A field study on Polish customers' attitude towards a service robot in a cafe

More and more stores in Poland are adopting robots as customer assistants or promotional tools. However, customer attitudes to such novelty remain unexplored. This study focused on the role of social robots in self-service cafes. This domain has not been explored in Poland before, and there is not much research in other countries as well. We conducted a field study in two cafes with a teleoperated robot Nao, which sat next to the counter serving as an assistant to a human barista. We observed customer behavior, conducted semi-structured interviews and questionnaires with the customers. The results show that Polish customers are neutral and insecure about robots. However, they do not exhibit a total dislike of these technologies. We considered three stages of the interaction and identified features of each stage that need to be designed carefully to yield user satisfaction.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Robot for harvesting cauliflower, and the cutting of cauliflowers

The human arm bounded by soft tissues and muscles is capable of fast movement with high precision fidelity. And it is soft as it has muscles and other tissue. Nowadays, robots can do many human tasks. Robot arms are also becoming softer, to make them stronger and safer to use around humans while working in real-world environments. In this study, the focus is on a robot for harvesting cauliflower, and the cutting of cauliflowers in particular. The robotic platform is designed to reuse modular robotic components from other crops and/or different cauliflower varieties. The platform has two robot arms with variable-stiffness technology. The first arm is for cutting the cauliflower in its steam. And the second is for picking the cauliflower. The GummiArm is a 7+1 DOF robot arm and is an open-source project. Here it is used with a cauliflower-specific end effector, which is a cutter designed with 3d printer, while the second arm has a gripping end-effector. The bi-manual configuration allows the separation of grasping and cutting behaviours into separate robot manipulators, enabling flexibility to adapt to different varieties. Here the focus was on the cutting, and on the control of these through the Robot Operating System (ROS). Several experiments were performed with a force-Analysis of the cutting behaviour, during teleoperation, and when using a control exploiting the passive compliance of the GummiArm. These early experiments with the laboratory platform demonstrate the platform's promise, but also a set of challenges to tackle. This new data can be used to compare human labour performance, develop operational concepts and business plans, and drive future design decisions.self fund studen

NASA space station automation: AI-based technology review

Research and Development projects in automation for the Space Station are discussed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) based automation technologies are planned to enhance crew safety through reduced need for EVA, increase crew productivity through the reduction of routine operations, increase space station autonomy, and augment space station capability through the use of teleoperation and robotics. AI technology will also be developed for the servicing of satellites at the Space Station, system monitoring and diagnosis, space manufacturing, and the assembly of large space structures

A Psychological Need-Fulfillment Perspective for Designing Social Robots that Support Well-Being

This conceptual paper presents a novel framework for the design and study of social robots that support well-being. Building upon the self-determination theory and the associated Motivation, Engagement, and Thriving in User Experience (METUX) model, this paper argues that users’ psychological basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness should be put at the center of social robot design. These basic needs are essential to people’s psychological well-being, engagement, and self-motivation. However, current literature offers limited insights into how human–robot interactions are related to users’ experiences of the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs and thus, to their well-being and flourishing. We propose that a need-fulfillment perspective could be an inspiring lens for the design of social robots, including socially assistive robots. We conceptualize various ways in which a psychological need-fulfillment perspective may be incorporated into future human–robot interaction research and design, ranging from the interface level to the specific tasks performed by a robot or the user’s behavior supported by the robot. The paper discusses the implications of the framework for designing social robots that promote well-being, as well as the implications for future research

Robo-ethics design approach for cultural heritage: Case study - Robotics for museum purpose

The thesis shows the study behind the design process and the realization of the robotic solution for museum purposes called Virgil. The research started with the literature review on museums management and the critic analysis of signi cant digital experiences in the museum eld. Then, it continues analyzing the museum and its relation with the territory and the cultural heritage. From this preliminary analysis stage, signi cant issue related to museum management analysis comes out: nowadays many museum areas are not accessible to visitors because of issues related to security or architectural barriers. Make explorable these areas is one of the important topics in the cultural debate related to the visiting experience. This rst stage gave the knowledge to develop the outlines which brought to the realization of an ef cient service design then realized following robot ethical design values. One of the pillars of the robot ethical design is the necessity to involve all the stakeholders in the early project phases, for this reason, the second stage of the research was the study of the empathic relations between museum and visitors. In this phase, facilitator factors of this relation are de ned and transformed into guidelines for the product system performances. To perform this stage, it has been necessary create a relation between all the stakeholders of the project, which are: Politecnico di Torino, Tim (Telecom Italia Mobile) JOL CRAB research laboratory and Terre dei Savoia which is the association in charge of the Racconiggi’s Castle, the context scenario of the research. The third stage of the research, provided the realization of a prototype of the robot, in this stage telepresence robot piloted the Museum Guide it is used to show, in real time, the inaccessible areas of the museum enriched with multimedia contents. This stage concludes with the nal test user, from the test session feedback analysis, many of people want to drive themselves the robot. To give an answer to user feedback an interactive game has been developed. The game is based both on the robot ability to be driven by the visitors and also on the capacity of the robot to be used as a platform for the digital telling. To be effective, the whole experience it has been designed and tested with the support of high school students, which are one of the categories less interested in the traditional museum visit. This experience wants to demonstrate that the conscious and ethical use of the robotic device is effectively competitive, in term of performances, with the other solutions of digital visit: because it allows a more interactive digital experience in addition to the satisfaction of the physical visit at the museum

Conference on Intelligent Robotics in Field, Factory, Service, and Space (CIRFFSS 1994), volume 1

The AIAA/NASA Conference on Intelligent Robotics in Field, Factory, Service, and Space (CIRFFSS '94) was originally proposed because of the strong belief that America's problems of global economic competitiveness and job creation and preservation can partly be solved by the use of intelligent robotics, which are also required for human space exploration missions. Individual sessions addressed nuclear industry, agile manufacturing, security/building monitoring, on-orbit applications, vision and sensing technologies, situated control and low-level control, robotic systems architecture, environmental restoration and waste management, robotic remanufacturing, and healthcare applications

Human Machine Interaction

In this book, the reader will find a set of papers divided into two sections. The first section presents different proposals focused on the human-machine interaction development process. The second section is devoted to different aspects of interaction, with a special emphasis on the physical interaction

The Automation of the Taxi Industry – Taxi Drivers’ Expectations and Attitudes Towards the Future of their Work

Advocates of autonomous driving predict that the occupation of taxi driver could be made obsolete by shared autonomous vehicles (SAV) in the long term. Conducting interviews with German taxi drivers, we investigate how they perceive the changes caused by advancing automation for the future of their business. Our study contributes insights into how the work of taxi drivers could change given the advent of autonomous driving: While the task of driving could be taken over by SAVs for standard trips, taxi drivers are certain that other areas of their work such as providing supplementary services and assistance to passengers would constitute a limit to such forms of automation, but probably involving a shifting role for the taxi drivers, one which focuses on the sociality of the work. Our findings illustrate how taxi drivers see the future of their work, suggesting design implications for tools that take various forms of assistance into account, and demonstrating how important it is to consider taxi drivers in the co-design of future taxis and SAV services

Technological change, bargaining power, and wages

Book synopsis: “The robots are taking our jobs!” Not long ago, this worry was the stuff of science fiction. Now, as self–driving cars take to the streets and robots fill our warehouses and factories, it is entering mainstream political debate around the world. This raises important questions for all of us. How society uses new technologies is not a foregone conclusion. It depends on political decisions, cultural norms and economic choices as much as on the technologies themselves. This book looks at the phenomenon of new robot technologies, asks what impact they might have on the economy, and considers how governments, businesses and individuals should respond to them. Because technological change is a complex business, it includes views from a range of disciplines, including economics, engineering, history, philosophy and innovation studies

Third International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation for Space 1994

The Third International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation for Space (i-SAIRAS 94), held October 18-20, 1994, in Pasadena, California, was jointly sponsored by NASA, ESA, and Japan's National Space Development Agency, and was hosted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology. i-SAIRAS 94 featured presentations covering a variety of technical and programmatic topics, ranging from underlying basic technology to specific applications of artificial intelligence and robotics to space missions. i-SAIRAS 94 featured a special workshop on planning and scheduling and provided scientists, engineers, and managers with the opportunity to exchange theoretical ideas, practical results, and program plans in such areas as space mission control, space vehicle processing, data analysis, autonomous spacecraft, space robots and rovers, satellite servicing, and intelligent instruments