32 research outputs found
人間の学習プロセスをサポートするダンスインストラクターロボット
要約のみTohoku University小菅一弘課
人間の学習プロセスをサポートするダンスインストラクターロボット
要約のみTohoku University小菅一弘課
Dance Teaching by a Robot: Combining Cognitive and Physical Human-Robot Interaction for Supporting the Skill Learning Process
This letter presents a physical human-robot interaction scenario in which a
robot guides and performs the role of a teacher within a defined dance training
framework. A combined cognitive and physical feedback of performance is
proposed for assisting the skill learning process. Direct contact cooperation
has been designed through an adaptive impedance-based controller that adjusts
according to the partner's performance in the task. In measuring performance, a
scoring system has been designed using the concept of progressive teaching
(PT). The system adjusts the difficulty based on the user's number of practices
and performance history. Using the proposed method and a baseline constant
controller, comparative experiments have shown that the PT presents better
performance in the initial stage of skill learning. An analysis of the
subjects' perception of comfort, peace of mind, and robot performance have
shown a significant difference at the p < .01 level, favoring the PT algorithm.Comment: Presented at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
ICRA-201
Control Interface for Hands-free Navigation of Standing Mobility Vehicles based on Upper-Body Natural Movements
In this paper, we propose and evaluate a novel human-machine interface (HMI)
for controlling a standing mobility vehicle or person carrier robot, aiming for
a hands-free control through upper-body natural postures derived from gaze
tracking while walking. We target users with lower-body impairment with
remaining upper-body motion capabilities. The developed HMI bases on a sensing
array for capturing body postures; an intent recognition algorithm for
continuous mapping of body motions to robot control space; and a personalizing
system for multiple body sizes and shapes. We performed two user studies:
first, an analysis of the required body muscles involved in navigating with the
proposed control; and second, an assessment of the HMI compared with a standard
joystick through quantitative and qualitative metrics in a narrow circuit task.
We concluded that the main user control contribution comes from Rectus
Abdominis and Erector Spinae muscle groups at different levels. Finally, the
comparative study showed that a joystick still outperforms the proposed HMI in
usability perceptions and controllability metrics, however, the smoothness of
user control was similar in jerk and fluency. Moreover, users' perceptions
showed that hands-free control made it more anthropomorphic, animated, and even
safer.Comment: 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission
from IEEE must be obtained for all other use
Personal Mobility With Synchronous Trunk-Knee Passive Exoskeleton: Optimizing Human-Robot Energy Transfer
We present a personal mobility device for lower-body impaired users through a
light-weighted exoskeleton on wheels. On its core, a novel passive exoskeleton
provides postural transition leveraging natural body postures with support to
the trunk on sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit (STS) transitions by a single gas
spring as an energy storage unit. We propose a direction-dependent coupling of
knees and hip joints through a double-pulley wire system, transferring energy
from the torso motion towards balancing the moment load at the knee joint
actuator. Herewith, the exoskeleton maximizes energy transfer and the
naturalness of the user's movement. We introduce an embodied user interface for
hands-free navigation through a torso pressure sensing with minimal trunk
rotations, resulting on average on six unimpaired
users. We evaluated the design for STS assistance on 11 unimpaired users
observing motions and muscle activity during the transitions. Results comparing
assisted and unassisted STS transitions validated a significant reduction (up
to ) at the involved muscle groups. Moreover, we showed it
feasible through natural torso leaning movements of and for standing and sitting,
respectively. Passive postural transition assistance warrants further work on
increasing its applicability and broadening the user population.Comment: IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. 2022. 11 pages. doi:
10.1109/TMECH.2021.313545
Pedestrian-Robot Interactions on Autonomous Crowd Navigation: Reactive Control Methods and Evaluation Metrics
Autonomous navigation in highly populated areas remains a challenging task
for robots because of the difficulty in guaranteeing safe interactions with
pedestrians in unstructured situations. In this work, we present a crowd
navigation control framework that delivers continuous obstacle avoidance and
post-contact control evaluated on an autonomous personal mobility vehicle. We
propose evaluation metrics for accounting efficiency, controller response and
crowd interactions in natural crowds. We report the results of over 110 trials
in different crowd types: sparse, flows, and mixed traffic, with low- (< 0.15
ppsm), mid- (< 0.65 ppsm), and high- (< 1 ppsm) pedestrian densities. We
present comparative results between two low-level obstacle avoidance methods
and a baseline of shared control. Results show a 10% drop in relative time to
goal on the highest density tests, and no other efficiency metric decrease.
Moreover, autonomous navigation showed to be comparable to shared-control
navigation with a lower relative jerk and significantly higher fluency in
commands indicating high compatibility with the crowd. We conclude that the
reactive controller fulfils a necessary task of fast and continuous adaptation
to crowd navigation, and it should be coupled with high-level planners for
environmental and situational awareness.Comment: \c{opyright}IEEE All rights reserved. IEEE-IROS-2022, Oct.23-27.
Kyoto, Japa
Robot Mirroring: Promoting Empathy with an Artificial Agent by Reflecting the User’s Physiological Affective States
Self-tracking aims to increase awareness, decrease undesired behaviors, and ultimately lead towards a healthier lifestyle. However, inappropriate communication of selftracking results might cause the opposite effect. Subtle selftracking feedback is an alternative that can be provided with the aid of an artificial agent representing the self. Hence, we propose a wearable pet that reflects the user’s affective states through visual and haptic feedback. By eliciting empathy and fostering helping behaviors towards it, users would indirectly help themselves. A wearable prototype was built, and three user studies performed to evaluate the appropriateness of the proposed affective representations. Visual representations using facial and body cues were clear for valence and less clear for arousal. Haptic interoceptive patterns emulating heart-rate levels matched the desired feedback urgency levels with a saturation frequency. The integrated visuo-haptic representations matched to participants own affective experience. From the results, we derived three design guidelines for future robot mirroring wearable systems: physical embodiment, interoceptive feedback, and customization