The anthropomorphic imperative: a historical analogy

In a cultural setting in which the imitation of nature continues to be regulated by the ambitious project to cancel the dividing line between the natural and the artificial, man continues to find space for his replicative fantasies, even at the cost of breaking cultural boundaries and taboos. On the other hand, as shown in the historical analogy, this ambition, aimed not only at a partial reproduction but a true replication, seems to exhibit developmental contours that lead to the same final results in terms of disillusionment and subsequent abandonment

The Perceptions of People with Dementia and Key Stakeholders Regarding the Use and Impact of the Social Robot MARIO

People with dementia often experience loneliness and social isolation. This can result in increased cognitive decline which, in turn, has a negative impact on quality of life. This paper explores the use of the social robot, MARIO, with older people living with dementia as a way of addressing these issues. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted to explore the perceptions and experiences of the use and impact of MARIO. The research took place in the UK, Italy and Ireland. Semi-structured interviews were held in each location with people with dementia (n = 38), relatives/carers (n = 28), formal carers (n = 28) and managers (n = 13). The data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings revealed that despite challenges in relation to voice recognition and the practicalities of conducting research involving robots in real-life settings, most participants were positive about MARIO. Through the robot’s user-led design and personalized applications, MARIO provided a point of interest, social activities, and cognitive engagement increased. However, some formal carers and managers voiced concern that robots might replace care staff

A Lower Extremity Exoskeleton: Human-Machine Coupled Modeling, Robust Control Design, Simulation, and Overload-Carrying Experiment

A robust H∞ control method and switched control algorithm for hydraulic actuator presents in human-machine coordinated motion to solve the motion delay of lower extremity exoskeleton. After the characteristic parameters synthesis of human limb and exoskeleton linkage, the human-machine coupled motion model is constructed to estimate the appropriate hydraulic pressure, which is considered as a structural uncertainty in hydraulic model. Then the robust controller is designed to improve the robust stability and performance under the structural and parametric uncertainty disturbances. Simulation results show that, in walking mode, this robust controller can achieve a better dynamic response and aid-force efficiency than PID controller. Then, according to gait divisions of person’s limb motion, the switched control algorithm is designed to reduce the delay of exoskeleton tracking person. Finally, the experimental results show that the human-machine coordinated walk with bearing 60 kg load and squat action with no external load are realized effectively by this proposed method

Rethinking the Fourth Amendment in the Age of Supercomputers, Artificial Intelligence, and Robots

In an era of diminishing privacy, the Internet of Things ( loT ) has become a consensual and inadvertent tool that undermines privacy protection. The loT, really systems of networks connected to each other by the Internet or other radio-type device, creates consensual mass self-surveillance in such domains as fitness and the Fitbit, health care and heart monitors, smart houses and cars, and even smart cities. The multiple networks also have created a degree of interconnectivity that has opened up a fire hose of information for companies and governments alike, as well as making it virtually insuperable to live off the grid in the modem era. This treasure trove of information allows for government tracking in unprecedented ways. This Article explores the influence of the JoT, the mass self-surveillance it produces on privacy, and the new shapes of privacy that are emerging as a result. This Article offers several forms of protection against the further dissipation of privacy

Vertrauen in Roboter und dessen Beeinflussbarkeit durch sprachliches Framing

Collaborative robots (cobots) enable human-robot interactions in the workplace without safety fences. An appropriate level of trust by employees is critical to the success of these interactions. Anthropomorphic perceptions and fears of technological replacement affect trust formation. They can be influenced by linguistic framing, as this interdisciplinary empirical study shows

Vertrauen in Roboter und dessen Beeinflussbarkeit durch sprachliches Framing

Collaborative robots (cobots) enable human-robot interactions in the workplace without safety fences. An appropriate level of trust by employees is critical to the success of these interactions. Anthropomorphic perceptions and fears of technological replacement affect trust formation. They can be influenced by linguistic framing, as this interdisciplinary empirical study shows

Designing companions, designing tools : social robots, developers, and the elderly in Japan

Ce mémoire de maîtrise trace la généalogie d’un robot social, de sa conception à ses différentes utilisations et la manière dont les utilisateurs interagissent avec. A partir d’un terrain de six mois dans une start-up et deux maisons de retraite au Japon, j’interroge la création de Pepper, un robot social crée par la compagnie japonais SoftBank. Pepper a été créé de façon à être humanoïde mais pas trop, ainsi que perçu comme adorable et charmant. Par la suite, je décris comment Pepper et d’autres robots sociaux sont utilisés, à la fois par des développeurs, mais aussi par des personnes âgées, et je souligne une tension existante entre leur utilisation comme des compagnons et des outils. En me basant sur l’anthropologie ontologique et la phénoménologie, j’examine la construction du robot comme une entité avec laquelle il est possible d’interagir, notamment à cause de sa conception en tant qu’acteur social, ontologiquement ambigu, et qui peut exprimer de l’affect. En m’intéressant aux interactions multimodales, et en particulier le toucher, je classifie trois fonctions remplies par l’interaction : découverte, contrôle, et l’expression de l’affect. Par la suite, je questionne ces actes d’agir vers et s’ils peuvent être compris comme une interaction, puisqu’ils n’impliquent pas que le robot soit engagé. J’argumente qu’une interaction est un échange de sens entre des agents engagés et incarnés. Il y a effectivement parfois un échange de sens entre le robot et son utilisateur, et le robot est un artefact incarné. Cependant, seule l’impression d’intersubjectivité est nécessaire à l’interaction, plutôt que sa réelle présence.This master’s 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

Determining the effect of human cognitive biases in social robots for human-robotm interactions

The research presented in this thesis describes a model for aiding human-robot interactions based on the principle of showing behaviours which are created based on 'human' cognitive biases by a robot in human-robot interactions. The aim of this work is to study how cognitive biases can affect human-robot interactions in the long term. Currently, most human-robot interactions are based on a set of well-ordered and structured rules, which repeat regardless of the person or social situation. This trend tends to provide an unrealistic interaction, which can make difficult for humans to relate ‘naturally’ with the social robot after a number of relations. The main focus of these interactions is that the social robot shows a very structured set of behaviours and, as such, acts unnaturally and mechanical in terms of social interactions. On the other hand, fallible behaviours (e.g. forgetfulness, inability to understand other’ emotions, bragging, blaming others) are common behaviours in humans and can be seen in regular social interactions. Some of these fallible behaviours are caused by the various cognitive biases. Researchers studied and developed various humanlike skills (e.g. personality, emotions expressions, traits) in social robots to make their behaviours more humanlike, and as a result, social robots can perform various humanlike actions, such as walking, talking, gazing or emotional expression. But common human behaviours such as forgetfulness, inability to understand other emotions, bragging or blaming are not present in the current social robots; such behaviours which exist and influence people have not been explored in social robots. The study presented in this thesis developed five cognitive biases in three different robots in four separate experiments to understand the influences of such cognitive biases in human–robot interactions. The results show that participants initially liked to interact with the robot with cognitive biased behaviours more than the robot without such behaviours. In my first two experiments, the robots (e.g., ERWIN, MyKeepon) interacted with the participants using a single bias (i.e., misattribution and empathy gap) cognitive biases accordingly, and participants enjoyed the interactions using such bias effects: for example, forgetfulness, source confusions, always showing exaggerated happiness or sadness and so on in the robots. In my later experiments, participants interacted with the robot (e.g., MARC) three times, with a time interval between two interactions, and results show that the likeness the interactions where the robot shows biased behaviours decreases less than the interactions where the robot did not show any biased behaviours. In the current thesis, I describe the investigations of these traits of forgetfulness, the inability to understand others’ emotions, and bragging and blaming behaviours, which are influenced by cognitive biases, and I also analyse people’s responses to robots displaying such biased behaviours in human–robot interactions