous robotic construction was envisioned as early as the ‘90s, and yet, con- struction sites today look much alike ones half a century ago. Meanwhile, highly automated and efficient fabrication methods like Additive Manufacturing, or 3D Printing, have seen great success in conventional production. However, existing efforts to transfer printing technology to construction applications mainly rely on manufacturing-like machines and fail to utilise the capabilities of modern robotics. This thesis considers using Mobile Manipulator robots to perform large-scale Additive Manufacturing tasks. Comprised of an articulated arm and a mobile base, Mobile Manipulators, are unique in their simultaneous mobility and agility, which enables printing-in-motion, or Mobile 3D Printing. This is a 3D printing modality, where a robot deposits material along larger-than-self trajectories while in motion. Despite profound potential advantages over existing static manufacturing-like large- scale printers, Mobile 3D printing is underexplored. Therefore, this thesis tack- les Mobile 3D printing-specific challenges and proposes path and motion planning methodologies that allow this printing modality to be realised. The work details the development of Task-Consistent Path Planning that solves the problem of find- ing a valid robot-base path needed to print larger-than-self trajectories. A motion planning and control strategy is then proposed, utilising the robot-base paths found to inform an optimisation-based whole-body motion controller. Several Mobile 3D Printing robot prototypes are built throughout this work, and the overall path and motion planning strategy proposed is holistically evaluated in a series of large-scale 3D printing experiments

高齢者とともに歩行する社会的支援ヒューマノイドに関する研究

筑波大学 (University of Tsukuba)201