1,181 research outputs found
Ethical Control of Unmanned Systems: lifesaving/lethal scenarios for naval operations
Prepared for: Raytheon Missiles & Defense under NCRADA-NPS-19-0227This research in Ethical Control of Unmanned Systems applies precepts of Network Optional Warfare (NOW) to develop a three-step Mission Execution Ontology (MEO) methodology for validating, simulating, and implementing mission orders for unmanned systems. First, mission orders are represented in ontologies that are understandable by humans and readable by machines. Next, the MEO is validated and tested for logical coherence using Semantic Web standards. The validated MEO is refined for implementation in simulation and visualization. This process is iterated until the MEO is ready for implementation. This methodology is applied to four Naval scenarios in order of increasing challenges that the operational environment and the adversary impose on the Human-Machine Team. The extent of challenge to Ethical Control in the scenarios is used to refine the MEO for the unmanned system. The research also considers Data-Centric Security and blockchain distributed ledger as enabling technologies for Ethical Control. Data-Centric Security is a combination of structured messaging, efficient compression, digital signature, and document encryption, in correct order, for round-trip messaging. Blockchain distributed ledger has potential to further add integrity measures for aggregated message sets, confirming receipt/response/sequencing without undetected message loss. When implemented, these technologies together form the end-to-end data security that ensures mutual trust and command authority in real-world operational environments—despite the potential presence of interfering network conditions, intermittent gaps, or potential opponent intercept. A coherent Ethical Control approach to command and control of unmanned systems is thus feasible. Therefore, this research concludes that maintaining human control of unmanned systems at long ranges of time-duration and distance, in denied, degraded, and deceptive environments, is possible through well-defined mission orders and data security technologies. Finally, as the human role remains essential in Ethical Control of unmanned systems, this research recommends the development of an unmanned system qualification process for Naval operations, as well as additional research prioritized based on urgency and impact.Raytheon Missiles & DefenseRaytheon Missiles & Defense (RMD).Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
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Welcome to the world of tomorrow today: Matt Groening\u27s Futurama as posthuman mediator
In this thesis an explanation of posthuman theory along with a close analysis of both Fry and the robot Bender. These analyses respectively show how we are already posthuman as well as the material limitations of posthuman subjectivity
Foundations of Human-Aware Planning -- A Tale of Three Models
abstract: A critical challenge in the design of AI systems that operate with humans in the loop is to be able to model the intentions and capabilities of the humans, as well as their beliefs and expectations of the AI system itself. This allows the AI system to be "human- aware" -- i.e. the human task model enables it to envisage desired roles of the human in joint action, while the human mental model allows it to anticipate how its own actions are perceived from the point of view of the human. In my research, I explore how these concepts of human-awareness manifest themselves in the scope of planning or sequential decision making with humans in the loop. To this end, I will show (1) how the AI agent can leverage the human task model to generate symbiotic behavior; and (2) how the introduction of the human mental model in the deliberative process of the AI agent allows it to generate explanations for a plan or resort to explicable plans when explanations are not desired. The latter is in addition to traditional notions of human-aware planning which typically use the human task model alone and thus enables a new suite of capabilities of a human-aware AI agent. Finally, I will explore how the AI agent can leverage emerging mixed-reality interfaces to realize effective channels of communication with the human in the loop.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201
Human factors of semi-autonomous robots for urban search and rescue
During major disasters or other emergencies, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams are responsible for extricating casualties safely from collapsed urban structures. The rescue work is dangerous due to possible further collapse, fire, dust or electricity hazards. Sometimes the necessary precautions and checks can last several hours before rescuers are safe to start the search for survivors. Remote controlled rescue robots provide the opportunity to support human rescuers to search the site for trapped casualties while they remain in a safe place.
The research reported in this thesis aimed to understand how robot behaviour and interface design can be applied to utilise the benefits of robot autonomy and how to inform future human-robot collaborative systems. The data was analysed in the context of USAR missions when using semi-autonomous remote controlled robot systems. The research focussed on the influence of robot feedback, robot reliability, task complexity, and transparency. The influence of these factors on trust, workload, and performance was examined. The overall goal of the research was to make the life of rescuers safer and enhance their performance to help others in distress.
Data obtained from the studies conducted for this thesis showed that semi-autonomous robot reliability is still the most dominant factor influencing trust, workload, and team performance. A robot with explanatory feedback was perceived as more competent, more efficient and less malfunctioning. The explanatory feedback was perceived as a clearer type of communication compared to concise robot feedback. Higher levels of robot transparency were perceived as more trustworthy. However, single items on the trust questionnaire were manipulated and further investigation is necessary. However, neither explanatory feedback from the robot nor robot transparency, increased team performance or mediated workload levels.
Task complexity mainly influenced human-robot team performance and the participants’ control allocation strategy. Participants allowed the robot to find more targets and missed more robot errors in the high complexity conditions compared to the low task complexity conditions. Participants found more targets manually in the low complexity tasks.
In addition, the research showed that recording the observed robot performance (the performance of the robot that was witnessed by the participant) can help to identify the cause of contradicting results: participants might not have noticed some of the robots mistakes and therefore they were not able to distinguish between the robot reliability levels.
Furthermore, the research provided a foundation of knowledge regarding the real world application of USAR in the United Kingdom. This included collecting knowledge via an autoethnographic approach about working processes, command structures, currently used technical equipment, and attitudes of rescuers towards robots. Also, recommendations about robot behaviour and interface design were collected throughout the research.
However, recommendations made in the thesis include consideration of the overall outcome (mission performance) and the perceived usefulness of the system in order to support the uptake of the technology in real world applications. In addition, autonomous features might not be appropriate in all USAR applications. When semi-autonomous robot trials were compared to entirely manual operation, only the robot with an average of 97% reliability significantly increased the team performance and reduced the time needed to complete the USAR scenario compared to the manually operated robot. Unfortunately, such high robot success levels do not exist to date.
This research has contributed to our understanding of the factors influencing human-robot collaboration in USAR operations, and provided guidance for the next generation of autonomous robots
Mobile Robots Navigation
Mobile robots navigation includes different interrelated activities: (i) perception, as obtaining and interpreting sensory information; (ii) exploration, as the strategy that guides the robot to select the next direction to go; (iii) mapping, involving the construction of a spatial representation by using the sensory information perceived; (iv) localization, as the strategy to estimate the robot position within the spatial map; (v) path planning, as the strategy to find a path towards a goal location being optimal or not; and (vi) path execution, where motor actions are determined and adapted to environmental changes. The book addresses those activities by integrating results from the research work of several authors all over the world. Research cases are documented in 32 chapters organized within 7 categories next described
Human factors of semi-autonomous robots for urban search and rescue
During major disasters or other emergencies, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams are responsible for extricating casualties safely from collapsed urban structures. The rescue work is dangerous due to possible further collapse, fire, dust or electricity hazards. Sometimes the necessary precautions and checks can last several hours before rescuers are safe to start the search for survivors. Remote controlled rescue robots provide the opportunity to support human rescuers to search the site for trapped casualties while they remain in a safe place.
The research reported in this thesis aimed to understand how robot behaviour and interface design can be applied to utilise the benefits of robot autonomy and how to inform future human-robot collaborative systems. The data was analysed in the context of USAR missions when using semi-autonomous remote controlled robot systems. The research focussed on the influence of robot feedback, robot reliability, task complexity, and transparency. The influence of these factors on trust, workload, and performance was examined. The overall goal of the research was to make the life of rescuers safer and enhance their performance to help others in distress.
Data obtained from the studies conducted for this thesis showed that semi-autonomous robot reliability is still the most dominant factor influencing trust, workload, and team performance. A robot with explanatory feedback was perceived as more competent, more efficient and less malfunctioning. The explanatory feedback was perceived as a clearer type of communication compared to concise robot feedback. Higher levels of robot transparency were perceived as more trustworthy. However, single items on the trust questionnaire were manipulated and further investigation is necessary. However, neither explanatory feedback from the robot nor robot transparency, increased team performance or mediated workload levels.
Task complexity mainly influenced human-robot team performance and the participants’ control allocation strategy. Participants allowed the robot to find more targets and missed more robot errors in the high complexity conditions compared to the low task complexity conditions. Participants found more targets manually in the low complexity tasks.
In addition, the research showed that recording the observed robot performance (the performance of the robot that was witnessed by the participant) can help to identify the cause of contradicting results: participants might not have noticed some of the robots mistakes and therefore they were not able to distinguish between the robot reliability levels.
Furthermore, the research provided a foundation of knowledge regarding the real world application of USAR in the United Kingdom. This included collecting knowledge via an autoethnographic approach about working processes, command structures, currently used technical equipment, and attitudes of rescuers towards robots. Also, recommendations about robot behaviour and interface design were collected throughout the research.
However, recommendations made in the thesis include consideration of the overall outcome (mission performance) and the perceived usefulness of the system in order to support the uptake of the technology in real world applications. In addition, autonomous features might not be appropriate in all USAR applications. When semi-autonomous robot trials were compared to entirely manual operation, only the robot with an average of 97% reliability significantly increased the team performance and reduced the time needed to complete the USAR scenario compared to the manually operated robot. Unfortunately, such high robot success levels do not exist to date.
This research has contributed to our understanding of the factors influencing human-robot collaboration in USAR operations, and provided guidance for the next generation of autonomous robots
Evolutionary Robot Swarms Under Real-World Constraints
Tese de doutoramento em Engenharia Electrotécnica
e de Computadores, na especialidade de Automação e Robótica, apresentada ao Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de CoimbraNas últimas décadas, vários cientistas e engenheiros têm vindo a estudar as estratégias provenientes da natureza. Dentro das arquiteturas biológicas, as sociedades que vivem em enxames revelam que agentes simplistas, tais como formigas ou pássaros, são capazes de realizar tarefas complexas usufruindo de mecanismos de cooperação. Estes sistemas abrangem todas as condições necessárias para a sobrevivência, incorporando comportamentos de cooperação, competição e adaptação. Na “batalha” sem fim em prol do progresso dos mecanismos artificiais desenvolvidos pelo homem, a ciência conseguiu simular o primeiro comportamento em enxame no final dos anos oitenta. Desde então, muitas outras áreas, entre as quais a robótica, beneficiaram de mecanismos de tolerância a falhas inerentes da inteligência coletiva de enxames.
A área de investigação deste estudo incide na robĂłtica de enxame, consistindo num domĂnio particular dos sistemas robĂłticos cooperativos que incorpora os mecanismos de inteligĂŞncia coletiva de enxames na robĂłtica. Mais especificamente, propõe-se uma solução completa de robĂłtica de enxames a ser aplicada em contexto real. Nesta Ăłtica, as operações de busca e salvamento foram consideradas como o caso de estudo principal devido ao nĂvel de complexidade associado Ă s mesmas. Tais operações ocorrem tipicamente em cenários dinâmicos de elevadas dimensões, com condições adversas que colocam em causa a aplicabilidade dos sistemas robĂłticos cooperativos. Este estudo centra-se nestes problemas, procurando novos desafios que nĂŁo podem ser ultrapassados atravĂ©s da simples adaptação da literatura da especialidade em algoritmos de enxame, planeamento, controlo e tĂ©cnicas de tomada de decisĂŁo.
As contribuições deste trabalho sustentam-se em torno da extensĂŁo do mĂ©todo Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) aplicado a sistemas robĂłticos cooperativos, denominado de Robotic Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (RDPSO). O RDPSO consiste numa arquitetura robĂłtica de enxame distribuĂda que beneficia do particionamento dinâmico da população de robĂ´s utilizando mecanismos evolucionários de exclusĂŁo social baseados na sobrevivĂŞncia do mais forte de Darwin. No entanto, apesar de estar assente no caso de estudo do RDPSO, a aplicabilidade dos conceitos aqui propostos nĂŁo se encontra restrita ao mesmo, visto que todos os algoritmos parametrizáveis de enxame de robĂ´s podem beneficiar de uma abordagem idĂŞntica.
Os fundamentos em torno do RDPSO sĂŁo introduzidos, focando-se na dinâmica dos robĂ´s, nos constrangimentos introduzidos pelos obstáculos e pela comunicação, e nas suas propriedades evolucionárias. Considerando a colocação inicial dos robĂ´s no ambiente como algo fundamental para aplicar sistemas de enxames em aplicações reais, Ă© assim introduzida uma estratĂ©gia de colocação de robĂ´s realista. Para tal, a população de robĂ´s Ă© dividida de forma hierárquica, em que sĂŁo utilizadas plataformas mais robustas para colocar as plataformas de enxame no cenário de forma autĂłnoma. ApĂłs a colocação dos robĂ´s no cenário, Ă© apresentada uma estratĂ©gia para permitir a criação e manutenção de uma rede de comunicação mĂłvel ad hoc com tolerância a falhas. Esta estratĂ©gia nĂŁo considera somente a distância entre robĂ´s, mas tambĂ©m a qualidade do nĂvel de sinal rádio frequĂŞncia, redefinindo assim a sua aplicabilidade em cenários reais. Os aspetos anteriormente mencionados estĂŁo sujeitos a uma análise detalhada do sistema de comunicação inerente ao algoritmo, para atingir uma implementação mais escalável do RDPSO a cenários de elevada complexidade. Esta elevada complexidade inerente Ă dinâmica dos cenários motivaram a ultimar o desenvolvimento do RDPSO, integrando para o efeito um mecanismo adaptativo baseado em informação contextual (e.g., nĂvel de atividade do grupo).
Face a estas considerações, o presente estudo pode contribuir para expandir o estado-da-arte em robótica de enxame com algoritmos inovadores aplicados em contexto real. Neste sentido, todos os métodos propostos foram extensivamente validados e comparados com alternativas, tanto em simulação como com robôs reais. Para além disso, e dadas as limitações destes (e.g., número limitado de robôs, cenários de dimensões limitadas, constrangimentos reais limitados), este trabalho contribui ainda para um maior aprofundamento do estado-da-arte, onde se propõe um modelo macroscópico capaz de capturar a dinâmica inerente ao RDPSO e, até certo ponto, estimar analiticamente o desempenho coletivo dos robôs perante determinada tarefa.
Em suma, esta investigação pode ter aplicabilidade prática ao colmatar a lacuna que se faz sentir no âmbito das estratégias de enxames de robôs em contexto real e, em particular, em cenários de busca e salvamento.Over the past decades, many scientists and engineers have been studying nature’s best and time-tested
patterns and strategies. Within the existing biological architectures, swarm societies revealed that
relatively unsophisticated agents with limited capabilities, such as ants or birds, were able to cooperatively
accomplish complex tasks necessary for their survival. Those simplistic systems embrace all
the conditions necessary to survive, thus embodying cooperative, competitive and adaptive behaviours.
In the never-ending battle to advance artificial manmade mechanisms, computer scientists simulated
the first swarm behaviour designed to mimic the flocking behaviour of birds in the late eighties.
Ever since, many other fields, such as robotics, have benefited from the fault-tolerant mechanism
inherent to swarm intelligence.
The area of research presented in this Ph.D. Thesis focuses on swarm robotics, which is a particular
domain of multi-robot systems (MRS) that embodies the mechanisms of swarm intelligence
into robotics. More specifically, this Thesis proposes a complete swarm robotic solution that can be
applied to real-world missions. Although the proposed methods do not depend on any particular application,
search and rescue (SaR) operations were considered as the main case study due to their
inherent level of complexity. Such operations often occur in highly dynamic and large scenarios, with
harsh and faulty conditions, that pose several problems to MRS applicability. This Thesis focuses on
these problems raising new challenges that cannot be handled appropriately by simple adaptation of
state-of-the-art swarm algorithms, planning, control and decision-making techniques.
The contributions of this Thesis revolve around an extension of the Particle Swarm Optimization
(PSO) to MRS, denoted as Robotic Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (RDPSO). The RDPSO
is a distributed swarm robotic architecture that benefits from the dynamical partitioning of the whole
swarm of robots by means of an evolutionary social exclusion mechanism based on Darwin’s survival-of-the-fittest.
Nevertheless, although currently applied solely to the RDPSO case study, the applicability
of all concepts herein proposed is not restricted to it, since all parameterized swarm robotic
algorithms may benefit from a similar approach The RDPSO is then proposed and used to devise the applicability of novel approaches. The fundamentals
around the RDPSO are introduced by focusing on robots’ dynamics, obstacle avoidance,
communication constraints and its evolutionary properties. Afterwards, taking the initial deployment
of robots within the environment as a basis for applying swarm robotics systems into real-world applications,
the development of a realistic deployment strategy is proposed. For that end, the population
of robots is hierarchically divided, wherein larger support platforms autonomously deploy
smaller exploring platforms in the scenario, while considering communication constraints and obstacles.
After the deployment, a way of ensuring a fault-tolerant multi-hop mobile ad hoc communication
network (MANET) is introduced to explicitly exchange information needed in a collaborative realworld
task execution. Such strategy not only considers the maximum communication range between
robots, but also the minimum signal quality, thus refining the applicability to real-world context. This
is naturally followed by a deep analysis of the RDPSO communication system, describing the dynamics
of the communication data packet structure shared between teammates. Such procedure is a
first step to achieving a more scalable implementation by optimizing the communication procedure
between robots. The highly dynamic characteristics of real-world applications motivated us to ultimate
the RDPSO development with an adaptive strategy based on a set of context-based evaluation
metrics.
This thesis contributes to the state-of-the-art in swarm robotics with novel algorithms for realworld
applications. All of the proposed approaches have been extensively validated in benchmarking
tasks, in simulation, and with real robots. On top of that, and due to the limitations inherent to those
(e.g., number of robots, scenario dimensions, real-world constraints), this Thesis further contributes
to the state-of-the-art by proposing a macroscopic model able to capture the RDPSO dynamics and,
to some extent, analytically estimate the collective performance of robots under a certain task. It is
the author’s expectation that this Ph.D. Thesis may shed some light into bridging the reality gap
inherent to the applicability of swarm strategies to real-world scenarios, and in particular to SaR operations.FCT - SFRH/BD /73382/201
Bringing Human Robot Interaction towards _Trust and Social Engineering
Robots started their journey in books and movies; nowadays, they are becoming an
important part of our daily lives: from industrial robots, passing through entertainment
robots, and reaching social robotics in fields like healthcare or education.
An important aspect of social robotics is the human counterpart, therefore, there is
an interaction between the humans and robots. Interactions among humans are often
taken for granted as, since children, we learn how to interact with each other. In robotics,
this interaction is still very immature, however, critical for a successful incorporation of
robots in society. Human robot interaction (HRI) is the domain that works on improving
these interactions.
HRI encloses many aspects, and a significant one is trust. Trust is the assumption that
somebody or something is good and reliable; and it is critical for a developed society.
Therefore, in a society where robots can part, the trust they could generate will be essential
for cohabitation.
A downside of trust is overtrusting an entity; in other words, an insufficient alignment
of the projected trust and the expectations of a morally correct behaviour. This effect
could negatively influence and damage the interactions between agents. In the case of
humans, it is usually exploited by scammers, conmen or social engineers - who take
advantage of the people's overtrust in order to manipulate them into performing actions
that may not be beneficial for the victims.
This thesis tries to shed light on the development of trust towards robots, how this
trust could become overtrust and be exploited by social engineering techniques. More
precisely, the following experiments have been carried out: (i) Treasure Hunt, in which
the robot followed a social engineering framework where it gathered personal
information from the participants, improved the trust and rapport with them, and at the
end, it exploited that trust manipulating participants into performing a risky action.
(ii) Wicked Professor, in which a very human-like robot tried to enforce its authority to
make participants obey socially inappropriate requests. Most of the participants realized
that the requests were morally wrong, but eventually, they succumbed to the robot'sauthority while holding the robot as morally responsible. (iii) Detective iCub, in which it
was evaluated whether the robot could be endowed with the ability to detect when the
human partner was lying. Deception detection is an essential skill for social engineers and
professionals in the domain of education, healthcare and security. The robot achieved
75% of accuracy in the lie detection. There were also found slight differences in the
behaviour exhibited by the participants when interacting with a human or a robot
interrogator.
Lastly, this thesis approaches the topic of privacy - a fundamental human value. With
the integration of robotics and technology in our society, privacy will be affected in ways
we are not used. Robots have sensors able to record and gather all kind of data, and it is
possible that this information is transmitted via internet without the knowledge of the
user. This is an important aspect to consider since a violation in privacy can heavily
impact the trust.
Summarizing, this thesis shows that robots are able to establish and improve trust
during an interaction, to take advantage of overtrust and to misuse it by applying different
types of social engineering techniques, such as manipulation and authority. Moreover,
robots can be enabled to pick up different human cues to detect deception, which can
help both, social engineers and professionals in the human sector. Nevertheless, it is of
the utmost importance to make roboticists, programmers, entrepreneurs, lawyers,
psychologists, and other sectors involved, aware that social robots can be highly beneficial
for humans, but they could also be exploited for malicious purposes
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