43 research outputs found
A contribution to the incorporation of sociability and creativity skills to computers and robots
This dissertation contains the research and work completed by the PhD candidate on the incorporation of sociability and creativity skills to computers and robots. Both skills can be directly related with empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. In this form, this research can be contextualized in the framework of recent developments towards the achievement of empathy machines.
The first challenge at hands refers to designing pioneering techniques based on the use of social robots to improve user experience interacting with them. In particular, research focus is on eliminating or minimizing pain and anxiety as well as loneliness and stress of long-term hospitalized child patients. This challenge is approached by developing a cloud-based robotics architecture to effectively develop complex tasks related to hospitalized children assistance. More specifically, a multiagent learning system is introduced based on a combination of machine learning and cloud computing using low-cost robots (Innvo labs's Pleo rb). Moreover, a wireless communication system is also developed for the Pleo robot in order to help the health professional who conducts therapy with the child, monitoring, understanding, and controlling Pleo behavior at any moment.
As a second challenge, a new formulation of the concept of creativity is proposed in order to empower computers with. Based on previous well established theories from Boden and Wiggins, this thesis redefines the formal mechanism of exploratory and transformational creativity in a way which facilitates the computational implementation of these mechanisms in Creativity Support Systems. The proposed formalization is applied and validated on two real cases: the first, about chocolate designing, in which a novel and flavorful combination of chocolate and fruit is generated. The second case is about the composition of a single voice tune of reel using ABC notation
A contribution to the incorporation of sociability and creativity skills to computers and robots
This dissertation contains the research and work completed by the PhD candidate on the incorporation of sociability and creativity skills to computers and robots. Both skills can be directly related with empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. In this form, this research can be contextualized in the framework of recent developments towards the achievement of empathy machines.
The first challenge at hands refers to designing pioneering techniques based on the use of social robots to improve user experience interacting with them. In particular, research focus is on eliminating or minimizing pain and anxiety as well as loneliness and stress of long-term hospitalized child patients. This challenge is approached by developing a cloud-based robotics architecture to effectively develop complex tasks related to hospitalized children assistance. More specifically, a multiagent learning system is introduced based on a combination of machine learning and cloud computing using low-cost robots (Innvo labs's Pleo rb). Moreover, a wireless communication system is also developed for the Pleo robot in order to help the health professional who conducts therapy with the child, monitoring, understanding, and controlling Pleo behavior at any moment.
As a second challenge, a new formulation of the concept of creativity is proposed in order to empower computers with. Based on previous well established theories from Boden and Wiggins, this thesis redefines the formal mechanism of exploratory and transformational creativity in a way which facilitates the computational implementation of these mechanisms in Creativity Support Systems. The proposed formalization is applied and validated on two real cases: the first, about chocolate designing, in which a novel and flavorful combination of chocolate and fruit is generated. The second case is about the composition of a single voice tune of reel using ABC notation.Postprint (published version
Developing Kaspar: a humanoid robot for children with Autism
In the late 1990s using robotic technology to assist children with Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASD) emerged as a potentially useful area of research. Since then the field of assistive robotics for children with ASD has grown considerably with many academics trialling different robots and approaches. One such robot is the humanoid robot Kaspar that was originally developed in 2005 and has continually been built upon since, taking advantage of technological developments along the way. A key principle in the development of Kaspar since its creation has been to ensure that all of the advances to the platform are driven by the requirements of the users. In this paper we discuss the development of Kasparâs design and explain the rationale behind each change to the platform. Designing and building a humanoid robot to interact with and help children with ASD is a multidisciplinary challenge that requires knowledge of the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, HumanâComputer Interaction (HCI), ChildâRobot Interaction (CRI) and knowledge of ASD. The Kaspar robot has benefited from the wealth of knowledge accrued over years of experience in robot-assisted therapy for children with ASD. By showing the journey of how the Kaspar robot has developed we aim to assist others in the field develop such technologies further
Information and communication technologies-based interventions for children with autism spectrum conditions: a systematic review of randomized control trials from a positive technology perspective
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become more widely used in the past years to help people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). Serious games embedded into computers or tablets, as well as social robots, are the most employed ICT-related tools that are appealing to and appropriate for autistic children. The goal of ICT applications is to enhance behavioral abnormalities associated with ASC while also creating an interactive link between one person and one computer. Comparatively, to human-based therapy, ICT tools aid to inspire autistic children by providing predictability and regularity of tasks. Regaining social skills is the primary behavioral goal for which ICT tools have been designed and implemented. In the past several years, many studies have been created to show how effective it is at improving targeted behaviors. However, only a small number of researchers have used an RCT approach to evaluate its effectiveness. In this systematic review, we only included RCT studies where ICT technologies were used to help children with ASC in improving their social skills. Only 14 RCT studies satisfied the criteria and 12 described significant improvements, showing how the use of technology in educational contexts produced better improvement in developing several social skill facets with respect to the traditional face-to-face approach. Some studies used interventions and outcome measures focused on the core ASC symptoms, but many others addressed neurocognitive functions directly, like social cognition or emotional regulation, while other more general functions such as language or adaptive behaviors. We propose a classification based on processes and outcome measures to foster future research in this specific area of research. The behavioral intervention mediated by technological tools such as computer-based, tablet, and social robotics, undoubtedly provides a comfortable environment that promotes constant learning for people with ASC. Evidence provided in this review highlights the translational potential of this field of study in primary care practice and educational settings
Children's perception and interpretation of robots and robot behaviour
The world of robotics, like that of all technology is changing rapidly (Melson, et al., 2009).
As part of an inter-disciplinary project investigating the emergence of artificial culture in
robot societies, this study set out to examine childrenâs perception of robots and interpretation
of robot behaviour. This thesis is situated in an interdisciplinary field of humanârobot
interactions, drawing on research from the disciplines of sociology and psychology as well as
the fields of engineering and ethics. The study was divided into four phases: phase one
involved children from two primary schools drawing a picture and writing a story about their
robot. In phase two, children observed e-puck robots interacting. Children were asked
questions regarding the function and purpose of the robotsâ actions. Phase three entailed data
collection at a public event: Manchester Science Festival. Three activities at the festival: âXRay
Art Under Your Skinâ, âSwarm Robotsâ and âBuild-a-Bugbotâ formed the focus of this
phase. In the first activity, children were asked to draw the components of a robot and were
then asked questions about their drawings. During the second exercise, childrenâs comments
were noted as they watched e-puck robot demonstrations. In the third exercise, children were
shown images and asked whether these images were a robot or a âno-botâ. They were then
prompted to provide explanations for their answers.
Phase 4 of the research involved children identifying patterns of behaviour amongst e-pucks.
This phase of the project was undertaken as a pilot for the âopen scienceâ approach to
research to be used by the wider project within which this PhD was nested. Consistent with
existing literature, children endowed robots with animate and inanimate characteristics
holding multiple understandings of robots simultaneously. The notion of control appeared to
be important in childrenâs conception of animacy. The results indicated childrenâs
perceptions of the location of the locus of control plays an important role in whether they
view robots as autonomous agents or controllable entities. The ways in which children
perceive robots and robot behaviour, in particular the ways in which children give meaning to
robots and robot behaviour will potentially come to characterise a particular generation.
Therefore, research should not only concentrate on the impact of these technologies on
children but should focus on capturing childrenâs perceptions and viewpoints to better
understand the impact of the changing technological world on the lives of children
Autonomous Decision-Making based on Biological Adaptive Processes for Intelligent Social Robots
MenciĂłn Internacional en el tĂtulo de doctorThe unceasing development of autonomous robots in many different scenarios drives a
new revolution to improve our quality of life. Recent advances in human-robot interaction
and machine learning extend robots to social scenarios, where these systems pretend
to assist humans in diverse tasks. Thus, social robots are nowadays becoming real in
many applications like education, healthcare, entertainment, or assistance. Complex
environments demand that social robots present adaptive mechanisms to overcome
different situations and successfully execute their tasks. Thus, considering the previous
ideas, making autonomous and appropriate decisions is essential to exhibit reasonable
behaviour and operate well in dynamic scenarios.
Decision-making systems provide artificial agents with the capacity of making
decisions about how to behave depending on input information from the environment.
In the last decades, human decision-making has served researchers as an inspiration to
endow robots with similar deliberation. Especially in social robotics, where people expect
to interact with machines with human-like capabilities, biologically inspired decisionmaking
systems have demonstrated great potential and interest. Thereby, it is expected
that these systems will continue providing a solid biological background and improve the
naturalness of the human-robot interaction, usability, and the acceptance of social robots
in the following years.
This thesis presents a decision-making system for social robots acting in healthcare,
entertainment, and assistance with autonomous behaviour. The systemâs goal is to
provide robots with natural and fluid human-robot interaction during the realisation of
their tasks. The decision-making system integrates into an already existing software
architecture with different modules that manage human-robot interaction, perception,
or expressiveness. Inside this architecture, the decision-making system decides which
behaviour the robot has to execute after evaluating information received from different
modules in the architecture. These modules provide structured data about planned
activities, perceptions, and artificial biological processes that evolve with time that are the
basis for natural behaviour. The natural behaviour of the robot comes from the evolution
of biological variables that emulate biological processes occurring in humans. We also
propose a Motivational model, a module that emulates biological processes in humans for
generating an artificial physiological and psychological state that influences the robotâs
decision-making. These processes emulate the natural biological rhythms of the human organism to produce biologically inspired decisions that improve the naturalness exhibited
by the robot during human-robot interactions. The robotâs decisions also depend on what
the robot perceives from the environment, planned events listed in the robotâs agenda, and
the unique features of the user interacting with the robot.
The robotâs decisions depend on many internal and external factors that influence how
the robot behaves. Users are the most critical stimuli the robot perceives since they are
the cornerstone of interaction. Social robots have to focus on assisting people in their
daily tasks, considering that each person has different features and preferences. Thus,
a robot devised for social interaction has to adapt its decisions to people that aim at
interacting with it. The first step towards adapting to different users is identifying the user
it interacts with. Then, it has to gather as much information as possible and personalise
the interaction. The information about each user has to be actively updated if necessary
since outdated information may lead the user to refuse the robot. Considering these facts,
this work tackles the user adaptation in three different ways.
âą The robot incorporates user profiling methods to continuously gather information
from the user using direct and indirect feedback methods.
âą The robot has a Preference Learning System that predicts and adjusts the userâs
preferences to the robotâs activities during the interaction.
âą An Action-based Learning System grounded on Reinforcement Learning is
introduced as the origin of motivated behaviour.
The functionalities mentioned above define the inputs received by the decisionmaking
system for adapting its behaviour. Our decision-making system has been designed
for being integrated into different robotic platforms due to its flexibility and modularity.
Finally, we carried out several experiments to evaluate the architectureâs functionalities
during real human-robot interaction scenarios. In these experiments, we assessed:
âą How to endow social robots with adaptive affective mechanisms to overcome
interaction limitations.
âą Active user profiling using face recognition and human-robot interaction.
âą A Preference Learning System we designed to predict and adapt the user
preferences towards the robotâs entertainment activities for adapting the interaction.
âą A Behaviour-based Reinforcement Learning System that allows the robot to learn
the effects of its actions to behave appropriately in each situation.
âą The biologically inspired robot behaviour using emulated biological processes and
how the robot creates social bonds with each user.
âą The robotâs expressiveness in affect (emotion and mood) and autonomic functions
such as heart rate or blinking frequency.Programa de Doctorado en IngenierĂa ElĂ©ctrica, ElectrĂłnica y AutomĂĄtica por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Richard J. Duro FernĂĄndez.- Secretaria: ConcepciĂłn Alicia Monje Micharet.- Vocal: Silvia Ross
Designing companions, designing tools : social robots, developers, and the elderly in Japan
Ce mĂ©moire de maĂźtrise trace la gĂ©nĂ©alogie dâun robot social, de sa conception Ă ses diffĂ©rentes utilisations et la maniĂšre dont les utilisateurs interagissent avec. A partir dâun terrain de six mois dans une start-up et deux maisons de retraite au Japon, jâinterroge la crĂ©ation de Pepper, un robot social crĂ©e par la compagnie japonais SoftBank. Pepper a Ă©tĂ© crĂ©Ă© de façon Ă ĂȘtre humanoĂŻde mais pas trop, ainsi que perçu comme adorable et charmant. Par la suite, je dĂ©cris comment Pepper et dâautres robots sociaux sont utilisĂ©s, Ă la fois par des dĂ©veloppeurs, mais aussi par des personnes ĂągĂ©es, et je souligne une tension existante entre leur utilisation comme des compagnons et des outils. En me basant sur lâanthropologie ontologique et la phĂ©nomĂ©nologie, jâexamine la construction du robot comme une entitĂ© avec laquelle il est possible dâinteragir, notamment Ă cause de sa conception en tant quâacteur social, ontologiquement ambigu, et qui peut exprimer de lâaffect. En mâintĂ©ressant aux interactions multimodales, et en particulier le toucher, je classifie trois fonctions remplies par lâinteraction : dĂ©couverte, contrĂŽle, et lâexpression de lâaffect. Par la suite, je questionne ces actes dâagir vers et sâils peuvent ĂȘtre compris comme une interaction, puisquâils nâimpliquent pas que le robot soit engagĂ©. Jâargumente quâune interaction est un Ă©change de sens entre des agents engagĂ©s et incarnĂ©s. Il y a effectivement parfois un Ă©change de sens entre le robot et son utilisateur, et le robot est un artefact incarnĂ©. Cependant, seule lâimpression dâintersubjectivitĂ© est nĂ©cessaire Ă lâinteraction, plutĂŽt que sa rĂ©elle prĂ©sence.This masterâs thesis traces a genealogy of a social robot through its conception to its various uses and the ways users interact with it. Drawing on six months of fieldwork in a start-up and two nursing homes in Japan, I first investigate the genesis of a social robot created by SoftBank, a Japanese multinational telecommunications company. This social robot is quite humanlike, made to be cute and have an adorable personality. While developers constitute one of the user populations, this robot, along with several others, is also used by elderly residents in nursing homes. By analyzing the uses of these populations, I underline the tension between the social robot as a companion and a tool. Drawing on ontological anthropology and phenomenology I look at how the robot is constructed as an entity that can be interacted with, through its conception as an ontologically ambiguous, social actor, that can express affect. Looking at multimodal interaction, and especially touch, I then classify three functions they fulfill: discovery, control, and the expression of affect, before questioning whether this acting towards the robot that does not imply acting from the robot, can be considered a form of interaction. I argue that interaction is the exchange of meaning between embodied, engaged participants. Meaning can be exchanged between robots and humans and the robot can be seen as embodied, but only the appearance of intersubjectivity is enough, rather than its actual presence
Investigating Human Perceptions of Trust and Social Cues in Robots for Safe Human-Robot Interaction in Human-oriented Environments
As robots increasingly take part in daily living activities, humans will have to
interact with them in domestic and other human-oriented environments. This thesis
envisages a future where autonomous robots could be used as home companions
to assist and collaborate with their human partners in unstructured environments
without the support of any roboticist or expert. To realise such a vision, it is important
to identify which factors (e.g. trust, participantsâ personalities and background
etc.) that influence people to accept robotsâ as companions and trust the robots to
look after their well-being. I am particularly interested in the possibility of robots
using social behaviours and natural communications as a repair mechanism to
positively influence humansâ sense of trust and companionship towards the robots.
The main reason being that trust can change over time due to different factors
(e.g. perceived erroneous robot behaviours). In this thesis, I provide guidelines
for a robot to regain human trust by adopting certain human-like behaviours. I
can expect that domestic robots will exhibit occasional mechanical, programming
or functional errors, as occurs with any other electrical consumer devices. For
example, these might include software errors, dropping objects due to gripper
malfunctions, picking up the wrong object or showing faulty navigational skills due
to unclear camera images or noisy laser scanner data respectively. It is therefore
important for a domestic robot to have acceptable interactive behaviour when
exhibiting and recovering from an error situation. In this context, several open
questions need to be addressed regarding both individualsâ perceptions of the errors
and robots, and the effects of these on peopleâs trust in robots.
As a first step, I investigated how the severity of the consequences and the timing
of a robotâs different types of erroneous behaviours during an interaction may have
different impact on usersâ attitudes towards a domestic robot. I concluded that
there is a correlation between the magnitude of an error performed by the robot and
the corresponding loss of trust of the human in the robot. In particular, peopleâs
trust was strongly affected by robot errors that had severe consequences.
This led us to investigate whether peopleâs awareness of robotsâ functionalities may
affect their trust in a robot. I found that peopleâs acceptance and trust in the robot
may be affected by their knowledge of the robotâs capabilities and its limitations
differently according the participantsâ age and the robotâs embodiment.
In order to deploy robots in the wild, strategies for mitigating and re-gaining
peopleâs trust in robots in case of errors needs to be implemented. In the following
three studies, I assessed if a robot with awareness of human social conventions
would increase peopleâs trust in the robot. My findings showed that people almost
blindly trusted a social and a non-social robot in scenarios with non-severe error
consequences. In contrast, people that interacted with a social robot did not trust
its suggestions in a scenario with a higher risk outcome.
Finally, I investigated the effects of robotsâ errors on peopleâs trust of a robot over
time. The findings showed that participantsâ judgement of a robot is formed during
the first stage of their interaction. Therefore, people are more inclined to lose trust
in a robot if it makes big errors at the beginning of the interaction.
The findings from the Human-Robot Interaction experiments presented in this
thesis will contribute to an advanced understanding of the trust dynamics between
humans and robots for a long-lasting and successful collaboration