Semiotics and Human-Robot Interaction

Keywords: Semi-autonomous robot, human-robot interaction, semiotics. Abstract: This paper describes a robot control architecture supported on a human-robot interaction model obtained directly from semiotics concepts. The architecture is composed of a set of objects defined after a semiotic sign model. Simulation experiments using unicycle robots are presented that illustrate the interactions within a team of robots equipped with skills similar to those used in human-robot interactions.

Modern Safeguards Tools for Efficient and Effective Design Information Verification

Design Information Verification (DIV) is becoming increasingly important in International Safeguards as a way of verifying that facility set-up is consistent with the declared design and activities. This is particularly true for the complex environments of new nuclear installations. Member States Support Programmes (MSSPs) enabled the IAEA to develop and obtain a set of advanced tools designed to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of DIV activities. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of these advanced tools based on laser, radar, X-ray fluorescence and infrared imaging technologies and their potential for being applied to containment- and other verification activities.JRC.E.9-Nuclear security (Ispra

A Retrospective Cohort Study

Purpose Graves' disease (GD) is an autoimmune disorder caused by the presence of antibodies to the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor (TRAbs), usually presenting with clinical signs of hyperthyroidism. Previous evidence suggests that higher serum levels of thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAbs) may lead to more sustained remission of hyperthyroidism after treatment with antithyroid drugs (AT). However, doubts about the influence of TPOAbs in Graves' disease outcomes still remain. Methods A retrospective, unicenter cohort study was performed. All patients with GD (TRAbs > 1.58U/L), biochemical primary hyperthyroidism (TSH < 0.4 µUI/mL), and TPOAbs measurement at diagnosis, treated with AT between January 2008 and January 2021, were included for analysis. Results One hundred and forty-two patients (113 women) with a mean age of 52 ± 15 years old were included. They were followed up for 65.4 ± 43.8 months. TPOAbs positivity was present in 71.10% (n=101) of those patients. Patients were treated with AT for a median of 18 (IQR (12; 24)) months. Remission occurred in 47.2% of patients. Patients with remission presented with lower TRAbs and free thyroxine (FT4) levels at the diagnosis. (p-value <0.001, p-value 0.003, respectively). No association was found in the median TPOAbs serum levels of patients who remitted and those who maintained biochemical hyperthyroidism after the first course of AT. Relapse of hyperthyroidism occurred in 54 patients (57.4%). No difference was found in TPOAbs serum levels regarding the patient's relapse. Moreover, a time-based analysis revealed no differences in the relapse rate after 18 months of AT therapy between patients with and without TPOAbs positivity at the diagnosis (p-value 0.176). It was found a weak positive correlation (r=0.295; p-value <0.05) between TRAbs and TPOAbs titters at the moment of Graves' diagnosis. Conclusion In this study, a correlation between TRAbs measurements and TPOAbs titter was described, although no significant association was found between the presence of TPOAbs and the outcomes of patients with GD treated with AT. These results do not support the use of TPOAbs as a useful biomarker to predict remission or relapse of hyperthyroidism in GD patients.publishersversionpublishe

Asynchronous federated learning system for human-robot touch interaction

Artificial intelligence and robotics are advancing at an incredible pace; however, there is a risk associated with the data privacy and personal information of users interacting with these systems and platforms. In this context, the federated learning approach emerged to enable large-scale, distributed learning without the need to transmit or store any information necessary to train the learning models. In a previous paper, we presented a system capable of detecting, locating, and classifying what kind of contact occurs between humans and one of our robots using innovative contact microphone technology. In this work we go further, improving the previously presented touch system with a multi-user, multi-robot, distributed, and scalable learning approach that is able to learn in a collaborative and incremental way while respecting the privacy of the user's information. The system has been successfully evaluated in a real environment with 28 different users divided in 7 different groups. To assess the performance of our system with this federated learning approach, we compared it to the same distributed learning system without federated learning. That is, the control group for this comparison is a central node directly receiving all the training examples obtained by each robot locally. We found that in this context the inclusion of federated learning improves the results concerning traditional distributed learning.The research leading to these results has received funding from the projects: Robots Sociales para Estimulación Física, Cognitiva y Afectiva de Mayores (ROSES), RTI2018-096338-B-I00, funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades; Robots sociales para mitigar la soledad y el aislamiento en mayores (SOROLI), PID2021-123941OA-I00, funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; the project PLEC2021-007819, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR, and RoboCity2030-DIH-CM, Madrid Robotics Digital Innovation Hub, S2018/NMT-4331, funded by Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid and cofunded by the European Social Funds (FSE) of the EU. Funding for APC: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Read & Publish Agreement CRUE-CSIC 2022 )

A multimodal emotion detection system during human-robot interaction

In this paper, a multimodal user-emotion detection system for social robots is presented. This system is intended to be used during human-robot interaction, and it is integrated as part of the overall interaction system of the robot: the Robotics Dialog System (RDS). Two modes are used to detect emotions: the voice and face expression analysis. In order to analyze the voice of the user, a new component has been developed: Gender and Emotion Voice Analysis (GEVA), which is written using the Chuck language. For emotion detection in facial expressions, the system, Gender and Emotion Facial Analysis (GEFA), has been also developed. This last system integrates two third-party solutions: Sophisticated High-speed Object Recognition Engine (SHORE) and Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT). Once these new components (GEVA and GEFA) give their results, a decision rule is applied in order to combine the information given by both of them. The result of this rule, the detected emotion, is integrated into the dialog system through communicative acts. Hence, each communicative act gives, among other things, the detected emotion of the user to the RDS so it can adapt its strategy in order to get a greater satisfaction degree during the human-robot dialog. Each of the new components, GEVA and GEFA, can also be used individually. Moreover, they are integrated with the robotic control platform ROS (Robot Operating System). Several experiments with real users were performed to determine the accuracy of each component and to set the final decision rule. The results obtained from applying this decision rule in these experiments show a high success rate in automatic user emotion recognition, improving the results given by the two information channels (audio and visual) separately.The authors gratefully acknowledge the funds provided by the Spanish MICINN (Ministry of Science and Innovation) through the project “Aplicaciones de los robots sociales”, DPI2011-26980 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Moreover, the research leading to these results has received funding from the RoboCity2030-II-CM project (S2009/DPI-1559), funded by Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid and cofunded by Structural Funds of the EU

a review of their degradation mechanisms and conservation treatments

Funding text 1 N. Teixeira thanks FCT for CEECIND/00025/2018/CP1545/CT0009. S. Sequeira and V. Otero acknowledge FCT/MCTES for CEECIND/01474/2018 and 2020.00647.CEECIND, respectively. The authors acknowledge all team members of the project Polyphenols in Art for their helpful and enthusiastic discussions. Funding text 2 This work received financial support from the Portuguese Science Foundation through the projects UID/QUI/50006/2020 (LAQV-REQUIMTE), PTDC/QUI-OUT/29925/2017 (Polyphenols in Art—Chemistry and biology hand in hand with conservation of cultural heritage) and PTDC/LLT-EGL/30984/2017 (STEMMA (“From singing to writing – survey on material production and routes of Galician-Portuguese Lyric”).Iron-gall inks are an essential element of our written cultural heritage that is at risk of a total loss due to degradation. This degradation leads to the loss of the support, particularly the cellulose-based support. Intending to stabilize it, we have come a long way from the nineteenth-century cellulose nitrate laminations to the relatively recent phytate treatments; nevertheless, less invasive treatments are needed. To pave the way for developing safer and more sustainable treatments, tailored as much as possible to the object, this paper reviews the conservation treatments and the advances that have taken place over the last decade in our understanding of the degradation mechanisms of iron-gall inks, based on a careful selection of references to support a concise microreview. This discussion is based on the currently accepted models based on the Fe3+-gallate and the identification of degradation products for iron-gall inks observed in heritage objects, including manuscripts dating from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries and drawings from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. The degradation promoted by iron-gall inks induces scission of cellulose through acid catalysis and/or redox reactions. The causes of these acid-base and redox reactions are also assessed. Finally, we detail the state-of-the-art conservation treatments used to mitigate iron gall ink deterioration, covering treatments from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, followed by the presentation of current phytate treatments and new postphytate treatments.publishersversionpublishe

Nuclear Safeguards R&D and Innovation at the JRC

Nuclear safeguards are from the very origin of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and as enshrined in the EURATOM Treaty, a key duty of the European Commission and a field in which JRC has a fully unique position in Europe. In this area JRC is an un-replaceable R&D partner of Euratom safeguards authority and IAEA through its very extensive support programme. The JRC R&D safeguards programme aims in one hand at maintaining traditional safeguards at level so that deterrence to diversion from civil cycle remains high, taking into account that more installations will need to be safeguarded by EU and international authorities. This relies on development of advanced NDA, DA and CS techniques, full remote and unattended (authenticated) technology and stringent quality systems in measurements and results delivery. In another hand the RD programme put more focus on material flows in sensitive uranium and spent fuel handling facilities and use of fingerprinting techniques to cover diversion scenarios and more performing and accurate environmental sampling techniques and traces analysis. Open-source analysis and development of new tools and methodologies for the control of Import/export are areas where the effort is also increased. In the JRC R&D programme a special attention is also given to the development of accountancy and safeguards concepts for advanced fuel cycles (GenIV) as well as proliferation resistance methodology. This scientific/technical work is encompassed by appropriate training activities. This paper is about some of the new R&D and innovation activities of the JRC as part of the EU contribution to the implementation of effective nuclear safeguards inside and outside the EU.JRC.E.9-Nuclear security (Ispra

Integration of Nuclear Safeguards and Security at the JRC

At political level, security and safeguards remain in separate hands. Safeguards are implemented by international and national authorities through an international treaty, while security is an important national responsibility. At a technical level the synergies between safeguards and security lead to their integration allowing better optimization of the resources and important benefit from exchange of experience and expertise between the two systems. In this paper, we will illustrate this integration process between nuclear security and safeguards. Many examples will be presented such as: non destructive assay (NDA) in nuclear safeguard /detection and identification of illicit nuclear and radioactive materials, destructive analysis (DA) and environmental sampling in nuclear safeguards/ nuclear forensic, use of seals in nuclear security for containers, combined camera and gamma/neutron source for source localisation in luggage, Open source information, export controls are also areas were the integration is possible.JRC.E.9-Nuclear security (Ispra