Overcoming barriers and increasing independence: service robots for elderly and disabled people

This paper discusses the potential for service robots to overcome barriers and increase independence of elderly and disabled people. It includes a brief overview of the existing uses of service robots by disabled and elderly people and advances in technology which will make new uses possible and provides suggestions for some of these new applications. The paper also considers the design and other conditions to be met for user acceptance. It also discusses the complementarity of assistive service robots and personal assistance and considers the types of applications and users for which service robots are and are not suitable

Mobility of bodies in contact. II. How forces are generated bycurvature effects

For part I, see ibid., p.696-708. The paper considers how forces are produced by compliance and surface curvature effects in systems where an object a is kinematically immobilized to second-order by finger bodies Al,...,Ak. A class of configuration-space based elastic deformation models is introduced. Using these elastic deformation models, it is shown that any object which is kinematically immobilized to first or second-order is also dynamically locally asymptotically stable with respect to perturbations. Moreover, it is shown that for preloaded grasps kinematic immobility implies that the stiffness matrix of the grasp is positive definite. The stability result provides physical justification for using second-order effects for purposes of immobilization in practical applications. Simulations illustrate the concepts

A design of actuation mechanisms for use in 'huggable' robotic teddy bear

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2006.Includes bibliographical references.Silent, back drivable actuators were necessary for the Huggable teddy bear, a robotic companion for use in therapeutic applications. The benefits of pet therapy include a reduction in stress and an increase in rate of healing. The Huggable teddy bear will attempt to offer the same benefits through a life-like interaction with the user. Consequently, the actuators were created to be compact due to the small size of the robot. Actuators were also designed to interface with the motor control board used in the Huggable and allow for feedback for use in position control. Care was taken in the design process to address the issues of manufacturing and assembly. The two mechanisms designed for the Huggable were an eyebrow mechanism and an ear mechanism. The eyebrow mechanism has 2 degrees of freedom (DOF). This was done using a symmetrical design which couples the motion of outer eyebrows together and the motion of the inner eyebrows together. The Ear mechanism has only 1 DOF and is cable driven. These mechanisms will allow the Huggable teddy bear to provide emotional feedback as well as create a realistic response to stimulus. Up to this point, the designs and mechanisms have been built. Testing of the design will follow to ensure life-like interaction with the user.by Levi Lalla.S.B

Artificial Companions with Personality and Social Role

Subtitle: "Expectations from Users on the Design of Groups of Companions"International audienceRobots and virtual characters are becoming increasingly used in our everyday life. Yet, they are still far from being able to maintain long-term social relationships with users. It also remains unclear what future users will expect from these so-called "artificial companions" in terms of social roles and personality. These questions are of importance because users will be surrounded with multiple artificial companions. These issues of social roles and personality among a group of companions are sledom tackled in user studies. In this paper, we describe a study in which 94 participants reported that social roles and personalities they would expect from groups of companions. We explain how the resulsts give insights for the design of future groups of companions endowed with social intelligence

Evolved embodied phase coordination enables robust quadruped robot locomotion

Overcoming robotics challenges in the real world requires resilient control systems capable of handling a multitude of environments and unforeseen events. Evolutionary optimization using simulations is a promising way to automatically design such control systems, however, if the disparity between simulation and the real world becomes too large, the optimization process may result in dysfunctional real-world behaviors. In this paper, we address this challenge by considering embodied phase coordination in the evolutionary optimization of a quadruped robot controller based on central pattern generators. With this method, leg phases, and indirectly also inter-leg coordination, are influenced by sensor feedback.By comparing two very similar control systems we gain insight into how the sensory feedback approach affects the evolved parameters of the control system, and how the performances differs in simulation, in transferal to the real world, and to different real-world environments. We show that evolution enables the design of a control system with embodied phase coordination which is more complex than previously seen approaches, and that this system is capable of controlling a real-world multi-jointed quadruped robot.The approach reduces the performance discrepancy between simulation and the real world, and displays robustness towards new environments.Comment: 9 page

The Fractal Hand-II: Reviving a Classic Mechanism for Contemporary Grasping Challenges

This paper, and its companion, propose a new fractal robotic gripper, drawing inspiration from the century-old Fractal Vise. The unusual synergistic properties allow it to passively conform to diverse objects using only one actuator. Designed to be easily integrated with prevailing parallel jaw grippers, it alleviates the complexities tied to perception and grasp planning, especially when dealing with unpredictable object poses and geometries. We build on the foundational principles of the Fractal Vise to a broader class of gripping mechanisms, and also address the limitations that had led to its obscurity. Two Fractal Fingers, coupled by a closing actuator, can form an adaptive and synergistic Fractal Hand. We articulate a design methodology for low cost, easy to fabricate, large workspace, and compliant Fractal Fingers. The companion paper delves into the kinematics and grasping properties of a specific class of Fractal Fingers and Hands.Comment: This paper is prepared for ICRA 202

Dependable Public Ledger for Policy Compliance, a Blockchain Based Approach

The ever increasing amount of personal data accumulated by companies offering innovative services through the cloud, Internet of Things devices and, more recently, social robots has started to alert consumers and legislative authorities. In the advent of the first modern laws trying to protect user privacy, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, it is still unclear what are the tools and techniques that the industry should employ to comply with regulations in a transparent and cost effective manner. We propose an architecture for a public blockchain based ledger that can provide strong evidence of policy compliance. To address scalability concerns, we define a new type of off-chain channel that is based on general state channels and offers verification for information external to the blockchain. We also create a model of the business relationships in a smart home setup that includes a social robot and suggest a sticky policy mechanism to monitor cross-boundary policy compliance

The emergence of care robotics: A publication and patent analysis

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“I’ll take care of you,” said the robot: Reflecting upon the Legal and Ethical Aspects of the Use and Development of Social Robots for Therapy

The insertion of robotic and artificial intelligent (AI) systems in therapeutic settings is accelerating. In this paper, we investigate the legal and ethical challenges of the growing inclusion of social robots in therapy. Typical examples of such systems are Kaspar, Hookie, Pleo, Tito, Robota, Nao, Leka or Keepon. Although recent studies support the adoption of robotic technologies for therapy and education, these technological developments interact socially with children, elderly or disabled, and may raise concerns that range from physical to cognitive safety, including data protection. Research in other fields also suggests that technology has a profound and alerting impact on us and our human nature. This article brings all these findings into the debate on whether the adoption of therapeutic AI and robot technologies are adequate, not only to raise awareness of the possible impacts of this technology but also to help steer the development and use of AI and robot technologies in therapeutic settings in the appropriate direction. Our contribution seeks to provide a thoughtful analysis of some issues concerning the use and development of social robots in therapy, in the hope that this can inform the policy debate and set the scene for further research.Horizon 2020(H2020)707404Article / Letter to editorInstituut voor Metajuridic

The power of affective touch within social robotics

There have been many leaps and bounds within social robotics, especially within human-robot interaction and how to make it a more meaningful relationship. This is traditionally accomplished through communicating via vision and sound. It has been shown that humans naturally seek interaction through touch yet the implications on emotions is unknown both in human-human interaction and social human-robot interaction. This thesis unpacks the social robotics community and the research undertaken to show a significant gap in the use of touch as a form of communication. The meaning behind touch will be investigated and what implication it has on emotions. A simplistic prototype was developed focusing on texture and breathing. This was used to carry out experiments to find out which combination of texture and movement felt natural. This proved to be a combination of synthetic fur and 14 breaths per minute. For human’s touch is said to be the most natural way of communicating emotions, this is the first step in achieving successful human-robot interaction in a more natural human-like way