Prototype of a robotic system to assist the learning process of English language with text-generation through DNN

In the last ongoing years, there has been a significant ascending on the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) for performing multiple tasks including English Language Teaching (ELT). An effective strategy to favor the learning process uses interactive devices to engage learners in their self-learning process. In this work, we present a working prototype of a humanoid robotic system to assist English language self-learners through text generation using Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Neural Networks. The learners interact with the system using a Graphic User Interface that generates text according to the English level of the user. The experimentation was conducted using English learners and the results were measured accordingly to International English Language Testing System (IELTS) rubric. Preliminary results show an increment in the Grammatical Range of learners who interacted with the system.Comment: Paper presented in the Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence 202

Child–robot interactions using educational robots: an ethical and inclusive perspective

This research was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under Grant FECYT FCT-20-15626, Line of action 2. Education and scientific vocations (2nd place out of 120 awarded).Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::5 - Igualtat de GènereObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::10 - Reducció de les DesigualtatsPostprint (published version

Asian Roboticism: Connecting Mechanized Labor to the Automation of Work

Abstract This article reconsiders the present-day automation of work and its transformation of who we are as humans. What has been missing from this important conversation are the social meanings surrounding Asian roboticism or how Asians have already been rendered as “robotic” subjects and labor. Through this racial gendered trope, I assess whether industrial automation will lessen, complicate, or exacerbate this modern archetype. By looking at corporate organizational practices and public media discourse, I believe that Asian roboticism will not simply vanish, but potentially continue to affect the ways such subjects are rendered as exploitable alienated robots without human rights or status

From Robot Arm to Intentional Agent: the Articulated Head

Robot arms have come a long way from the humble beginnings of the first Unimate robot at a General Motors plant installed to unload parts from a die-casting machine to the flexible and versatile tool ubiquitous and indispensable in many fields of industrial production nowadays. The other chapters of this book attest to the progress in the field and the plenitude of applications of robot arms. It is still fair, however, to say that currently industrial robot arms are primarily applied in continuously repeated manufacturing task for which they are pre-programmed. They are known for their precision and reliability but in general use only limited sensory input and the changes in the execution of their task due to varying environmental factors are minimal. If one was to compare a robot arm with an animal, even a very simple one, this property of robot arm applications would immediately stand out as one of the most striking differences. Living organisms must sense changes in the environment that are crucial to their survival and must have some flexibility to adjust their behaviour. In most robot arm contexts, such a comparison is currently at best of academic interest, though it might gain relevance very quickly in the future if robot arms are to be used to assist humans to a larger extend than at present. If robot arms will work in close proximity with and directly supporting humans in accomplishing a task, it becomes inevitable for the control system of the robot to have far reaching situational awareness and the capability to adjust its ‘behaviour’ according to the acquired situational information. In addition, robot perception and action have to conform a large degree to the expectations of the human co-worker

Intuitive Instruction of Industrial Robots : A Knowledge-Based Approach

With more advanced manufacturing technologies, small and medium sized enterprises can compete with low-wage labor by providing customized and high quality products. For small production series, robotic systems can provide a cost-effective solution. However, for robots to be able to perform on par with human workers in manufacturing industries, they must become flexible and autonomous in their task execution and swift and easy to instruct. This will enable small businesses with short production series or highly customized products to use robot coworkers without consulting expert robot programmers. The objective of this thesis is to explore programming solutions that can reduce the programming effort of sensor-controlled robot tasks. The robot motions are expressed using constraints, and multiple of simple constrained motions can be combined into a robot skill. The skill can be stored in a knowledge base together with a semantic description, which enables reuse and reasoning. The main contributions of the thesis are 1) development of ontologies for knowledge about robot devices and skills, 2) a user interface that provides simple programming of dual-arm skills for non-experts and experts, 3) a programming interface for task descriptions in unstructured natural language in a user-specified vocabulary and 4) an implementation where low-level code is generated from the high-level descriptions. The resulting system greatly reduces the number of parameters exposed to the user, is simple to use for non-experts and reduces the programming time for experts by 80%. The representation is described on a semantic level, which means that the same skill can be used on different robot platforms. The research is presented in seven papers, the first describing the knowledge representation and the second the knowledge-based architecture that enables skill sharing between robots. The third paper presents the translation from high-level instructions to low-level code for force-controlled motions. The two following papers evaluate the simplified programming prototype for non-expert and expert users. The last two present how program statements are extracted from unstructured natural language descriptions

Humanoid robots: A new kind of tool

s lab must address many of the same motor-control, perception, and machine-learning problems. The principles behind our methodology The real divergence between groups stems from radically different research agendas and underlying assumptions. At the MIT AI Lab, three basic principles guide our research . We design humanoid robots to act autonomously and safely, without human control or supervision, in natural work environments and to interact with people. We do not design them as solutions for specific robotic needs (as with welding robots on assembly lines). Our goal is to build robots that function in many different real-world environments in essentially the same way. . Social robots must be able to detect and understand natural human cuesthe low-level social conventions that people understand and use everyday, such as head nods or eye contactso that anyone can interact with them without special training or instruction. They mus

Robot Control for Remote Ophthalmology and Pediatric Physical Rehabilitation

The development of a robotic slit-lamp for remote ophthalmology is the primary purpose of this work. In addition to novel mechanical designs and implementation, it was also a goal to develop a control system that was flexible enough to be adapted with minimal user adjustment to various styles and configurations of slit-lamps. The system was developed with intentions of commercialization, so common hardware was used for all components to minimize the costs. In order to improve performance using this low-cost hardware, investigations were made to attempt to achieve better performance by applying control theory algorithms in the system software. Ultimately, the controller was to be flexible enough to be applied to other areas of human-robot interaction including pediatric rehabilitation via the use of humanoid robotic aids. This application especially requires a robust controller to facilitate safe interaction. Though all of the prototypes were successfully developed and made to work sufficiently with the control hardware, the application of advanced control did not yield notable gains as was hoped. Further investigations were made attempting to alter the performance of the control system, but the components selected did not have the physical capabilities for improved response above the original software implemented. Despite this disappointment, numerous novel advances were made in the area of teleoperated ophthalmic technology and pediatric physical rehabilitation tools. This includes a system that is used to remote control a slit-lamp and lens for examinations and some laser procedures. Secondly, a series of of humanoid systems suitable for both medical research and therapeutic modeling were developed. This included a robotic face used as an interactive system for ophthalmic testing and training. It can also be used as one component in an interactive humanoid robotic system that includes hands and arms to allow use of teaching sign language, social skills or modeling occupational therapy tasks. Finally, a humanoid system is presented that can serve as a customized surrogate between a therapist and client to model physical therapy tasks in a realistic manner. These systems are all functional, safe and low-cost to allow for feasible implementation with patients in the near future

Anthropomorphic Robot Design and User Interaction Associated with Motion

Though in its original concept a robot was conceived to have some human-like shape, most robots now in use have specific industrial purposes and do not closely resemble humans. Nevertheless, robots that resemble human form in some way have continued to be introduced. They are called anthropomorphic robots. The fact that the user interface to all robots is now highly mediated means that the form of the user interface is not necessarily connected to the robots form, human or otherwise. Consequently, the unique way the design of anthropomorphic robots affects their user interaction is through their general appearance and the way they move. These robots human-like appearance acts as a kind of generalized predictor that gives its operators, and those with whom they may directly work, the expectation that they will behave to some extent like a human. This expectation is especially prominent for interactions with social robots, which are built to enhance it. Often interaction with them may be mainly cognitive because they are not necessarily kinematically intricate enough for complex physical interaction. Their body movement, for example, may be limited to simple wheeled locomotion. An anthropomorphic robot with human form, however, can be kinematically complex and designed, for example, to reproduce the details of human limb, torso, and head movement. Because of the mediated nature of robot control, there remains in general no necessary connection between the specific form of user interface and the anthropomorphic form of the robot. But their anthropomorphic kinematics and dynamics imply that the impact of their design shows up in the way the robot moves. The central finding of this report is that the control of this motion is a basic design element through which the anthropomorphic form can affect user interaction. In particular, designers of anthropomorphic robots can take advantage of the inherent human-like movement to 1) improve the users direct manual control over robot limbs and body positions, 2) improve users ability to detect anomalous robot behavior which could signal malfunction, and 3) enable users to be better able to infer the intent of robot movement. These three benefits of anthropomorphic design are inherent implications of the anthropomorphic form but they need to be recognized by designers as part of anthropomorphic design and explicitly enhanced to maximize their beneficial impact. Examples of such enhancements are provided in this report. If implemented, these benefits of anthropomorphic design can help reduce the risk of Inadequate Design of Human and Automation Robotic Integration (HARI) associated with the HARI-01 gap by providing efficient and dexterous operator control over robots and by improving operator ability to detect malfunctions and understand the intention of robot movement