Analysis of Human-Robot Interactions as a Sustainability Factor

Robotic systems are traditionally widespread in the efficient automatization of industrial processes. Recent applications include material handling, reconnaissance, and agricultural tasks, besides the more traditional assembly line tasks. On the other hand, the recent advancements of robotic systems aim at enhancing and even replacing the human workforce in traditional social service tasks, like nursery, clerk positions, eldercare, and catering – collectively called social robotics. Developed countries generally suffer from the decreased available workforce in these areas, threatening the long-term availability of such essential services. The robots providing such services are required to appear and behave human-like to some degree to interact with people seamlessly. Human-like behavior requires complex software and hardware systems with learning capabilities to solve social situations appropriately. This paper investigates the relationship between human-robot interactions and sustainability and identifies the foundational similarities between the aims of the two interdisciplinary fields. The paper proposes the effect of complex interaction capabilities on sustainable factors and their possible qualitative verification. The quantitative factors described in this paper are the social perception of different robots and their expected functions defined by the foundational human-robot interaction roles. The paper proposes the possible contribution of future social robot applications to sustainability factors, such as the effect of telepresence. The paper also presents the result of a qualitative survey of participating university students on the acceptance of different types of robots based on their visual appearance. The assumption of possible integration of robots into social roles and what appearance is perceived as acceptable. In summary, this paper highlights the sustainable factors in human-robot interactions by identifying the effects of social robot roles and mapping between corresponsive sustainability factors, most importantly resolving workforce deficit

Core-Shell Structured PLGA Particles Having Highly Controllable Ketoprofen Drug Release

The non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen (KP) as a model molecule is encapsulated in different poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanostructured particles, using Tween20 (TWEEN) and Pluronic F127 (PLUR) as stabilizers to demonstrate the design of a biocompatible colloidal carrier particles with highly controllable drug release feature. Based on TEM images the formation of well-defined core-shell structure is highly favorable using nanoprecipitation method. Stabile polymer-based colloids with ~200–210 nm hydrodynamic diameter can be formed by successful optimization of the KP concentration with the right choice of stabilizer. Encapsulation efficiency (EE%) of 14–18% can be achieved. We clearly confirmed that the molecular weight of the stabilizer thus its structure greatly controls the drug release from the PLGA carrier particles. It can be determined that ~20% and ~70% retention is available with the use of PLUR and TWEEN, respectively. This measurable difference can be explained by the fact that the non-ionic PLUR polymer provides a steric stabilization of the carrier particles in the form of a loose shell, while the adsorption of the non-ionic biocompatible TWEEN surfactant results in a more compact and well-ordered shell around the PLGA particles. In addition, the release property can be further tuned by decreasing the hydrophilicity of PLGA by changing the monomer ratio in the range of ~20–60% (PLUR) and 70–90% (TWEEN)

The Effect of Concentration, Temperature, and pH on the Formation of Hyaluronic Acid–Surfactant Nanohydrogels

The assembly of colloidal hyaluronic acid (HyA, as a polysaccharide) based hydrogel particles in an aqueous medium is characterized in the present paper, with an emphasis on the particular case of nanohydrogels formed by surfactant-neutralized polysaccharide networks. The structural changes and particle formation process of polysaccharide- and cationic-surfactant-containing systems were induced by the charge neutralization ability and the hydrophobic interactions of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) under different conditions. Based on the rheological, light scattering, ζ-potential, turbidity, and charge titration measurements, it can be concluded that the preparation of the HyA-CTAB particles can be greatly controlled. The results indicate that more available negative charges can be detected on the polymer chain at smaller initial amounts of HyA (cHyA < 0.10 mg/mL), where a molecular solution can be formed. The change in the pH has a negligible effect on the formation process (particle aggregation appears at nCTAB/nHyA,monomer~1.0 in every case), while the temperature dependence of the critical micelle concentration (c.m.c.) of CTAB determines the complete neutralization of the forming nanohydrogels. The results of our measurements confirm that after the appearance of stable colloidal particles, a structural change and aggregation of the polymer particles take place, and finally the complete charge neutralization of the system occurs

Cognitive Aspects of 2D Content Integration and Management in 3D Virtual Reality Spaces

The advent of 2D graphical user interfaces in the 1980s shifted user interactions from line-based terminals to icon-based interfaces. As smartphones emerged in the 2010s, portable 2D graphical interfaces became a reality, liberating users from being confined to a single location when accessing digital services. These transformations have profoundly altered our understanding of digital information systems, with impacts that cannot be easily quantified. Current advancements in virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) are on the verge of ushering in the next significant leap in cognitive expansion, introducing portable and highly contextual spatial interfaces, also sometimes referred to as Digital Realities (DRs). As a result, users now anticipate the ability to engage with an increasing array and variety of digital content in ways that are more contextualized and tailored to their needs, taking into account factors such as time, location, personalized goals and user-specific histories. In this paper, we aim to give an overview of cognitive aspects relevant to content integration and management specifically in DR environments, and to propose solutions and / or best practices to address them. Our discussion is centered around a paradigm called the Doing When-Seeing (DWS) paradigm, which we propose for the design of Digital Reality interfaces. We demonstrate the applicability of this paradigm to the design of interfaces for creating content, organizing content, and semantically representing and retreiving content within 3D Digital Reality environments