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Sample records for social robotics manuscript

Robots Social Embodiment in Autonomous Mobile Robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian Duffy

2008-11-01

Full Text Available This work aims at demonstrating the inherent advantages of embracing a strong notion of social embodiment in designing a real-world robot control architecture with explicit ?intelligent? social behaviour between a collective of robots. It develops the current thinking on embodiment beyond the physical by demonstrating the importance of social embodiment. A social framework develops the fundamental social attributes found when more than one robot co-inhabit a physical space. The social metaphors of identity, character, stereotypes and roles are presented and implemented within a real-world social robot paradigm in order to facilitate the realisation of explicit social goals.
Socially Impaired Robots: Human Social Disorders and Robots' Socio-Emotional Intelligence

OpenAIRE

Vitale, Jonathan; Williams, Mary-Anne; Johnston, Benjamin

2016-01-01

Social robots need intelligence in order to safely coexist and interact with humans. Robots without functional abilities in understanding others and unable to empathise might be a societal risk and they may lead to a society of socially impaired robots. In this work we provide a survey of three relevant human social disorders, namely autism, psychopathy and schizophrenia, as a means to gain a better understanding of social robots' future capability requirements. We provide evidence supporting...
Social Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Social robotics is a cutting edge research area gathering researchers and stakeholders from various disciplines and organizations. The transformational potential that these machines, in the form of, for example, caregiving, entertainment or partner robots, pose to our societies and to us as indiv......Social robotics is a cutting edge research area gathering researchers and stakeholders from various disciplines and organizations. The transformational potential that these machines, in the form of, for example, caregiving, entertainment or partner robots, pose to our societies and to us...... as individuals seems to be limited by our technical limitations and phantasy alone. This collection contributes to the field of social robotics by exploring its boundaries from a philosophically informed standpoint. It constructively outlines central potentials and challenges and thereby also provides a stable...
Socially intelligent robots: dimensions of human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Dautenhahn, Kerstin

2007-04-29

Social intelligence in robots has a quite recent history in artificial intelligence and robotics. However, it has become increasingly apparent that social and interactive skills are necessary requirements in many application areas and contexts where robots need to interact and collaborate with other robots or humans. Research on human-robot interaction (HRI) poses many challenges regarding the nature of interactivity and 'social behaviour' in robot and humans. The first part of this paper addresses dimensions of HRI, discussing requirements on social skills for robots and introducing the conceptual space of HRI studies. In order to illustrate these concepts, two examples of HRI research are presented. First, research is surveyed which investigates the development of a cognitive robot companion. The aim of this work is to develop social rules for robot behaviour (a 'robotiquette') that is comfortable and acceptable to humans. Second, robots are discussed as possible educational or therapeutic toys for children with autism. The concept of interactive emergence in human-child interactions is highlighted. Different types of play among children are discussed in the light of their potential investigation in human-robot experiments. The paper concludes by examining different paradigms regarding 'social relationships' of robots and people interacting with them.
Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

2015-01-01

Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.
Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joachim de Greeff

Full Text Available Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference; the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.
Exploiting Child-Robot Aesthetic Interaction for a Social Robot

OpenAIRE

Lee, Jae-Joon; Kim, Dae-Won; Kang, Bo-Yeong

2012-01-01

A social robot interacts and communicates with humans by using the embodied knowledge gained from interactions with its social environment. In recent years, emotion has emerged as a popular concept for designing social robots. Several studies on social robots reported an increase in robot sociability through emotional imitative interactions between the robot and humans. In this paper conventional emotional interactions are extended by exploiting the aesthetic theories that the sociability of ...
Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

2015-01-01

Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children’s social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a “mental model” of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot’s performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot’s bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance. PMID:26422143
From Social Practices to Social Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rehm, Matthias; Krummheuer, Antonia Lina; Rodil, Kasper

2016-01-01

It has been shown that the development of social robots for the elder care sector is primarily technology driven and relying on stereotypes about old people.We are focusing instead on the actual social practices that will be targeted by social robots. We provide details of this interdisciplinary...... approach and highlight its applicability and usefulness with field examples from an elder care home. These examples include ethnographic field studies as well as workshops with staff and residents. The goal is to identify and agree with both groups on social practices, where the use of a social robot might...
Social categorization of social robots: anthropomorphism as a function of robot group membership.

Science.gov (United States)

Eyssel, Friederike; Kuchenbrandt, Dieta

2012-12-01

Previous work on social categorization has shown that people often use cues such as a person's gender, age, or ethnicity to categorize and form impressions of others. The present research investigated effects of social category membership on the evaluation of humanoid robots. More specifically, participants rated a humanoid robot that either belonged to their in-group or to a national out-group with regard to anthropomorphism (e.g., mind attribution, warmth), psychological closeness, contact intentions, and design. We predicted that participants would show an in-group bias towards the robot that ostensibly belonged to their in-group--as indicated by its name and location of production. In line with our hypotheses, participants not only rated the in-group robot more favourably--importantly, they also anthropomorphized it more strongly than the out-group robot. Our findings thus document that people even apply social categorization processes and subsequent differential social evaluations to robots. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.
Social robots from a human perspective

CERN Document Server

Taipale, Sakari; Sapio, Bartolomeo; Lugano, Giuseppe; Fortunati, Leopoldina

2015-01-01

Addressing several issues that explore the human side of social robots, this book asks from a social and human scientific perspective what a social robot is and how we might come to think about social robots in the different areas of everyday life. Organized around three sections that deal with Perceptions and Attitudes to Social Robots, Human Interaction with Social Robots, and Social Robots in Everyday Life, the book explores the idea that even if technical problems related to robot technologies can be continuously solved from a machine perspective, what kind of machine do we want to have and use in our daily lives? Experiences from previously widely adopted technologies, such smartphones, hint that robot technologies could potentially be absorbed into the everyday lives of humans in such a way that it is the human that determines the human-machine interaction. In a similar way to how today’s information and communication technologies were first designed for professional/industrial use, but which soon wer...
Social Robots as Persuasive Agents

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vlachos, Evgenios; Schärfe, Henrik

2014-01-01

Robots are more and more used in a social context, and in this paper we try to formulate a research agenda concerning ethical issues around social HRI in order to be prepared for future scenarios where robots may be a naturally integrated part of human society. We outline different paradigms to d...... to describe the role of social robots in communication processes with humans, and connect HRI with the topic of persuasive technology in health care, to critically reflect the potential benefits of using social robots as persuasive agents....
What makes a robot 'social'?

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Raya A

2017-08-01

Rhetorical moves that construct humanoid robots as social agents disclose tensions at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and social robotics. The discourse of robotics often constructs robots that are like us (and therefore unlike dumb artefacts). In the discourse of STS, descriptions of how people assimilate robots into their activities are presented directly or indirectly against the backdrop of actor-network theory, which prompts attributing agency to mundane artefacts. In contradistinction to both social robotics and STS, it is suggested here that to view a capacity to partake in dialogical action (to have a 'voice') is necessary for regarding an artefact as authentically social. The theme is explored partly through a critical reinterpretation of an episode that Morana Alač reported and analysed towards demonstrating her bodies-in-interaction concept. This paper turns to 'body' with particular reference to Gibsonian affordances theory so as to identify the level of analysis at which dialogicality enters social interactions.
Social Moments: A Perspective on Interaction for Social Robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gautier Durantin

2017-06-01

Full Text Available During a social interaction, events that happen at different timescales can indicate social meanings. In order to socially engage with humans, robots will need to be able to comprehend and manipulate the social meanings that are associated with these events. We define social moments as events that occur within a social interaction and which can signify a pragmatic or semantic meaning. A challenge for social robots is recognizing social moments that occur on short timescales, which can be on the order of 102 ms. In this perspective, we propose that understanding the range and roles of social moments in a social interaction and implementing social micro-abilities—the abilities required to engage in a timely manner through social moments—is a key challenge for the field of human robot interaction (HRI to enable effective social interactions and social robots. In particular, it is an open question how social moments can acquire their associated meanings. Practically, the implementation of these social micro-abilities presents engineering challenges for the fields of HRI and social robotics, including performing processing of sensors and using actuators to meet fast timescales. We present a key challenge of social moments as integration of social stimuli across multiple timescales and modalities. We present the neural basis for human comprehension of social moments and review current literature related to social moments and social micro-abilities. We discuss the requirements for social micro-abilities, how these abilities can enable more natural social robots, and how to address the engineering challenges associated with social moments.
Social and Affective Robotics Tutorial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pantic, Maja; Evers, Vanessa; Deisenroth, Marc; Merino, Luis; Schuller, Björn

2016-01-01

Social and Affective Robotics is a growing multidisciplinary field encompassing computer science, engineering, psychology, education, and many other disciplines. It explores how social and affective factors influence interactions between humans and robots, and how affect and social signals can be
PEAR: Prototyping Expressive Animated Robots - A framework for social robot prototyping

OpenAIRE

Balit , Etienne; Vaufreydaz , Dominique; Reignier , Patrick

2018-01-01

International audience; Social robots are transitioning from lab experiments to commercial products, creating new needs for proto-typing and design tools. In this paper, we present a framework to facilitate the prototyping of expressive animated robots. For this, we start by reviewing the design of existing social robots in order to define a set of basic components of social robots. We then show how to extend an existing 3D animation software to enable the animation of these components. By co...
What makes robots social? : A user’s perspective on characteristics for social human-robot interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Graaf, M.M.A.; Ben Allouch, Soumaya

2015-01-01

A common description of a social robot is for it to be capable of communicating in a humanlike manner. However, a description of what communicating in a ‘humanlike manner’ means often remains unspecified. This paper provides a set of social behaviors and certain specific features social robots
Robots As Intentional Agents: Using Neuroscientific Methods to Make Robots Appear More Social.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiese, Eva; Metta, Giorgio; Wykowska, Agnieszka

2017-01-01

Robots are increasingly envisaged as our future cohabitants. However, while considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of their technological realization, the ability of robots to interact with humans in an intuitive and social way is still quite limited. An important challenge for social robotics is to determine how to design robots that can perceive the user's needs, feelings, and intentions, and adapt to users over a broad range of cognitive abilities. It is conceivable that if robots were able to adequately demonstrate these skills, humans would eventually accept them as social companions. We argue that the best way to achieve this is using a systematic experimental approach based on behavioral and physiological neuroscience methods such as motion/eye-tracking, electroencephalography, or functional near-infrared spectroscopy embedded in interactive human-robot paradigms. This approach requires understanding how humans interact with each other, how they perform tasks together and how they develop feelings of social connection over time, and using these insights to formulate design principles that make social robots attuned to the workings of the human brain. In this review, we put forward the argument that the likelihood of artificial agents being perceived as social companions can be increased by designing them in a way that they are perceived as intentional agents that activate areas in the human brain involved in social-cognitive processing. We first review literature related to social-cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in human-human interactions, and highlight the importance of perceiving others as intentional agents to activate these social brain areas. We then discuss how attribution of intentionality can positively affect human-robot interaction by (a) fostering feelings of social connection, empathy and prosociality, and by (b) enhancing performance on joint human-robot tasks. Lastly, we describe circumstances under which
Robots As Intentional Agents: Using Neuroscientific Methods to Make Robots Appear More Social

Science.gov (United States)

Wiese, Eva; Metta, Giorgio; Wykowska, Agnieszka

2017-01-01

Robots are increasingly envisaged as our future cohabitants. However, while considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of their technological realization, the ability of robots to interact with humans in an intuitive and social way is still quite limited. An important challenge for social robotics is to determine how to design robots that can perceive the user’s needs, feelings, and intentions, and adapt to users over a broad range of cognitive abilities. It is conceivable that if robots were able to adequately demonstrate these skills, humans would eventually accept them as social companions. We argue that the best way to achieve this is using a systematic experimental approach based on behavioral and physiological neuroscience methods such as motion/eye-tracking, electroencephalography, or functional near-infrared spectroscopy embedded in interactive human–robot paradigms. This approach requires understanding how humans interact with each other, how they perform tasks together and how they develop feelings of social connection over time, and using these insights to formulate design principles that make social robots attuned to the workings of the human brain. In this review, we put forward the argument that the likelihood of artificial agents being perceived as social companions can be increased by designing them in a way that they are perceived as intentional agents that activate areas in the human brain involved in social-cognitive processing. We first review literature related to social-cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in human–human interactions, and highlight the importance of perceiving others as intentional agents to activate these social brain areas. We then discuss how attribution of intentionality can positively affect human–robot interaction by (a) fostering feelings of social connection, empathy and prosociality, and by (b) enhancing performance on joint human–robot tasks. Lastly, we describe circumstances under
Robots As Intentional Agents: Using Neuroscientific Methods to Make Robots Appear More Social

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eva Wiese

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Robots are increasingly envisaged as our future cohabitants. However, while considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of their technological realization, the ability of robots to interact with humans in an intuitive and social way is still quite limited. An important challenge for social robotics is to determine how to design robots that can perceive the user’s needs, feelings, and intentions, and adapt to users over a broad range of cognitive abilities. It is conceivable that if robots were able to adequately demonstrate these skills, humans would eventually accept them as social companions. We argue that the best way to achieve this is using a systematic experimental approach based on behavioral and physiological neuroscience methods such as motion/eye-tracking, electroencephalography, or functional near-infrared spectroscopy embedded in interactive human–robot paradigms. This approach requires understanding how humans interact with each other, how they perform tasks together and how they develop feelings of social connection over time, and using these insights to formulate design principles that make social robots attuned to the workings of the human brain. In this review, we put forward the argument that the likelihood of artificial agents being perceived as social companions can be increased by designing them in a way that they are perceived as intentional agents that activate areas in the human brain involved in social-cognitive processing. We first review literature related to social-cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in human–human interactions, and highlight the importance of perceiving others as intentional agents to activate these social brain areas. We then discuss how attribution of intentionality can positively affect human–robot interaction by (a fostering feelings of social connection, empathy and prosociality, and by (b enhancing performance on joint human–robot tasks. Lastly, we describe

Autism and social robotics: A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Pennisi, Paola; Tonacci, Alessandro; Tartarisco, Gennaro; Billeci, Lucia; Ruta, Liliana; Gangemi, Sebastiano; Pioggia, Giovanni

2016-02-01

Social robotics could be a promising method for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) treatment. The aim of this article is to carry out a systematic literature review of the studies on this topic that were published in the last 10 years. We tried to address the following questions: can social robots be a useful tool in autism therapy? We followed the PRISMA guidelines, and the protocol was registered within PROSPERO database (CRD42015016158). We found many positive implications in the use of social robots in therapy as for example: ASD subjects often performed better with a robot partner rather than a human partner; sometimes, ASD patients had, toward robots, behaviors that TD patients had toward human agents; ASDs had a lot of social behaviors toward robots; during robotic sessions, ASDs showed reduced repetitive and stereotyped behaviors and, social robots manage to improve spontaneous language during therapy sessions. Therefore, robots provide therapists and researchers a means to connect with autistic subjects in an easier way, but studies in this area are still insufficient. It is necessary to clarify whether sex, intelligence quotient, and age of participants affect the outcome of therapy and whether any beneficial effects only occur during the robotic session or if they are still observable outside the clinical/experimental context. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Social Moments: A Perspective on Interaction for Social Robotics

OpenAIRE

Durantin, Gautier; Heath, Scott; Wiles, Janet

2017-01-01

During a social interaction, events that happen at different timescales can indicate social meanings. In order to socially engage with humans, robots will need to be able to comprehend and manipulate the social meanings that are associated with these events. We define social moments as events that occur within a social interaction and which can signify a pragmatic or semantic meaning. A challenge for social robots is recognizing social moments that occur on short timescales, which can be on t...
SOCIAL ROBOT: DEFINING THE CONCEPT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadezhda Nikolaevna Zilberman

2016-11-01

Practical implications. The results of the study contribute toьthe theoretical basis of the cross-disciplinary research field of social robotics and may be used by researchers. They may also be used as educational aid in teaching academic courses in social studies, robotics, ethics of technology, artificial intelligence, etc.
Designing the Mind of a Social Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicole Lazzeri

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Humans have an innate tendency to anthropomorphize surrounding entities and have always been fascinated by the creation of machines endowed with human-inspired capabilities and traits. In the last few decades, this has become a reality with enormous advances in hardware performance, computer graphics, robotics technology, and artificial intelligence. New interdisciplinary research fields have brought forth cognitive robotics aimed at building a new generation of control systems and providing robots with social, empathetic and affective capabilities. This paper presents the design, implementation, and test of a human-inspired cognitive architecture for social robots. State-of-the-art design approaches and methods are thoroughly analyzed and discussed, cases where the developed system has been successfully used are reported. The tests demonstrated the system’s ability to endow a social humanoid robot with human social behaviors and with in-silico robotic emotions.
Fable: Socially Interactive Modular Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Magnússon, Arnþór; Pacheco, Moises; Moghadam, Mikael

2013-01-01

Modular robots have a significant potential as user-reconfigurable robotic playware, but often lack sufficient sensing for social interaction. We address this issue with the Fable modular robotic system by exploring the use of smart sensor modules that has a better ability to sense the behavior...
Toward understanding social cues and signals in human-robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Fiore, Stephen M; Wiltshire, Travis J; Lobato, Emilio J C; Jentsch, Florian G; Huang, Wesley H; Axelrod, Benjamin

2013-01-01

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human-robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot Ava(TM) mobile robotics platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot's proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot's social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot's gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot's mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals.
Inventing Japan's 'robotics culture': the repeated assembly of science, technology, and culture in social robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabanović, Selma

2014-06-01

Using interviews, participant observation, and published documents, this article analyzes the co-construction of robotics and culture in Japan through the technical discourse and practices of robotics researchers. Three cases from current robotics research--the seal-like robot PARO, the Humanoid Robotics Project HRP-2 humanoid, and 'kansei robotics' - show the different ways in which scientists invoke culture to provide epistemological grounding and possibilities for social acceptance of their work. These examples show how the production and consumption of social robotic technologies are associated with traditional crafts and values, how roboticists negotiate among social, technical, and cultural constraints while designing robots, and how humans and robots are constructed as cultural subjects in social robotics discourse. The conceptual focus is on the repeated assembly of cultural models of social behavior, organization, cognition, and technology through roboticists' narratives about the development of advanced robotic technologies. This article provides a picture of robotics as the dynamic construction of technology and culture and concludes with a discussion of the limits and possibilities of this vision in promoting a culturally situated understanding of technology and a multicultural view of science.
"Integrative Social Robotics"

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Seibt, Johanna

2016-01-01

-theoretic research in the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and the Human Sciences. The resulting paradigm is user-driven design writ large: research, design, and development of social robotics applications are guided—with multiple feedback—by the reflected normative preferences of a cultural community....
Legal Frame of Non-Social Robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fosch Villaronga, Eduard; Husty, M.; Hofbaur, M.; Can Dede, M.I.

2016-01-01

This paper describes some relevant legal aspects concerning non-social robots. Special attention is drawn to Person Carrier Robots (PCaR) and Physical Assistant Robots (PAR). Although concrete legal binding regulations concerning these two sub-types of Personal Care Robots (PCR) are missing, the
Living with robots: investigating the user acceptance of social robots in domestic environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Graaf, M.M.A.

2015-01-01

Over the most recent decades, the field of social robotics has advanced rapidly. There are a growing number of different types of robots, and their roles within society are expanding. This dissertation has argued that investigating the long-term acceptance of social robots in home environments is
A design-centred framework for social human-robot interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bartneck, C.; Forlizzi, J.

2004-01-01

Robots currently integrate into our everyday lives, but little is known about how they can act socially. In this paper, we propose a definition of social robots and describe a framework that classifies properties of social robots. The properties consist of form, modality, social norms, autonomy, and
Dialogues with social robots enablements, analyses, and evaluation

CERN Document Server

Wilcock, Graham

2017-01-01

This book explores novel aspects of social robotics, spoken dialogue systems, human-robot interaction, spoken language understanding, multimodal communication, and system evaluation. It offers a variety of perspectives on and solutions to the most important questions about advanced techniques for social robots and chat systems. Chapters by leading researchers address key research and development topics in the field of spoken dialogue systems, focusing in particular on three special themes: dialogue state tracking, evaluation of human-robot dialogue in social robotics, and socio-cognitive language processing. The book offers a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in both academia and industry whose work involves advanced interaction technology and who are seeking an up-to-date overview of the key topics. It also provides supplementary educational material for courses on state-of-the-art dialogue system technologies, social robotics, and related research fields.
Toward understanding social cues and signals in human–robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Fiore, Stephen M.; Wiltshire, Travis J.; Lobato, Emilio J. C.; Jentsch, Florian G.; Huang, Wesley H.; Axelrod, Benjamin

2013-01-01

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human–robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot AvaTM mobile robotics platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot’s proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot’s social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot’s gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot’s mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals. PMID:24348434
Towards understanding social cues and signals in human-robot interaction: Effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen M. Fiore

2013-11-01

Full Text Available As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human-robot interaction (HRI. We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot Ava™ Mobile Robotics Platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot’s proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot’s social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot’s gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot’s mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals.
To Err Is Robot: How Humans Assess and Act toward an Erroneous Social Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicole Mirnig

2017-05-01

Full Text Available We conducted a user study for which we purposefully programmed faulty behavior into a robot’s routine. It was our aim to explore if participants rate the faulty robot different from an error-free robot and which reactions people show in interaction with a faulty robot. The study was based on our previous research on robot errors where we detected typical error situations and the resulting social signals of our participants during social human–robot interaction. In contrast to our previous work, where we studied video material in which robot errors occurred unintentionally, in the herein reported user study, we purposefully elicited robot errors to further explore the human interaction partners’ social signals following a robot error. Our participants interacted with a human-like NAO, and the robot either performed faulty or free from error. First, the robot asked the participants a set of predefined questions and then it asked them to complete a couple of LEGO building tasks. After the interaction, we asked the participants to rate the robot’s anthropomorphism, likability, and perceived intelligence. We also interviewed the participants on their opinion about the interaction. Additionally, we video-coded the social signals the participants showed during their interaction with the robot as well as the answers they provided the robot with. Our results show that participants liked the faulty robot significantly better than the robot that interacted flawlessly. We did not find significant differences in people’s ratings of the robot’s anthropomorphism and perceived intelligence. The qualitative data confirmed the questionnaire results in showing that although the participants recognized the robot’s mistakes, they did not necessarily reject the erroneous robot. The annotations of the video data further showed that gaze shifts (e.g., from an object to the robot or vice versa and laughter are typical reactions to unexpected robot behavior
Print and Manuscript

OpenAIRE

Erne, Lukas Christian

2007-01-01

Positioning Shakespeare at the "crossroads of manuscript and print" and exploring what the choice of print or manuscript reveals about the poet's intended audience and the social persona the poet wanted to assume and fashion, argues that "Shakespeare's authorial self-presentation begins as a poet and, more specifically, as a print-published poet" with the publication of Venus and Adonis in 1593 and the allusion to the publication of Rape of Lucrece in the next year. Yet also considers the imp...
Toward understanding social cues and signals in human?robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

OpenAIRE

Fiore, Stephen M.; Wiltshire, Travis J.; Lobato, Emilio J. C.; Jentsch, Florian G.; Huang, Wesley H.; Axelrod, Benjamin

2013-01-01

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human–robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relatio...
A Motion System for Social and Animated Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jelle Saldien

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an innovative motion system that is used to control the motions and animations of a social robot. The social robot Probo is used to study Human-Robot Interactions (HRI, with a special focus on Robot Assisted Therapy (RAT. When used for therapy it is important that a social robot is able to create an “illusion of life” so as to become a believable character that can communicate with humans. The design of the motion system in this paper is based on insights from the animation industry. It combines operator-controlled animations with low-level autonomous reactions such as attention and emotional state. The motion system has a Combination Engine, which combines motion commands that are triggered by a human operator with motions that originate from different units of the cognitive control architecture of the robot. This results in an interactive robot that seems alive and has a certain degree of “likeability”. The Godspeed Questionnaire Series is used to evaluate the animacy and likeability of the robot in China, Romania and Belgium.
A generic scale for assessment of attitudes towards social robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damholdt, Malene Flensborg; Olesen, Martin Hammershøj; Nørskov, Marco

2016-01-01

The research field into social robotics is expanding and with it the need for consistent methods for assessing attitudinal stance towards social robots. In this paper we describe the development and planned validation of the Attitudes towards social robots scale (ASOR-5): a generic questionnaire ...
Heterogeneous Associations of Second-Graders' Learning in Robotics Class

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Eunji; Lee, Kyunghwa; Cherniak, Shara; Jung, Sung Eun

2017-01-01

Drawing on Latour's (Reassembling the social: an introduction to actor--network-theory, Oxford University Press, New York, 2005), this manuscript discusses a study of a robotics class in a public, Title I elementary school. Compared with theoretical frameworks (e.g., constructivism and constructionism) dominant in the field of early childhood…

Progress toward EAP actuators for biomimetic social robots

Science.gov (United States)

Hanson, D.

2013-04-01

Social robotics and artificial intelligence have progressed steadily in recent years, appearing in a variety of useful applications and products as well as breakthrough research. However, limitations in conventional motors continue to limit the possibilities of bio-inspired robotics. Such motors are needed for locomotion, grasping and manipulation, and social expressions and gestures. EAP actuators, being more like biological muscle in key regards, could revolutionize the hardware for such robots, if made robust, powerful, and manufacturable at reasonable prices. The author presents a survey of the progress and opportunities for EAP actuators in these fields, and discusses the latest work of his team in developing and manufacturing social robots that could benefit from EAP actuators.
Service innovation through social robot engagement to improve dementia care quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Chu, Mei-Tai; Khosla, Rajiv; Khaksar, Seyed Mohammad Sadegh; Nguyen, Khanh

2017-01-01

Assistive technologies, such as robots, have proven to be useful in a social context and to improve the quality of life for people with dementia (PwD). This study aims to show how the engagement between two social robots and PwD in Australian residential care facilities can improve care quality. An observational method is adopted in the research methodology to discover behavioural patterns during interactions between the robots and PwD. This observational study has undertaken to explore the improvement arising from: (1) approaching social baby-face robots (AR), (2) experiencing pleasure engaging with the robots (P), (3) interacting with the robots (IR), and (4) interacting with others (IO). The findings show that social robots can improve diversion therapy service value to PwD through sensory enrichment, positive social engagement, and entertainment. More than 11,635 behavioral reactions, such as facial expressions and gestures, from 139 PwD over 5 years were coded, in order to identify the engagement effectiveness between PwD and two social robots named Sophie and Jack. The results suggest that these innovative social robots can improve the quality of care for people suffering from dementia.
Studying social robots in practiced places

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasse, Cathrine; Bruun, Maja Hojer; Hanghøj, Signe

2015-01-01

values, social relations and materialities. Though substantial funding has been invested in developing health service robots, few studies have been undertaken that explore human-robot interactions as they play out in everyday practice. We argue that the complex learning processes involve not only so...... of technologies in use, e.g., technologies as multistable ontologies. The argument builds on an empirical study of robots at a Danish rehabilitation centre. Ethnographic methods combined with anthropological learning processes open up new way for exploring how robots enter into professional practices and change...
Moving android: on social robots and body-in-interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Alac, Morana

2009-08-01

Social robotics studies embodied technologies designed for social interaction. This paper examines the implied idea of embodiment using as data a sequence in which practitioners of social robotics are involved in designing a robot's movement. The moments of learning and work in the laboratory enact the social body as material, dynamic, and multiparty: the body-in-interaction. In describing subject-object reconfigurations, the paper explores how the well-known ideas of extending the body with instruments can be applied to a technology designed to function as our surrogate.
Measuring acceptance of an assistive social robot: a suggested toolkit

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heerink, M.; Kröse, B.; Evers, V.; Wielinga, B.

2009-01-01

The human robot interaction community is multidisciplinary by nature and has members from social science to engineering backgrounds. In this paper we aim to provide human robot developers with a straightforward toolkit to evaluate users' acceptance of assistive social robots they are designing or
Designing a social and assistive robot for seniors.

Science.gov (United States)

Eftring, H; Frennert, S

2016-06-01

The development of social assistive robots is an approach with the intention of preventing and detecting falls among seniors. There is a need for a relatively low-cost mobile robot with an arm and a gripper which is small enough to navigate through private homes. User requirements of a social assistive robot were collected using workshops, a questionnaire and interviews. Two prototype versions of a robot were designed, developed and tested by senior citizens (n = 49) in laboratory trials for 2 h each and in the private homes of elderly persons (n = 18) for 3 weeks each. The user requirement analysis resulted in a specification of tasks the robot should be able to do to prevent and detect falls. It was a challenge but possible to design and develop a robot where both the senior and the robot arm could reach the necessary interaction points of the robot. The seniors experienced the robot as happy and friendly. They wanted the robot to be narrower so it could pass through narrow passages in the home and they also wanted it to be able to pass over thresholds without using ramps and to drive over carpets. User trials in seniors' homes are very important to acquire relevant knowledge for developing robots that can handle real life situations in the domestic environment. Very high reliability of a robot is needed to get feedback about how seniors experience the overall behavior of the robot and to find out if the robot could reduce falls and improve the feeling of security for seniors living alone.
The evaluation of different roles for domestic social robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Graaf, M.M.A.; Ben Allouch, Soumaya

2015-01-01

Robotics researchers foresee that robots will become ubiquitous in our natural environments, such as our homes. For a successful diffusion of social robots, it is important to study the user acceptance of such robots. In an online survey, we have investigated the acceptance of three different
The Limits of Logic-Based Inherent Safety of Social Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bentzen, Martin Mose

2017-01-01

Social robots can reason and act while taking into accountsocial and cultural structures, for instance by complying withsocial or ethical norms or values. As social robots are likely to becomemore common and advanced and thus likely to interact withhuman beings in increasingly complex situations......-based safety for ethical robots is shown. Afterwards,an empirical study is used to show that there is a clash betweendeontic reasoning and most formal deontic logics. I give anexample as to how this clash can cause problems in human-robot interaction.I conclude that deontic logics closer to natural...... languagereasoning are needed and that logic only should play a limited partin the overall safety architecture of a social robot, which should alsobe based on other principles of safe design....
Responsive Social Positioning Behaviors for Semi-Autonomous Telepresence Robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vroon, Jered Hendrik

2017-01-01

Social interaction with a mobile robot requires the establishment of appropriate social positioning behaviors. Previous work has focused mostly on general and static rules that can be applied to robotics, such as proxemics. How can we deal effectively and efficiently with the dynamic positioning
Parents' Judgments of the Acceptability and Importance of Socially Interactive Robots for Intervening with Young Children with Disabilities. Social Robots Research Reports, Number 1

Science.gov (United States)

Dunst, Carl J.; Trivette, Carol M.; Prior, Jeremy; Hamby, Deborah W.; Embler, Davon

2013-01-01

A number of different types of socially interactive robots are being used as part of interventions with young children with disabilities to promote their joint attention and language skills. Parents' judgments of two dimensions (acceptance and importance) of the social validity of four different social robots were the focus of the study described…
Semantic Framework for Social Robot Self-Configuration

Science.gov (United States)

Azkune, Gorka; Orduña, Pablo; Laiseca, Xabier; Castillejo, Eduardo; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Loitxate, Miguel; Azpiazu, Jon

2013-01-01

Healthcare environments, as many other real world environments, present many changing and unpredictable situations. In order to use a social robot in such an environment, the robot has to be prepared to deal with all the changing situations. This paper presents a robot self-configuration approach to overcome suitably the commented problems. The approach is based on the integration of a semantic framework, where a reasoner can take decisions about the configuration of robot services and resources. An ontology has been designed to model the robot and the relevant context information. Besides rules are used to encode human knowledge and serve as policies for the reasoner. The approach has been successfully implemented in a mobile robot, which showed to be more capable of solving situations not pre-designed. PMID:23760085
Sambot II: A self-assembly modular swarm robot

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yuchao; Wei, Hongxing; Yang, Bo; Jiang, Cancan

2018-04-01

The new generation of self-assembly modular swarm robot Sambot II, based on the original generation of self-assembly modular swarm robot Sambot, adopting laser and camera module for information collecting, is introduced in this manuscript. The visual control algorithm of Sambot II is detailed and feasibility of the algorithm is verified by the laser and camera experiments. At the end of this manuscript, autonomous docking experiments of two Sambot II robots are presented. The results of experiments are showed and analyzed to verify the feasibility of whole scheme of Sambot II.
Social Robotics in Therapy of Apraxia of Speech

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Carlos Castillo

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder in which messages from the brain to the mouth are disrupted, resulting in an inability for moving lips or tongue to the right place to pronounce sounds correctly. Current therapies for this condition involve a therapist that in one-on-one sessions conducts the exercises. Our aim is to work in the line of robotic therapies in which a robot is able to perform partially or autonomously a therapy session, endowing a social robot with the ability of assisting therapists in apraxia of speech rehabilitation exercises. Therefore, we integrate computer vision and machine learning techniques to detect the mouth pose of the user and, on top of that, our social robot performs autonomously the different steps of the therapy using multimodal interaction.
Emotion Attribution to a Non-Humanoid Robot in Different Social Situations

Science.gov (United States)

Lakatos, Gabriella; Gácsi, Márta; Konok, Veronika; Brúder, Ildikó; Bereczky, Boróka; Korondi, Péter; Miklósi, Ádám

2014-01-01

In the last few years there was an increasing interest in building companion robots that interact in a socially acceptable way with humans. In order to interact in a meaningful way a robot has to convey intentionality and emotions of some sort in order to increase believability. We suggest that human-robot interaction should be considered as a specific form of inter-specific interaction and that human–animal interaction can provide a useful biological model for designing social robots. Dogs can provide a promising biological model since during the domestication process dogs were able to adapt to the human environment and to participate in complex social interactions. In this observational study we propose to design emotionally expressive behaviour of robots using the behaviour of dogs as inspiration and to test these dog-inspired robots with humans in inter-specific context. In two experiments (wizard-of-oz scenarios) we examined humans' ability to recognize two basic and a secondary emotion expressed by a robot. In Experiment 1 we provided our companion robot with two kinds of emotional behaviour (“happiness” and “fear”), and studied whether people attribute the appropriate emotion to the robot, and interact with it accordingly. In Experiment 2 we investigated whether participants tend to attribute guilty behaviour to a robot in a relevant context by examining whether relying on the robot's greeting behaviour human participants can detect if the robot transgressed a predetermined rule. Results of Experiment 1 showed that people readily attribute emotions to a social robot and interact with it in accordance with the expressed emotional behaviour. Results of Experiment 2 showed that people are able to recognize if the robot transgressed on the basis of its greeting behaviour. In summary, our findings showed that dog-inspired behaviour is a suitable medium for making people attribute emotional states to a non-humanoid robot. PMID:25551218
Emotion attribution to a non-humanoid robot in different social situations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriella Lakatos

Full Text Available In the last few years there was an increasing interest in building companion robots that interact in a socially acceptable way with humans. In order to interact in a meaningful way a robot has to convey intentionality and emotions of some sort in order to increase believability. We suggest that human-robot interaction should be considered as a specific form of inter-specific interaction and that human-animal interaction can provide a useful biological model for designing social robots. Dogs can provide a promising biological model since during the domestication process dogs were able to adapt to the human environment and to participate in complex social interactions. In this observational study we propose to design emotionally expressive behaviour of robots using the behaviour of dogs as inspiration and to test these dog-inspired robots with humans in inter-specific context. In two experiments (wizard-of-oz scenarios we examined humans' ability to recognize two basic and a secondary emotion expressed by a robot. In Experiment 1 we provided our companion robot with two kinds of emotional behaviour ("happiness" and "fear", and studied whether people attribute the appropriate emotion to the robot, and interact with it accordingly. In Experiment 2 we investigated whether participants tend to attribute guilty behaviour to a robot in a relevant context by examining whether relying on the robot's greeting behaviour human participants can detect if the robot transgressed a predetermined rule. Results of Experiment 1 showed that people readily attribute emotions to a social robot and interact with it in accordance with the expressed emotional behaviour. Results of Experiment 2 showed that people are able to recognize if the robot transgressed on the basis of its greeting behaviour. In summary, our findings showed that dog-inspired behaviour is a suitable medium for making people attribute emotional states to a non-humanoid robot.
Acceptance and Attitudes Toward a Human-like Socially Assistive Robot by Older Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Louie, Wing-Yue Geoffrey; McColl, Derek; Nejat, Goldie

2014-01-01

Recent studies have shown that cognitive and social interventions are crucial to the overall health of older adults including their psychological, cognitive, and physical well-being. However, due to the rapidly growing elderly population of the world, the resources and people to provide these interventions is lacking. Our work focuses on the use of social robotic technologies to provide person-centered cognitive interventions. In this article, we investigate the acceptance and attitudes of older adults toward the human-like expressive socially assistive robot Brian 2.1 in order to determine if the robot's human-like assistive and social characteristics would promote the use of the robot as a cognitive and social interaction tool to aid with activities of daily living. The results of a robot acceptance questionnaire administered during a robot demonstration session with a group of 46 elderly adults showed that the majority of the individuals had positive attitudes toward the socially assistive robot and its intended applications.
Social robotics to help children with autism in their interactions through imitation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pennazio Valentina

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article aims to reflect on the main variables that make social robotics efficient in an educational and rehabilitative intervention. Social robotics is based on imitation, and the study is designed for children affected by profound autism, aiming for the development of their social interactions. Existing research, at the national and international levels, shows how children with autism can interact more easily with a robotic companion rather than a human peer, considering its less complex and more predictable actions. This contribution also highlights how using robotic platforms helps in teaching children with autism basic social abilities, imitation, communication and interaction; this encourages them to transfer the learned abilities to human interactions with both adults and peers, through human–robot imitative modelling. The results of a pilot study conducted in a kindergarten school in the Liguria region are presented. The study included applying a robotic system, at first in a dyadic child–robot relation, then in a triadic one that also included another child, with the aim of eliciting social and imitative abilities in a child with profound autism.
[Robotics in pediatric surgery].

Science.gov (United States)

Camps, J I

2011-10-01

Despite the extensive use of robotics in the adult population, the use of robotics in pediatrics has not been well accepted. There is still a lack of awareness from pediatric surgeons on how to use the robotic equipment, its advantages and indications. Benefit is still controversial. Dexterity and better visualization of the surgical field are one of the strong values. Conversely, cost and a lack of small instruments prevent the use of robotics in the smaller patients. The aim of this manuscript is to present the controversies about the use of robotics in pediatric surgery.
The Impact of Robot Tutor Nonverbal Social Behavior on Child Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Kennedy

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Several studies have indicated that interacting with social robots in educational contexts may lead to a greater learning than interactions with computers or virtual agents. As such, an increasing amount of social human–robot interaction research is being conducted in the learning domain, particularly with children. However, it is unclear precisely what social behavior a robot should employ in such interactions. Inspiration can be taken from human–human studies; this often leads to an assumption that the more social behavior an agent utilizes, the better the learning outcome will be. We apply a nonverbal behavior metric to a series of studies in which children are taught how to identify prime numbers by a robot with various behavioral manipulations. We find a trend, which generally agrees with the pedagogy literature, but also that overt nonverbal behavior does not account for all learning differences. We discuss the impact of novelty, child expectations, and responses to social cues to further the understanding of the relationship between robot social behavior and learning. We suggest that the combination of nonverbal behavior and social cue congruency is necessary to facilitate learning.
Assistive/Socially Assistive Robotic Platform for Therapy and Recovery: Patient Perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew White

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Improving adherence to therapy is a critical component of advancing outcomes and reducing the cost of rehabilitation. A robotic platform was previously developed to explore how robotics could be applied to the social dimension of rehabilitation to improve adherence. This paper aims to report on feedback given by end users of the robotic platform as well as the practical applications that socially assistive robotics could have in the daily life activities of a patient. A group of 10 former and current patients interacted with the developed robotic platform during a simulated exercise session before taking an experience-based survey. A portion of these participants later provided verbal feedback as part of a focus group on the potential utility of such a platform. Identified applications included assistance with reaching exercise goals, managing to-do lists, and supporting participation in social and recreational activities. The study participants expressed that the personality characteristics of the robotic system should be adapted to individual preferences and that the assistance provided over time should align with the progress of their recovery. The results from this study are encouraging and will be useful for further development of socially assistive robotics.

From Human-Computer Interaction to Human-Robot Social Interaction

OpenAIRE

Toumi, Tarek; Zidani, Abdelmadjid

2014-01-01

Human-Robot Social Interaction became one of active research fields in which researchers from different areas propose solutions and directives leading robots to improve their interactions with humans. In this paper we propose to introduce works in both human robot interaction and human computer interaction and to make a bridge between them, i.e. to integrate emotions and capabilities concepts of the robot in human computer model to become adequate for human robot interaction and discuss chall...
Ethical challenges in the use of social service robots for elderly people.

Science.gov (United States)

Körtner, T

2016-06-01

Socially assistive robots are increasingly discussed as solutions in care and domestic use for the support of senior adults; however, this raises ethical questions which hitherto have not been considered or were not predictable. The most important questions are those of privacy and data protection, safety and responsibility as well as involvement of vulnerable persons and deception. Consequently, the ethical principles of nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy and fairness should be transposed to robotics. Clear answers and solutions are not yet available for every ethical challenge in robotics; however, the development of ethical guidelines for deployment of robots and research in the field of social service robots (SSR) are essential steps in order to embed ethics into dealing with socially assistive robots. This article provides some practical suggestions on this issue from a robotics project.
Robot Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism (DREAM): A Social Model of Autism

OpenAIRE

Richardson, Kathleen; Coecklebergh, M; Wakunuma, Kutoma; Billing, Erik; Ziemke, Tom; Gomez, P; Vanderborght, Bram; Belpaeme, Tony

2017-01-01

Development of Robot-enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders The development of social robots for children with autism has been a growth field in the last 15 years. This paper reviews studies in robots and autism as a neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts on social-communication development and the way in which social robots could help children with autism develop social skills. Drawing on the ethics research from the EU funded DREAM project (framework 7), based on ...
Teaching Human Poses Interactively to a Social Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez-Pacheco, Victor; Malfaz, Maria; Fernandez, Fernando; Salichs, Miguel A.

2013-01-01

The main activity of social robots is to interact with people. In order to do that, the robot must be able to understand what the user is saying or doing. Typically, this capability consists of pre-programmed behaviors or is acquired through controlled learning processes, which are executed before the social interaction begins. This paper presents a software architecture that enables a robot to learn poses in a similar way as people do. That is, hearing its teacher's explanations and acquiring new knowledge in real time. The architecture leans on two main components: an RGB-D (Red-, Green-, Blue- Depth) -based visual system, which gathers the user examples, and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system, which processes the speech describing those examples. The robot is able to naturally learn the poses the teacher is showing to it by maintaining a natural interaction with the teacher. We evaluate our system with 24 users who teach the robot a predetermined set of poses. The experimental results show that, with a few training examples, the system reaches high accuracy and robustness. This method shows how to combine data from the visual and auditory systems for the acquisition of new knowledge in a natural manner. Such a natural way of training enables robots to learn from users, even if they are not experts in robotics. PMID:24048336
Teaching Human Poses Interactively to a Social Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel A. Salichs

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The main activity of social robots is to interact with people. In order to do that, the robot must be able to understand what the user is saying or doing. Typically, this capability consists of pre-programmed behaviors or is acquired through controlled learning processes, which are executed before the social interaction begins. This paper presents a software architecture that enables a robot to learn poses in a similar way as people do. That is, hearing its teacher’s explanations and acquiring new knowledge in real time. The architecture leans on two main components: an RGB-D (Red-, Green-, Blue- Depth -based visual system, which gathers the user examples, and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR system, which processes the speech describing those examples. The robot is able to naturally learn the poses the teacher is showing to it by maintaining a natural interaction with the teacher. We evaluate our system with 24 users who teach the robot a predetermined set of poses. The experimental results show that, with a few training examples, the system reaches high accuracy and robustness. This method shows how to combine data from the visual and auditory systems for the acquisition of new knowledge in a natural manner. Such a natural way of training enables robots to learn from users, even if they are not experts in robotics.
Socially intelligent robots that understand and respond to human touch

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jung, Merel Madeleine

Touch is an important nonverbal form of interpersonal interaction which is used to communicate emotions and other social messages. As interactions with social robots are likely to become more common in the near future these robots should also be able to engage in tactile interaction with humans.
Attitudinal Change in Elderly Citizens Toward Social Robots: The Role of Personality Traits and Beliefs About Robot Functionality.

Science.gov (United States)

Damholdt, Malene F; Nørskov, Marco; Yamazaki, Ryuji; Hakli, Raul; Hansen, Catharina Vesterager; Vestergaard, Christina; Seibt, Johanna

2015-01-01

Attitudes toward robots influence the tendency to accept or reject robotic devices. Thus it is important to investigate whether and how attitudes toward robots can change. In this pilot study we investigate attitudinal changes in elderly citizens toward a tele-operated robot in relation to three parameters: (i) the information provided about robot functionality, (ii) the number of encounters, (iii) personality type. Fourteen elderly residents at a rehabilitation center participated. Pre-encounter attitudes toward robots, anthropomorphic thinking, and personality were assessed. Thereafter the participants interacted with a tele-operated robot (Telenoid) during their lunch (c. 30 min.) for up to 3 days. Half of the participants were informed that the robot was tele-operated (IC) whilst the other half were naïve to its functioning (UC). Post-encounter assessments of attitudes toward robots and anthropomorphic thinking were undertaken to assess change. Attitudes toward robots were assessed with a new generic 35-items questionnaire (attitudes toward social robots scale: ASOR-5), offering a differentiated conceptualization of the conditions for social interaction. There was no significant difference between the IC and UC groups in attitude change toward robots though trends were observed. Personality was correlated with some tendencies for attitude changes; Extraversion correlated with positive attitude changes to intimate-personal relatedness with the robot (r = 0.619) and to psychological relatedness (r = 0.581) whilst Neuroticism correlated negatively (r = -0.582) with mental relatedness with the robot. The results tentatively suggest that neither information about functionality nor direct repeated encounters are pivotal in changing attitudes toward robots in elderly citizens. This may reflect a cognitive congruence bias where the robot is experienced in congruence with initial attitudes, or it may support action-based explanations of cognitive dissonance reductions
Attitudinal change in elderly citizens towards social robots: the role of personality traits and beliefs about robot functionality.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malene Flensborg Damholdt

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Attitudes towards robots influence the tendency to accept or reject robotic devices. Thus it is important to investigate whether and how attitudes towards robots can change. In this pilot study we investigate attitudinal changes in elderly citizens toward a tele-operated robot in relation to three parameters: (i the information provided about robot functionality, (ii the number of encounters, (iii personality type. Fourteen elderly residents at a rehabilitation centre participated. Pre-encounter attitudes towards robots, anthropomorphic thinking, and personality were assessed. Thereafter the participants interacted with a tele-operated robot (Telenoid during their lunch (c. 30 min. for up to three days. Half of the participants were informed that the robot was tele-operated (IC whilst the other half were naïve to its functioning (UC. Post-encounter assessments of attitudes towards robots and anthropomorphic thinking were undertaken to assess change. Attitudes towards robots were assessed with a new generic 35-item questionnaire (Attitudes towards social robots scale: ASOR-5, offering a differentiated conceptualization of the conditions for social interaction.There was no significant difference between the IC and UC groups in attitude change towards robots though trends were observed. Personality was correlated with some tendencies for attitude changes; Extraversion correlated with positive attitude changes to intimate-personal relatedness with the robot (r=.619 and to psychological relatedness (r=.581 whilst Neuroticism correlated negatively (r=-.582 with mental relatedness with the robot. The results tentatively suggest that neither information about functionality nor direct repeated encounters are pivotal in changing attitudes towards robots in elderly citizens. This may reflect a cognitive congruence bias where the robot is experienced in congruence with initial attitudes, or it may support action-based explanations of cognitive dissonance
Socially assistive robots : a comprehensive approach to extending independent living

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Johnson, D.O.; Cuijpers, R.H.; Juola, J.F.; Torta, E.; Simonov, M.; Frisiello, A.; Bazzani, M.; Yan, W.; Weber, C.; Wermter, S.; Meins, N.; Oberzaucher, J.; Panek, P. (Paul); Edelmayer, G.; Mayer, P.; Beck, C.

2014-01-01

Demographic developments have challenged our research on how to assist elderly people by using robots. The KSERA (Knowledgeable SErvice Robots for Aging) project integrates smart home technology and a socially-assistive robot to extend independent living for elderly people, in particular those with
EAP artificial muscle actuators for bio-inspired intelligent social robotics (Conference Presentation)

Science.gov (United States)

Hanson, David F.

2017-04-01

Bio-inspired intelligent robots are coming of age in both research and industry, propelling market growth for robots and A.I. However, conventional motors limit bio-inspired robotics. EAP actuators and sensors could improve the simplicity, compliance, physical scaling, and offer bio-inspired advantages in robotic locomotion, grasping and manipulation, and social expressions. For EAP actuators to realize their transformative potential, further innovations are needed: the actuators must be robust, fast, powerful, manufacturable, and affordable. This presentation surveys progress, opportunities, and challenges in the author's latest work in social robots and EAP actuators, and proposes a roadmap for EAP actuators in bio-inspired intelligent robotics.
Brief Report: A Pilot Summer Robotics Camp to Reduce Social Anxiety and Improve Social/Vocational Skills in Adolescents with ASD.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaboski, Juhi R; Diehl, Joshua John; Beriont, Jane; Crowell, Charles R; Villano, Michael; Wier, Kristin; Tang, Karen

2015-12-01

This pilot study evaluated a novel intervention designed to reduce social anxiety and improve social/vocational skills for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention utilized a shared interest in robotics among participants to facilitate natural social interaction between individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD) peers. Eight individuals with ASD and eight TD peers ages 12-17 participated in a weeklong robotics camp, during which they learned robotic facts, actively programmed an interactive robot, and learned "career" skills. The ASD group showed a significant decrease in social anxiety and both groups showed an increase in robotics knowledge, although neither group showed a significant increase in social skills. These initial findings suggest that this approach is promising and warrants further study.
Influences of a Socially Interactive Robot on the Affective Behavior of Young Children with Disabilities. Social Robots Research Reports, Number 3

Science.gov (United States)

Dunst, Carl J.; Prior, Jeremy; Hamby, Deborah W.; Trivette, Carol M.

2013-01-01

Findings from two studies of 11 young children with autism, Down syndrome, or attention deficit disorders investigating the effects of Popchilla, a socially interactive robot, on the children's affective behavior are reported. The children were observed under two conditions, child-toy interactions and child-robot interactions, and ratings of child…
Service design in social robotics: Involving elderly care professionals into co-creation

OpenAIRE

Tarasova, Kseniya

2015-01-01

The global trend of the population ageing triggers the development of social robotics for the needs of elderly people in most European countries. After decades of being a subject of scientific research and a prototype in the lab, social robotics is finally becoming a consumer product. At the moment the logic of the consumer market points towards customer experience. Therefore, social robotics companies should follow this trend. This study considers service design as one of the best approache...
Robotic Motion Learning Framework to Promote Social Engagement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachael Burns

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Imitation is a powerful component of communication between people, and it poses an important implication in improving the quality of interaction in the field of human–robot interaction (HRI. This paper discusses a novel framework designed to improve human–robot interaction through robotic imitation of a participant’s gestures. In our experiment, a humanoid robotic agent socializes with and plays games with a participant. For the experimental group, the robot additionally imitates one of the participant’s novel gestures during a play session. We hypothesize that the robot’s use of imitation will increase the participant’s openness towards engaging with the robot. Experimental results from a user study of 12 subjects show that post-imitation, experimental subjects displayed a more positive emotional state, had higher instances of mood contagion towards the robot, and interpreted the robot to have a higher level of autonomy than their control group counterparts did. These results point to an increased participant interest in engagement fueled by personalized imitation during interaction.
Classifying a Person's Degree of Accessibility From Natural Body Language During Social Human-Robot Interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

McColl, Derek; Jiang, Chuan; Nejat, Goldie

2017-02-01

For social robots to be successfully integrated and accepted within society, they need to be able to interpret human social cues that are displayed through natural modes of communication. In particular, a key challenge in the design of social robots is developing the robot's ability to recognize a person's affective states (emotions, moods, and attitudes) in order to respond appropriately during social human-robot interactions (HRIs). In this paper, we present and discuss social HRI experiments we have conducted to investigate the development of an accessibility-aware social robot able to autonomously determine a person's degree of accessibility (rapport, openness) toward the robot based on the person's natural static body language. In particular, we present two one-on-one HRI experiments to: 1) determine the performance of our automated system in being able to recognize and classify a person's accessibility levels and 2) investigate how people interact with an accessibility-aware robot which determines its own behaviors based on a person's speech and accessibility levels.
Socially grounded game strategy enhances bonding and perceived smartness of a humanoid robot

Science.gov (United States)

Barakova, E. I.; De Haas, M.; Kuijpers, W.; Irigoyen, N.; Betancourt, A.

2018-01-01

In search for better technological solutions for education, we adapted a principle from economic game theory, namely that giving a help will promote collaboration and eventually long-term relations between a robot and a child. This principle has been shown to be effective in games between humans and between humans and computer agents. We compared the social and cognitive engagement of children when playing checkers game combined with a social strategy against a robot or against a computer. We found that by combining the social and game strategy the children (average age of 8.3 years) had more empathy and social engagement with the robot since the children did not want to necessarily win against it. This finding is promising for using social strategies for the creation of long-term relations between robots and children and making educational tasks more engaging. An additional outcome of the study was the significant difference in the perception of the children about the difficulty of the game - the game with the robot was seen as more challenging and the robot - as a smarter opponent. This finding might be due to the higher perceived or expected intelligence from the robot, or because of the higher complexity of seeing patterns in three-dimensional world.
Investigation on Requirements of Robotic Platforms to Teach Social Skills to Individuals with Autism

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolopoulos, Chris; Kuester, Deitra; Sheehan, Mark; Dhanya, Sneha

This paper reports on some of the robotic platforms used in the project AUROSO which investigates the use of robots as educationally useful interventions to improve social interactions for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Our approach to treatment uses an educational intervention based on Socially Assistive Robotics (SAR), the DIR/Floortime intervention model and social script/stories. Requirements are established and a variety of robotic models/platforms were investigated as to the feasibility of an economical, practical and efficient means of helping teach social skills to individuals with ASD for use by teachers, families, service providers and other community organizations.
Dynamic perceptions of human-likeness while interacting with a social robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruijten, P.A.M.; Cuijpers, R.H.

2017-01-01

In human-robot interaction research, much attention is given to the development of socially assistive robots that can have natural interactions with their users. One crucial aspect of such natural interactions is that the robot is perceived as human-like. Much research already exists that
Can Social Robots Qualify for Moral Consideration? Reframing the Question about Robot Rights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Herman T. Tavani

2018-03-01

Full Text Available A controversial question that has been hotly debated in the emerging field of robot ethics is whether robots should be granted rights. Yet, a review of the recent literature in that field suggests that this seemingly straightforward question is far from clear and unambiguous. For example, those who favor granting rights to robots have not always been clear as to which kinds of robots should (or should not be eligible; nor have they been consistent with regard to which kinds of rights—civil, legal, moral, etc.—should be granted to qualifying robots. Also, there has been considerable disagreement about which essential criterion, or cluster of criteria, a robot would need to satisfy to be eligible for rights, and there is ongoing disagreement as to whether a robot must satisfy the conditions for (moral agency to qualify either for rights or (at least some level of moral consideration. One aim of this paper is to show how the current debate about whether to grant rights to robots would benefit from an analysis and clarification of some key concepts and assumptions underlying that question. My principal objective, however, is to show why we should reframe that question by asking instead whether some kinds of social robots qualify for moral consideration as moral patients. In arguing that the answer to this question is “yes,” I draw from some insights in the writings of Hans Jonas to defend my position.
Social Intelligence for a Robot Engaging People in Cognitive Training Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeanie Chan

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Current research supports the use of cognitive training interventions to improve the brain functioning of both adults and children. Our work focuses on exploring the potential use of robot assistants to allow for these interventions to become more accessible. Namely, we aim to develop an intelligent, socially assistive robot that can engage individuals in person-centred cognitively stimulating activities. In this paper, we present the design of a novel control architecture for the robot Brian 2.0, which enables the robot to be a social motivator by providing assistance, encouragement and celebration during an activity. A hierarchical reinforcement learning approach is used in the architecture to allow the robot to: 1 learn appropriate assistive behaviours based on the structure of the activity, and 2 personalize an interaction based on user states. Experiments show that the control architecture is effective in determining the robot's optimal assistive behaviours during a memory game interaction.

Improving therapeutic outcomes in autism spectrum disorders: Enhancing social communication and sensory processing through the use of interactive robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Sartorato, Felippe; Przybylowski, Leon; Sarko, Diana K

2017-07-01

For children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), social robots are increasingly utilized as therapeutic tools in order to enhance social skills and communication. Robots have been shown to generate a number of social and behavioral benefits in children with ASD including heightened engagement, increased attention, and decreased social anxiety. Although social robots appear to be effective social reinforcement tools in assistive therapies, the perceptual mechanism underlying these benefits remains unknown. To date, social robot studies have primarily relied on expertise in fields such as engineering and clinical psychology, with measures of social robot efficacy principally limited to qualitative observational assessments of children's interactions with robots. In this review, we examine a range of socially interactive robots that currently have the most widespread use as well as the utility of these robots and their therapeutic effects. In addition, given that social interactions rely on audiovisual communication, we discuss how enhanced sensory processing and integration of robotic social cues may underlie the perceptual and behavioral benefits that social robots confer. Although overall multisensory processing (including audiovisual integration) is impaired in individuals with ASD, social robot interactions may provide therapeutic benefits by allowing audiovisual social cues to be experienced through a simplified version of a human interaction. By applying systems neuroscience tools to identify, analyze, and extend the multisensory perceptual substrates that may underlie the therapeutic benefits of social robots, future studies have the potential to strengthen the clinical utility of social robots for individuals with ASD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A robotic system for researching social integration in honeybees.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karlo Griparić

Full Text Available In this paper, we present a novel robotic system developed for researching collective social mechanisms in a biohybrid society of robots and honeybees. The potential for distributed coordination, as observed in nature in many different animal species, has caused an increased interest in collective behaviour research in recent years because of its applicability to a broad spectrum of technical systems requiring robust multi-agent control. One of the main problems is understanding the mechanisms driving the emergence of collective behaviour of social animals. With the aim of deepening the knowledge in this field, we have designed a multi-robot system capable of interacting with honeybees within an experimental arena. The final product, stationary autonomous robot units, designed by specificaly considering the physical, sensorimotor and behavioral characteristics of the honeybees (lat. Apis mallifera, are equipped with sensing, actuating, computation, and communication capabilities that enable the measurement of relevant environmental states, such as honeybee presence, and adequate response to the measurements by generating heat, vibration and airflow. The coordination among robots in the developed system is established using distributed controllers. The cooperation between the two different types of collective systems is realized by means of a consensus algorithm, enabling the honeybees and the robots to achieve a common objective. Presented results, obtained within ASSISIbf project, show successful cooperation indicating its potential for future applications.
A robotic system for researching social integration in honeybees.

Science.gov (United States)

Griparić, Karlo; Haus, Tomislav; Miklić, Damjan; Polić, Marsela; Bogdan, Stjepan

2017-01-01

In this paper, we present a novel robotic system developed for researching collective social mechanisms in a biohybrid society of robots and honeybees. The potential for distributed coordination, as observed in nature in many different animal species, has caused an increased interest in collective behaviour research in recent years because of its applicability to a broad spectrum of technical systems requiring robust multi-agent control. One of the main problems is understanding the mechanisms driving the emergence of collective behaviour of social animals. With the aim of deepening the knowledge in this field, we have designed a multi-robot system capable of interacting with honeybees within an experimental arena. The final product, stationary autonomous robot units, designed by specificaly considering the physical, sensorimotor and behavioral characteristics of the honeybees (lat. Apis mallifera), are equipped with sensing, actuating, computation, and communication capabilities that enable the measurement of relevant environmental states, such as honeybee presence, and adequate response to the measurements by generating heat, vibration and airflow. The coordination among robots in the developed system is established using distributed controllers. The cooperation between the two different types of collective systems is realized by means of a consensus algorithm, enabling the honeybees and the robots to achieve a common objective. Presented results, obtained within ASSISIbf project, show successful cooperation indicating its potential for future applications.
Quantifying the effect of editor-author relations on manuscript handling times.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarigöl, Emre; Garcia, David; Scholtes, Ingo; Schweitzer, Frank

2017-01-01

In this article we study to what extent the academic peer review process is influenced by social relations between the authors of a manuscript and the editor handling the manuscript. Taking the open access journal PlosOne as a case study, our analysis is based on a data set of more than 100,000 articles published between 2007 and 2015. Using available data on handling editor, submission and acceptance time of manuscripts, we study the question whether co-authorship relations between authors and the handling editor affect the manuscript handling time , i.e. the time taken between the submission and acceptance of a manuscript. Our analysis reveals (1) that editors handle papers co-authored by previous collaborators significantly more often than expected at random, and (2) that such prior co-author relations are significantly related to faster manuscript handling. Addressing the question whether these shorter manuscript handling times can be explained by the quality of publications, we study the number of citations and downloads which accepted papers eventually accumulate. Moreover, we consider the influence of additional (social) factors, such as the editor's experience, the topical similarity between authors and editors, as well as reciprocal citation relations between authors and editors. Our findings show that, even when correcting for other factors like time, experience, and performance, prior co-authorship relations have a large and significant influence on manuscript handling times, speeding up the editorial decision on average by 19 days.
Robot Comedy Lab: Experimenting with the Social Dynamics of Live Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kleomenis eKatevas

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The success of live comedy depends on a performer's ability to 'work' an audience. Ethnographic studies suggest that this involves the co-ordinated use of subtle social signals such as body orientation, gesture, gaze by both performers and audience members. Robots provide a unique opportunity to test the effects of these signals experimentally. Using a life-size humanoid robot, programmed to perform a stand-up comedy routine, we manipulated the robot's patterns of gesture and gaze and examined their effects on the real-time responses of a live audience. The strength and type of responses were captured using SHOREtm computer vision analytics. The results highlight the complex, reciprocal social dynamics of performer and audience behavior. People respond more positively when the robot looks at them, negatively when it looks away and that different performative gestures elicit systematically different patterns of audience response. This demonstrates that the responses of individual audience members depend on the specific interaction they're having with the performer. This work provides insights into how to design more effective, more socially engaging, forms of robot interaction that can be used in a variety of service contexts.
Inquiry learning with a social robot: can you explain that to me?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijnen, Frances Martine; Charisi, Vasiliki; Davison, Daniel Patrick; van der Meij, Jan; Reidsma, Dennis; Evers, Vanessa; Heerink, M.; de Jong, M.

2015-01-01

This paper presents preliminary results of a study which assesses the impact a social robot might have on the verbalization of a child’s internal reasoning and knowledge while working on a learning task. In a comparative experiment we offered children the context of either a social robot or an
Node Primitives: an open end-user programming platform for social robots

OpenAIRE

Coronado, Enrique; Mastrogiovanni, Fulvio; Venture, Gentiane

2017-01-01

With the expected adoption of robots able to seamlessly and intuitively interact with people in real-world scenarios, the need arises to provide non-technically-skilled users with easy-to-understand paradigms for customising robot behaviors. In this paper, we present an interaction design robot programming platform for enabling multidisciplinary social robot research and applications. This platform is referred to Node Primitives (NEP) and consists of two main parts. On the one hand, a ZeroMQ ...
Parents' Appraisals of the Animacy and Likability of Socially Interactive Robots for Intervening with Young Children with Disabilities. Social Robots Research Reports, Number 2

Science.gov (United States)

Dunst, Carl J.; Trivette, Carol M.; Prior, Jeremy; Hamby, Deborah W.; Embler, Davon

2013-01-01

Findings from a survey of parents' ratings of seven different human-like qualities of four socially interactive robots are reported. The four robots were Popchilla, Keepon, Kaspar, and CosmoBot. The participants were 96 parents and other primary caregivers of young children with disabilities 1 to 12 years of age. Results showed that Popchilla, a…
Learning Direction of Attention for a Social Robot in Noisy Environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Nicolai Bæk; Tan, Zheng-Hua; Lindberg, Børge

2015-01-01

It is essential for social robots to be able to locate and direct attention towards communicating persons, however the operating environments can be challenging. When using sound source localization (SSL) acoustic noise sources can distract the robot, which interrupts the desired interaction...... with people. Since the noise sources can be of many different kinds, it is important for the robot to adapt to any environment. In this paper we present a simple strategy for a robot to adapt to the environment using feedback from a face detection routine, thus eventually only directing attention towards...
Ghost-in-the-Machine reveals human social signals for human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Loth, Sebastian; Jettka, Katharina; Giuliani, Manuel; de Ruiter, Jan P

2015-01-01

We used a new method called "Ghost-in-the-Machine" (GiM) to investigate social interactions with a robotic bartender taking orders for drinks and serving them. Using the GiM paradigm allowed us to identify how human participants recognize the intentions of customers on the basis of the output of the robotic recognizers. Specifically, we measured which recognizer modalities (e.g., speech, the distance to the bar) were relevant at different stages of the interaction. This provided insights into human social behavior necessary for the development of socially competent robots. When initiating the drink-order interaction, the most important recognizers were those based on computer vision. When drink orders were being placed, however, the most important information source was the speech recognition. Interestingly, the participants used only a subset of the available information, focussing only on a few relevant recognizers while ignoring others. This reduced the risk of acting on erroneous sensor data and enabled them to complete service interactions more swiftly than a robot using all available sensor data. We also investigated socially appropriate response strategies. In their responses, the participants preferred to use the same modality as the customer's requests, e.g., they tended to respond verbally to verbal requests. Also, they added redundancy to their responses, for instance by using echo questions. We argue that incorporating the social strategies discovered with the GiM paradigm in multimodal grammars of human-robot interactions improves the robustness and the ease-of-use of these interactions, and therefore provides a smoother user experience.
Ghost-in-the-Machine reveals human social signals for human–robot interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Loth, Sebastian; Jettka, Katharina; Giuliani, Manuel; de Ruiter, Jan P.

2015-01-01

We used a new method called “Ghost-in-the-Machine” (GiM) to investigate social interactions with a robotic bartender taking orders for drinks and serving them. Using the GiM paradigm allowed us to identify how human participants recognize the intentions of customers on the basis of the output of the robotic recognizers. Specifically, we measured which recognizer modalities (e.g., speech, the distance to the bar) were relevant at different stages of the interaction. This provided insights into human social behavior necessary for the development of socially competent robots. When initiating the drink-order interaction, the most important recognizers were those based on computer vision. When drink orders were being placed, however, the most important information source was the speech recognition. Interestingly, the participants used only a subset of the available information, focussing only on a few relevant recognizers while ignoring others. This reduced the risk of acting on erroneous sensor data and enabled them to complete service interactions more swiftly than a robot using all available sensor data. We also investigated socially appropriate response strategies. In their responses, the participants preferred to use the same modality as the customer’s requests, e.g., they tended to respond verbally to verbal requests. Also, they added redundancy to their responses, for instance by using echo questions. We argue that incorporating the social strategies discovered with the GiM paradigm in multimodal grammars of human–robot interactions improves the robustness and the ease-of-use of these interactions, and therefore provides a smoother user experience. PMID:26582998
Social humanoid robot SARA: development of the wrist mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Penčić, M.; Rackov, M.; Čavić, M.; Kiss, I.; Cioată, V. G.

2018-01-01

This paper presents the development of a wrist mechanism for humanoid robots. The research was conducted within the project which develops social humanoid robot Sara - a mobile anthropomorphic platform for researching the social behaviour of robots. There are two basic ways for the realization of humanoid wrist. The first one is based on biologically inspired structures that have variable stiffness, and the second one on low backlash mechanisms that have high stiffness. Our solution is low backlash differential mechanism that requires small actuators. Based on the kinematic-dynamic requirements, a dynamic model of the robot wrist is formed. A dynamic simulation for several hand positions was performed and the driving torques of the wrist mechanism were determined. The realized wrist has 2 DOFs and enables movements in the direction of flexion/extension 115°, ulnar/radial deviation ±45° and the combination of these two movements. It consists of a differential mechanism with three spur bevel gears, two of which are driving and identical, while the last one is the driven gear to which the robot hand is attached. Power transmission and motion from the actuator to the input links of the differential mechanism is realized with two parallel placed identical gear mechanisms. The wrist mechanism has high carrying capacity and reliability, high efficiency, a compact design and low backlash that provides high positioning accuracy and repeatability of movements, which is essential for motion control.
Archaic man meets a marvellous automaton: posthumanism, social robots, archetypes.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Raya

2017-06-01

Posthumanism is associated with critical explorations of how new technologies are rewriting our understanding of what it means to be human and how they might alter human existence itself. Intersections with analytical psychology vary depending on which technologies are held in focus. Social robotics promises to populate everyday settings with entities that have populated the imagination for millennia. A legend of A Marvellous Automaton appears as early as 350 B.C. in a book of Taoist teachings, and is joined by ancient and medieval legends of manmade humanoids coming to life, as well as the familiar robots of modern science fiction. However, while the robotics industry seems to be realizing an archetypal fantasy, the technology creates new social realities that generate distinctive issues of potential relevance for the theory and practice of analytical psychology. © 2017, The Society of Analytical Psychology.
"Adventures of Harvey" - Use, Acceptance of and Relationship Building with a Social Robot in a Domestic Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Klamer, Tineke; Ben Allouch, Somaya; Heylen, Dirk

The goal of this study was to improve our understanding about how older people use social robots in domestic environments and in particular whether and how they build relationships with these robots. Three participants interacted with the Nabaztag, a social robot, for a 10-day period in their own home environment. Some of our findings are (1) utilitarian-, hedonic-, and social factors are important when accepting social robots, (2) utilitarian-, hedonic- and social factors are important for building a relationship with the Nabaztag, (3) there is a relationship between name-calling and relationship building and (4) there is a relationship between using non-verbal- and verbal communication and relationship building.
Robotic Hand with Flexible Fingers for Grasping Cylindrical Objects

OpenAIRE

柴田, 瑞穂

2015-01-01

In this manuscript, a robotic hand for grasping a cylindrical object is proposed. This robotic hand has flexible fingers that can hold a cylindrical object during moving. We introduce a grasping strategy for a cylindrical object in terms of state transition graph. In this strategy the robotic hand picks up the cylindrical object utilizing a suction device before the hand grasp the object. We also design the flexible fingers; then, we investigate the validity of this robotic hand via several e...
Robot Comedy Lab: experimenting with the social dynamics of live performance

OpenAIRE

Katevas, Kleomenis; Healey, Patrick G. T.; Harris, Matthew Tobias

2015-01-01

The success of live comedy depends on a performer's ability to 'work' an audience. Ethnographic studies suggest that this involves the co-ordinated use of subtle social signals such as body orientation, gesture, gaze by both performers and audience members. Robots provide a unique opportunity to test the effects of these signals experimentally. Using a life-size humanoid robot, programmed to perform a stand-up comedy routine, we manipulated the robot's patterns of gesture and gaze and examine...
Designing robot embodiments for social interaction: Affordances topple realism and aesthetics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Paauwe, R.A.; Hoorn, J.F.; Konijn, E.A.; Keyson, D.V.

2015-01-01

In the near future, human-like social robots will become indispensable for providing support in various social tasks, in particular for healthcare (e.g., assistance, coaching). The perception of realism, in particular human-like features, can help facilitate mediated social interaction. The current
Designing Robot Embodiments for Social Interaction : Affordances Topple Realism and Aesthetics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Paauwe, R.A.; Hoorn, J.F.; Konijn, E.A.; Keyson, D.V.

2015-01-01

In the near future, human-like social robots will become indispensable for providing support in various social tasks, in particular for healthcare (e.g., assistance, coaching). The perception of realism, in particular human-like features, can help facilitate mediated social interaction. The current
Self discovery enables robot social cognition: are you my teacher?

Science.gov (United States)

Kaipa, Krishnanand N; Bongard, Josh C; Meltzoff, Andrew N

2010-01-01

Infants exploit the perception that others are 'like me' to bootstrap social cognition (Meltzoff, 2007a). This paper demonstrates how the above theory can be instantiated in a social robot that uses itself as a model to recognize structural similarities with other robots; this thereby enables the student to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate teachers. This is accomplished by the student robot first performing self-discovery, a phase in which it uses actuation-perception relationships to infer its own structure. Second, the student models a candidate teacher using a vision-based active learning approach to create an approximate physical simulation of the teacher. Third, the student determines that the teacher is structurally similar (but not necessarily visually similar) to itself if it can find a neural controller that allows its self model (created in the first phase) to reproduce the perceived motion of the teacher model (created in the second phase). Fourth, the student uses the neural controller (created in the third phase) to move, resulting in imitation of the teacher. Results with a physical student robot and two physical robot teachers demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. The generalizability of the proposed model allows it to be used over variations in the demonstrator: The student robot would still be able to imitate teachers of different sizes and at different distances from itself, as well as different positions in its field of view, because change in the interrelations of the teacher's body parts are used for imitation, rather than absolute geometric properties. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The Effect of a Robot's Social Character on Children Task Engagement: Peer Versus Tutor

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zaga, Cristina; Lohse, M.; Truong, Khiet Phuong; Evers, Vanessa; Tapus, Adriana; André, Elisabeth; Martin, Jean-Claude; Ferland, François; Ammi, Mehdi

2015-01-01

An increasing number of applications for social robots focuses on learning and playing with children. One of the unanswered questions is what kind of social character a robot should have in order to positively engage children in a task. In this paper, we present a study on the effect of two

Pardon the rude robot: social cues diminish reactance to high controlling language

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ghazali, A.S.; Ham, J.R.C.; Barakova, E.I.; Markopoulos, P.

2017-01-01

In many future social interactions between robots and humans, robots may need to convince people to change their behavior. People may dislike and resist such persuasive attempts, a phenomenon known as psychological reactance. This paper examines how reactance, measured in terms of negative
Co-designing Social Robots With Cognitively Impaired Citizens

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rodil, Kasper; Rehm, Matthias; Krummheuer, Antonia Lina

2018-01-01

This Work-in-Progress paper describes current work and future challenges of co-designing social robots with cognitively impaired residents. The project has in time of writing ran more than two years, which allows the reporting of both technical outcomes and methodological challenges....
Towards Sociable Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ngo, Trung Dung

This thesis studies aspects of self-sufficient energy (energy autonomy) for truly autonomous robots and towards sociable robots. Over sixty years of history of robotics through three developmental ages containing single robot, multi-robot systems, and social (sociable) robots, the main objective...... of roboticists mostly focuses on how to make a robotic system function autonomously and further, socially. However, such approaches mostly emphasize behavioural autonomy, rather than energy autonomy which is the key factor for not only any living machine, but for life on the earth. Consequently, self......-sufficient energy is one of the challenges for not only single robot or multi-robot systems, but also social and sociable robots. This thesis is to deal with energy autonomy for multi-robot systems through energy sharing (trophallaxis) in which each robot is equipped with two capabilities: self-refueling energy...
Systematic analysis of video data from different human–robot interaction studies: a categorization of social signals during error situations

Science.gov (United States)

Giuliani, Manuel; Mirnig, Nicole; Stollnberger, Gerald; Stadler, Susanne; Buchner, Roland; Tscheligi, Manfred

2015-01-01

Human–robot interactions are often affected by error situations that are caused by either the robot or the human. Therefore, robots would profit from the ability to recognize when error situations occur. We investigated the verbal and non-verbal social signals that humans show when error situations occur in human–robot interaction experiments. For that, we analyzed 201 videos of five human–robot interaction user studies with varying tasks from four independent projects. The analysis shows that there are two types of error situations: social norm violations and technical failures. Social norm violations are situations in which the robot does not adhere to the underlying social script of the interaction. Technical failures are caused by technical shortcomings of the robot. The results of the video analysis show that the study participants use many head movements and very few gestures, but they often smile, when in an error situation with the robot. Another result is that the participants sometimes stop moving at the beginning of error situations. We also found that the participants talked more in the case of social norm violations and less during technical failures. Finally, the participants use fewer non-verbal social signals (for example smiling, nodding, and head shaking), when they are interacting with the robot alone and no experimenter or other human is present. The results suggest that participants do not see the robot as a social interaction partner with comparable communication skills. Our findings have implications for builders and evaluators of human–robot interaction systems. The builders need to consider including modules for recognition and classification of head movements to the robot input channels. The evaluators need to make sure that the presence of an experimenter does not skew the results of their user studies. PMID:26217266
Systematic analysis of video data from different human-robot interaction studies: a categorization of social signals during error situations.

Science.gov (United States)

Giuliani, Manuel; Mirnig, Nicole; Stollnberger, Gerald; Stadler, Susanne; Buchner, Roland; Tscheligi, Manfred

2015-01-01

Human-robot interactions are often affected by error situations that are caused by either the robot or the human. Therefore, robots would profit from the ability to recognize when error situations occur. We investigated the verbal and non-verbal social signals that humans show when error situations occur in human-robot interaction experiments. For that, we analyzed 201 videos of five human-robot interaction user studies with varying tasks from four independent projects. The analysis shows that there are two types of error situations: social norm violations and technical failures. Social norm violations are situations in which the robot does not adhere to the underlying social script of the interaction. Technical failures are caused by technical shortcomings of the robot. The results of the video analysis show that the study participants use many head movements and very few gestures, but they often smile, when in an error situation with the robot. Another result is that the participants sometimes stop moving at the beginning of error situations. We also found that the participants talked more in the case of social norm violations and less during technical failures. Finally, the participants use fewer non-verbal social signals (for example smiling, nodding, and head shaking), when they are interacting with the robot alone and no experimenter or other human is present. The results suggest that participants do not see the robot as a social interaction partner with comparable communication skills. Our findings have implications for builders and evaluators of human-robot interaction systems. The builders need to consider including modules for recognition and classification of head movements to the robot input channels. The evaluators need to make sure that the presence of an experimenter does not skew the results of their user studies.
Automatic Modeling and Simulation of Modular Robots

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, C.; Wei, H.; Zhang, Y.

2018-03-01

The ability of reconfiguration makes modular robots have the ability of adaptable, low-cost, self-healing and fault-tolerant. It can also be applied to a variety of mission situations. In this manuscript, a robot platform which relied on the module library was designed, based on the screw theory and module theory. Then, the configuration design method of the modular robot was proposed. And the different configurations of modular robot system have been built, including industrial mechanical arms, the mobile platform, six-legged robot and 3D exoskeleton manipulator. Finally, the simulation and verification of one system among them have been made, using the analyses of screw kinematics and polynomial planning. The results of experiments demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of this modular system.
Applications of simple robots to encourage social receptiveness of adolescents with autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, Sandra; Resende, Jorge; Soares, Filomena Oliveira; Ferreira, Manuel João; Santos, Cristina P; Moreira, Fátima

2009-01-01

This paper reports the preliminary research studies regarding the use of LEGO Mindstorms TM robots as a therapy for autistic young people. Most autistic people hardly communicate in a social environment, living in their own world. This is the first step in a broader project which aims to improve the autistic people social life and also their ability to communicate, using the robot as a social bridge between them and the surrounding environment/people. The target group is 17-19 years old having autism disorder and developmental disability. The trials consists of undemanding plays where the intervention of the autistic person is required, using simple inputs, such as voice commands, pressing a button or clapping hands. The presented work intends to evaluate the reaction of this particular target group to the introduction of a toy-like robot in their classroom daily life. The methodology applied, the detailed description as well as the analysis of the experiments are presented and discussed.
An Experimental Study of Embodied Interaction and Human Perception of Social Presence for Interactive Robots in Public Settings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth Ann; Heath, Damith; Vlachos, Evgenios

2018-01-01

The human perception of cognitive robots as social depends on many factors, including those that do not necessarily pertain to a robot’s cognitive functioning. Experience Design offers a useful framework for evaluating when participants interact with robots as products or tools and when they regard...... them as social actors. This study describes a between-participants experiment conducted at a science museum, where visitors were invited to play a game of noughts and crosses with a Baxter robot. The goal is to foster meaningful interactions that promote engagement between the human and robot...... in a museum context. Using an Experience Design framework, we tested the robot in three different conditions to better understand which factors contribute to the perception of robots as social. The experiment also outlines best practices for conducting human-robot interaction research in museum exhibitions...
Is Ethics of Robotics about Robots? Philosophy of Robotics Beyond Realism and Individualilsm.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coeckelbergh, Mark

2011-01-01

If we are doing ethics of robotics, what exactly is the object of our inquiry? This paper challenges 'individualist' robot ontology and 'individualist' social philosophy of robots. It is argued that ethics of robotics should not study and evaluate robotics exclusively in terms of individual
Potential of telepresence robots to enhance social connectedness in older adults with dementia: an integrative review of feasibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Moyle, Wendy; Arnautovska, Urska; Ownsworth, Tamara; Jones, Cindy

2017-12-01

Socially assistive robots are increasingly used as a therapeutic tool for people with dementia, as a means to improve quality of life through social connection. This paper presents a mixed-method integrative review of telepresence robots used to improve social connection of people with dementia by enabling real-time communication with their carers. A systematic search of Medline, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, EMBASE, and the Cochrane library was conducted to gather available evidence on the use of telepresence robots, specifically videoconferencing, to improve social connectedness, in people with dementia. A narrative synthesis was used to analyze the included studies. A review of 1,035 records, identified four eligible peer-reviewed publications, reporting findings about three different mobile telepresence robots. The study designs included qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, focusing primarily on examining the feasibility and acceptability of the telepresence robots within the context of dementia care. These studies reported both positive outcomes of using telepresence robots to connect people with dementia to others, as well as barriers, such as a lack of experience in using a robot and technological issues. Although limited, the current literature suggests that telepresence robots have potential utility for improving social connectedness of people with dementia and their carers. However, more systematic feasibility studies are needed to inform the development of telepresence robots followed by clinical trials to establish efficacy within dementia care.
A descriptive statistical analysis of volume, visibility and attitudes regarding nursing and care robots in social media.

Science.gov (United States)

Salzmann-Erikson, Martin; Eriksson, Henrik

2018-02-01

Technology in the healthcare sector is undergoing rapid development. One of the most prominent areas of healthcare in which robots are implemented is nursing homes. However, nursing and technology are often considered as being contradictory, an attitude originating in the view of "the natural" versus "the artificial". Social media mirror this view, including in attitudes and societal debates regarding nursing and care robots. However, little is known about this topic in previous research. To examine user behaviour in social media platforms on the topic of nursing and care robots. A retrospective and cross-sectional observation study design was applied. Data were collected via the Alchemy streaming application programming interface. Data from social media were collected from 1 January 2014 to 5 January 2016. The data set consisted of 12,311 mentions in total. Nursing and care robots are a small-scale topic of discussion in social media. Twitter was found to be the largest channel in terms of volume, followed by Tumblr. News channels had the highest percentage of visibility, while forums and Tumblr had the least. It was found in the data that 67.9% of the mentions were positive, 24.4% were negative and 7.8% were neutral. The volume and visibility of the data on nursing robots found in social media, as well as the attitudes to nursing robots found there, indicate that nursing care robots, which are seen as representing a next step in technological development in healthcare, are a topic on the rise in social media. These findings are likely to be related to the idea that nursing care robots are on the breakthrough of replacing human labour in healthcare worldwide.
Analysis of the use of a robot to improve social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Torturella Valadão

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction Autism Spectrum Disorder is a set of developmental disorders that imply in poor social skills, lack of interest in activities and interaction with people. Treatments rely on teaching social skills and in such therapies robotics may offer aid. This work is a pilot study, which aims to show the development and usage of a ludic mobile robot for stimulating social skills in ASD children. Methods A mobile robot with a special costume and a monitor to display multimedia contents was designed to interact with ASD children. A mediator controls the robot’s movements in a room prepared for interactive sessions. Sessions are recorded to assess the following social skills: eye gazing, touching the robot and imitating the mediator. The interaction is evaluated using the Goal Attainment Scale and Likert scale. Ten children were evaluated (50% with ASD, using as inclusion criteria children with age 7-8, without use of medication, and without tendency to aggression or stereotyped movements. Results It was observed that the ASD group touched the robot about twice more in average than the control group (CG. They also looked away and imitated the mediator in a quite similar way as the CG, and showed extra social skills (verbal and non-verbal communication. These results are considered an advance in terms of improvement of social skills in ASD children. Conclusions Our studies indicate that the robot stimulated social skills in 4/5 of the ASD children, which shows that its concepts are useful to improve socialization and quality of life.
Designing a Social Environment for Human-Robot Cooperation.

Science.gov (United States)

Amram, Fred M.

Noting that work is partly a social activity, and that workers' psychological and emotional needs influence their productivity, this paper explores avenues for improving human-robot cooperation and for enhancing worker satisfaction in the environment of flexible automation. The first section of the paper offers a brief overview of the…
Tema 2: The NAO robot as a Persuasive Educational and Entertainment Robot (PEER – a case study on children’s articulation, categorization and interaction with a social robot for learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lykke Brogaard Bertel

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The application of social robots as motivational tools and companions in education is increasingly being explored from a theoretical and practical point of view. In this paper, we examine the social robot NAO as a Persuasive Educational and Entertainment Robot (PEER and present findings from a case study on the use of NAO to support learning environments in Danish primary schools. In the case study we focus on the children’s practice of articulation and embodied interaction with NAO and investigate the role of NAO as a ‘tool’, ‘social actor’ or ‘simulating medium’ in the learning designs. We examine whether this categorization is static or dynamic, i. e. develops and changes over the course of the interaction and explore how this relates to and affects the student’s motivation to engage in the NAO-supported learning activities.
Tema 2: The NAO robot as a Persuasive Educational and Entertainment Robot (PEER – a case study on children’s articulation, categorization and interaction with a social robot for learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lykke Brogaard Bertel

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The application of social robots as motivational tools and companions in education is increasingly being explored from a theoretical and practical point of view. In this paper, we examine the social robot NAO as a Persuasive Educational and Entertainment Robot (PEER and present findings from a case study on the use of NAO to support learning environments in Danish primary schools. In the case study we focus on the children’s practice of articulation and embodied interaction with NAO and investigate the role of NAO as a ‘tool’, ‘social actor’ or ‘simulating medium’ in the learning designs. We examine whether this categorization is static or dynamic, i. e. develops and changes over the course of the interaction and explore how this relates to and affects the student’s motivation to engage in the NAO-supported learning activities.
Affective and behavioral responses to robot-initiated social touch : Towards understanding the opportunities and limitations of physical contact in human-robot interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Willemse, C.J.A.M.; Toet, A.; Erp, J.B.F. van

2017-01-01

Social touch forms an important aspect of the human non-verbal communication repertoire, but is often overlooked in human–robot interaction. In this study, we investigated whether robot-initiated touches can induce physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses similar to those reported for
Affective and Behavioral Responses to Robot-Initiated Social Touch : Toward Understanding the Opportunities and Limitations of Physical Contact in Human–Robot Interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Willemse, Christian J. A. M.; Toet, Alexander; van Erp, Jan B. F.

2017-01-01

Social touch forms an important aspect of the human non-verbal communication repertoire, but is often overlooked in human-robot interaction. In this study, we investigated whether robot-initiated touches can induce physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses similar to those reported for
Relationships to Social Robots: Towards a Triadic Analysis of Media-oriented Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joachim R. Höflich

2013-01-01

Full Text Available People are living in relationships not only to other people but also to media, including things and robots. As the theory of media equation suggests, people treat media as if they were real persons. This theoretical perspective is also relevant to the case of human-robot interaction. A distinctive feature of such interaction is that the relation to social robots also depends on the human likeness as an anthropomorphic perspective underlines. But people seem to prefer a certain imperfection; otherwise they feel uncanny. This paper explores the idea of robots as media and people’s relations to them. The paper argues that robots are seen not only in the context of a relationship with a medium but also as a medium that ‘mediates.’ This means that robots connect between the environment and other people, but can also divide them. The paper concludes with a proposed perspective that widens a dyadic model of human-robot-interaction towards a triadic analysis.
Making social robots more attractive: the effects of voice pitch, humor and empathy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Niculescu, A.I.; Ge, S.S.; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Nijholt, Antinus; Li, Haizhou; See, Swan Lan

2013-01-01

In this paper we explore how simple auditory/verbal features of the spoken language, such as voice characteristics (pitch) and language cues (empathy/humor expression) influence the quality of interaction with a social robot receptionist. For our experiment two robot characters were created: Olivia,
HCBPM: An Idea toward a Social Learning Environment for Humanoid Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fady Alnajjar

2010-01-01

Full Text Available To advance robotics toward real-world applications, a growing body of research has focused on the development of control systems for humanoid robots in recent years. Several approaches have been proposed to support the learning stage of such controllers, where the robot can learn new behaviors by observing and/or receiving direct guidance from a human or even another robot. These approaches require dynamic learning and memorization techniques, which the robot can use to reform and update its internal systems continuously while learning new behaviors. Against this background, this study investigates a new approach to the development of an incremental learning and memorization model. This approach was inspired by the principles of neuroscience, and the developed model was named “Hierarchical Constructive Backpropagation with Memory” (HCBPM. The validity of the model was tested by teaching a humanoid robot to recognize a group of objects through natural interaction. The experimental results indicate that the proposed model efficiently enhances real-time machine learning in general and can be used to establish an environment suitable for social learning between the robot and the user in particular.

Building technology platform aimed to develop service robot with embedded personality and enhanced communication with social environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksandar Rodić

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The paper is addressed to prototyping of technology platform aimed to develop of ambient-aware human-centric indoor service robot with attributes of emotional intelligence to enhance interaction with social environment. The robot consists of a wheel-based mobile platform with spinal (segmented torso, bi-manual manipulation system with multi-finger robot hands and robot head. Robot prototype was designed to see, hear, speak and use its multimodal interface for enhanced communication with humans. Robot is capable of demonstrating its affective and social behavior by using audio and video interface as well as body gestures. Robot is equipped with advanced perceptive system based on heterogeneous sensorial system, including laser range finder, ultrasonic distance sensors and proximity detectors, 3-axis inertial sensor (accelerometer and gyroscope, stereo vision system, 2 wide-range microphones, and 2 loudspeakers. The device is foreseen to operate autonomously but it may be also operated remotely from a host computer through wireless communication link as well as by use of a smart-phone based on advanced client-server architecture. Robot prototype has embedded attributes of artificial intelligence and utilizes advanced cognitive capabilities such as spatial reasoning, obstacle and collision avoidance, simultaneous localization and mapping, etc. Robot is designed in a manner to enable uploading of new or changing existing algorithms of emotional intelligence that should provide to robot human-like affective and social behavior. The key objective of the project presented in the paper regards to building advanced technology platform for research and development of personal robots aimed to use for different purpose, e.g. robot-entertainer, battler, robot for medical care, security robot, etc. In a word, the designed technology platform is expected to help in development human-centered service robots to be used at home, in the office, public institutions
Manuscript Cultures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

What do Mesoamerica, Greece, Byzantium, Island, Chad, Ethiopia, India, Tibet, China and Japan have in common? Like many other cultures of the world, they share a particular form of cultural heritage: ancient handwritten documents. In 2007, scholars from some20 countries around the world gathered...... at the University of Copenhagen for a workshop on manuscripts to compare notes. This event led to the publication of this volume, which brings together16 articles on philological, cultural, and material aspects of manuscripts in search for a common ground across disciplines and cultures....
Cultural Robotics: The Culture of Robotics and Robotics in Culture

OpenAIRE

Hooman Samani; Elham Saadatian; Natalie Pang; Doros Polydorou; Owen Noel Newton Fernando; Ryohei Nakatsu; Jeffrey Tzu Kwan Valino Koh

2013-01-01

In this paper, we have investigated the concept of “Cultural Robotics” with regard to the evolution of social into cultural robots in the 21st Century. By defining the concept of culture, the potential development of a culture between humans and robots is explored. Based on the cultural values of the robotics developers, and the learning ability of current robots, cultural attributes in this regard are in the process of being formed, which would define the new concept of cultural robotics. Ac...
Illuminating Chaucer through Poetry, Manuscript Illuminations, and a Critical Rap Album

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Tom Liam

2007-01-01

Drawing connections between Chaucer, Eminem, and social issues, New York City high school teacher Tom Liam Lynch helped students become familiar with "The Canterbury Tales." Students wrote poems of rhymed couplets about today's social and political issues, created illuminated manuscripts, and recorded a rap CD. A book and album were…
"I would like to get close to you": Making robot personal space invasion less intrusive with a social gaze cue

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Suvei, Stefan-Daniel; Vroon, Jered; Somoza Sanchez, Vella Veronica

2018-01-01

participants (n=83), with/without personal space invasion, and with/without a social gaze cue. With a questionnaire, we measured subjective perception of warmth, competence, and comfort after such an interaction. In addition, we used on-board sensors and a tracking system to measure the dynamics of social......How can a social robot get physically close to the people it needs to interact with? We investigated the effect of a social gaze cue by a human-sized mobile robot on the effects of personal space invasion by that robot. In our 2x2 between-subject experiment, our robot would approach our...
Anthropomorphism in Human-Robot Co-evolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Damiano, Luisa; Dumouchel, Paul

2018-01-01

Social robotics entertains a particular relationship with anthropomorphism, which it neither sees as a cognitive error, nor as a sign of immaturity. Rather it considers that this common human tendency, which is hypothesized to have evolved because it favored cooperation among early humans, can be used today to facilitate social interactions between humans and a new type of cooperative and interactive agents - social robots. This approach leads social robotics to focus research on the engineering of robots that activate anthropomorphic projections in users. The objective is to give robots "social presence" and "social behaviors" that are sufficiently credible for human users to engage in comfortable and potentially long-lasting relations with these machines. This choice of 'applied anthropomorphism' as a research methodology exposes the artifacts produced by social robotics to ethical condemnation: social robots are judged to be a "cheating" technology, as they generate in users the illusion of reciprocal social and affective relations. This article takes position in this debate, not only developing a series of arguments relevant to philosophy of mind, cognitive sciences, and robotic AI, but also asking what social robotics can teach us about anthropomorphism. On this basis, we propose a theoretical perspective that characterizes anthropomorphism as a basic mechanism of interaction, and rebuts the ethical reflections that a priori condemns "anthropomorphism-based" social robots. To address the relevant ethical issues, we promote a critical experimentally based ethical approach to social robotics, "synthetic ethics," which aims at allowing humans to use social robots for two main goals: self-knowledge and moral growth.
The use of socially assistive robots for dementia care.

Science.gov (United States)

Huschilt, Julie; Clune, Laurie

2012-10-01

Innovative solutions for dementia care are required to address the steady rise in adults living with dementia, lack of adequate staffing to provide high-quality dementia care, and the need for family caregivers to provide care for their loved ones in the home. This article provides an overview of the use of socially assistive robots (SARs) to offer support as therapists, companions, and educators for people living with dementia. Social, ethical, and legal challenges associated with the use of robotic technology in patient care and implications for the use of SARs by nurses are discussed. These items considered, the authors conclude that SARs should be considered as a viable way to assist people living with dementia to maintain their highest possible level of independence, enhance their quality of life, and provide support to overburdened family caregivers. Further research is needed to evaluate the merits of this technological approach in the care of adults with dementia. Copyright 2012, SLACK Incorporated.
Interacting With Robots to Investigate the Bases of Social Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Sciutti, Alessandra; Sandini, Giulio

2017-12-01

Humans show a great natural ability at interacting with each other. Such efficiency in joint actions depends on a synergy between planned collaboration and emergent coordination, a subconscious mechanism based on a tight link between action execution and perception. This link supports phenomena as mutual adaptation, synchronization, and anticipation, which cut drastically the delays in the interaction and the need of complex verbal instructions and result in the establishment of joint intentions, the backbone of social interaction. From a neurophysiological perspective, this is possible, because the same neural system supporting action execution is responsible of the understanding and the anticipation of the observed action of others. Defining which human motion features allow for such emergent coordination with another agent would be crucial to establish more natural and efficient interaction paradigms with artificial devices, ranging from assistive and rehabilitative technology to companion robots. However, investigating the behavioral and neural mechanisms supporting natural interaction poses substantial problems. In particular, the unconscious processes at the basis of emergent coordination (e.g., unintentional movements or gazing) are very difficult-if not impossible-to restrain or control in a quantitative way for a human agent. Moreover, during an interaction, participants influence each other continuously in a complex way, resulting in behaviors that go beyond experimental control. In this paper, we propose robotics technology as a potential solution to this methodological problem. Robots indeed can establish an interaction with a human partner, contingently reacting to his actions without losing the controllability of the experiment or the naturalness of the interactive scenario. A robot could represent an "interactive probe" to assess the sensory and motor mechanisms underlying human-human interaction. We discuss this proposal with examples from our
Anthropomorphism in Human–Robot Co-evolution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luisa Damiano

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Social robotics entertains a particular relationship with anthropomorphism, which it neither sees as a cognitive error, nor as a sign of immaturity. Rather it considers that this common human tendency, which is hypothesized to have evolved because it favored cooperation among early humans, can be used today to facilitate social interactions between humans and a new type of cooperative and interactive agents – social robots. This approach leads social robotics to focus research on the engineering of robots that activate anthropomorphic projections in users. The objective is to give robots “social presence” and “social behaviors” that are sufficiently credible for human users to engage in comfortable and potentially long-lasting relations with these machines. This choice of ‘applied anthropomorphism’ as a research methodology exposes the artifacts produced by social robotics to ethical condemnation: social robots are judged to be a “cheating” technology, as they generate in users the illusion of reciprocal social and affective relations. This article takes position in this debate, not only developing a series of arguments relevant to philosophy of mind, cognitive sciences, and robotic AI, but also asking what social robotics can teach us about anthropomorphism. On this basis, we propose a theoretical perspective that characterizes anthropomorphism as a basic mechanism of interaction, and rebuts the ethical reflections that a priori condemns “anthropomorphism-based” social robots. To address the relevant ethical issues, we promote a critical experimentally based ethical approach to social robotics, “synthetic ethics,” which aims at allowing humans to use social robots for two main goals: self-knowledge and moral growth.
Anthropomorphism in Human–Robot Co-evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Damiano, Luisa; Dumouchel, Paul

2018-01-01

Social robotics entertains a particular relationship with anthropomorphism, which it neither sees as a cognitive error, nor as a sign of immaturity. Rather it considers that this common human tendency, which is hypothesized to have evolved because it favored cooperation among early humans, can be used today to facilitate social interactions between humans and a new type of cooperative and interactive agents – social robots. This approach leads social robotics to focus research on the engineering of robots that activate anthropomorphic projections in users. The objective is to give robots “social presence” and “social behaviors” that are sufficiently credible for human users to engage in comfortable and potentially long-lasting relations with these machines. This choice of ‘applied anthropomorphism’ as a research methodology exposes the artifacts produced by social robotics to ethical condemnation: social robots are judged to be a “cheating” technology, as they generate in users the illusion of reciprocal social and affective relations. This article takes position in this debate, not only developing a series of arguments relevant to philosophy of mind, cognitive sciences, and robotic AI, but also asking what social robotics can teach us about anthropomorphism. On this basis, we propose a theoretical perspective that characterizes anthropomorphism as a basic mechanism of interaction, and rebuts the ethical reflections that a priori condemns “anthropomorphism-based” social robots. To address the relevant ethical issues, we promote a critical experimentally based ethical approach to social robotics, “synthetic ethics,” which aims at allowing humans to use social robots for two main goals: self-knowledge and moral growth. PMID:29632507
The relation between people's attitudes and anxiety towards robots in human-robot interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Graaf, M.M.A.; Ben Allouch, Soumaya

2013-01-01

This paper examines the relation between an interaction with a robot and peoples’ attitudes and emotion towards robots. In our study, participants have had an acquaintance talk with a social robot and both their general attitude and anxiety towards social robots were measured before and after the
A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Stance on Human-Robot Interactions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chaminade Thierry

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Robotic devices, thanks to the controlled variations in their appearance and behaviors, provide useful tools to test hypotheses pertaining to social interactions. These agents were used to investigate one theoretical framework, resonance, which is defined, at the behavioral and neural levels, as an overlap between first- and third- person representations of mental states such as motor intentions or emotions. Behaviorally, we found a reduced, but significant, resonance towards a humanoid robot displaying biological motion, compared to a human. Using neuroimaging, we've reported that while perceptual processes in the human occipital and temporal lobe are more strongly engaged when perceiving a humanoid robot than a human action, activity in areas involved in motor resonance depends on attentional modulation for artificial agent more strongly than for human agents. Altogether, these studies using artificial agents offer valuable insights into the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes in the perception of artificial agents.
Afterword: Robot Conceptualizations Between Continuity and Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leopoldina Fortunati

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this afterword is to discuss a topic that links all the papers presented in this special issue. This transversal topic is the forms of social robots. Firstly, social robots form is discussed in light of the forms of robotics we have inherited from the past. This includes the models of society that each of them embodied, as well as the social logic of the emotions connected to them. Secondly, social robots form is analyzed in light of the arrival in a new area for robotics, that of robots in the domestic sphere. Here, the system of filters created by the mass appropriation of information and communication technologies in the last two decades, has set the premise for a change of the social contract that has made social robot penetration possible. Whilst exploring the models and the meanings of social robots in the domestic sphere it emerges that robotics is following two different paths: one addressing the material part of housework (more traditional robotics and the other addressing the immaterial part of reproduction work (more innovative robotics. Finally, the paper analyzes the dematerialization process of social robotics that is still taking place, a practice that is defined herein as “ubiquitous social roboting.”
Management of Arabic and Ajami Manuscript Resources In Northern ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Arabic manuscripts are not new phenomena in Nigeria, Africa and the world over. Their importance to the educational development and societal reconstruction along moral, ethics, spiritual, social, economic, political and what have you, is yet to be known, due to the poor understanding of where they can be found and ...
Acceptance and use of a social robot by elderly users in a domestic environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klamer, T.; Ben Allouch, Soumaya

2010-01-01

The study presented in this article aims to improve our understanding of how people use zoomorphic robots in a health related setting in their domestic environments in general and, in particular, whether people are able to build (long- term) relationships with these robots. The influences of social
Cultural Robotics: The Culture of Robotics and Robotics in Culture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hooman Samani

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we have investigated the concept of “Cultural Robotics” with regard to the evolution of social into cultural robots in the 21st Century. By defining the concept of culture, the potential development of a culture between humans and robots is explored. Based on the cultural values of the robotics developers, and the learning ability of current robots, cultural attributes in this regard are in the process of being formed, which would define the new concept of cultural robotics. According to the importance of the embodiment of robots in the sense of presence, the influence of robots in communication culture is anticipated. The sustainability of robotics culture based on diversity for cultural communities for various acceptance modalities is explored in order to anticipate the creation of different attributes of culture between robots and humans in the future.
SPENCER: A socially aware service robot for passenger guidance and help in busy airports

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Triebel, R.; Arras, K.; Alami, R.; Beyer, L.; Breuers, S.; Chatila, R.; Chetouani, M.; Cremers, D.; Evers, V.; Fiore, M.; Hung, H.; Ramírez, O.A.I.; Joosse, M.; Khambhaita, H.; Kucner, T.P.; Leibe, B.; Lilienthal, A.J.; Linder, T.; Lohse, M.; Magnusson, M.; Okal, B.; Palmieri, L.; Rafi, U.; Rooij, M.M.J.W. van; Zhang, L.; Wettergreen, S.D.; Barfoot, D.T.

2016-01-01

We present an ample description of a socially compliant mobile robotic platform, which is developed in the EU-funded project SPENCER. The purpose of this robot is to assist, inform and guide passengers in large and busy airports. One particular aim is to bring travellers of connecting flights
SPENCER : A Socially Aware Service Robot for Passenger Guidance and Help in Busy Airports

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Triebel, R.; Arras, K.; Alami, R.; Beyer, L.; Breuers, S.; Chatila, R.; Chetouani, M.; Cremers, D.; Evers, V.; Fiore, M.; Hung, H.S.; Islas Ram¿rez, O.; Joosse, M.; Khambhaita, H.; Kucner, T.; Leibe, B.; Lilienthal, A.J.; Linder, T.; Lohse, M.; Magnusson, M.; Okal, B.; Palmieri, L.; Rafi, U.; van Rooij, M.; Zhang, L.

2015-01-01

We present an ample description of a socially compliant mobile robotic platform, which is developed in the EU-funded project SPENCER. The purpose of this robot is to assist, inform and guide passengers in large and busy airports. One particular aim is to bring travellers of connecting flights
SPENCER: A Socially Aware Service Robot for Passenger Guidance and Help in Busy Airports

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Triebel, Rudolph; Arras, Kai; Alami, Rachid; Beyer, Lucas; Breuers, Stefan; Chatila, Raja; Chetouani, Mohamed; Cremers, Daniel; Evers, Vanessa; Fiore, Michelangelo; Hung, Hayley; Islas Ramírez, Omar A.; Joosse, M.P.; Khambhaita, Harmish; Kucner, Tomasz; Leibe, Bastian; Lilienthal, Achim J.; Linder, Timm; Lohse, M.; Magnusson, Martin; Okal, Billy; Palmieri, Luigi; Rafi, Umer; van Rooij, Marieke; Zhang, Lu

2015-01-01

We present an ample description of a socially compliant mobile robotic platform, which is developed in the EU-funded project SPENCER. The purpose of this robot is to assist, inform and guide passengers in large and busy airports. One particular aim is to bring travelers of connecting flights
Developing novel extensions to support prototyping for interactive social robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bhömer, ten M.; Bartneck, C.; Hu, J.; Ahn, R.M.C.; Tuyls, K.P.; Delbressine, F.L.M.; Feijs, L.M.G.

2009-01-01

Lego Mindstorms NXT is a platform highly suitable for prototyping in the field of interactive social robotics. During a technology masterclass at Eindhoven University of Technology students from the department of Industrial Design have developed five novel extensions (sensors and actuators) for the

The Role of Modular Robotics in Mediating Nonverbal Social Exchanges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marti, P; Giusti, L; Lund, Henrik Hautop

2009-01-01

This paper outlines the use of modular robotics to encourage and facilitate nonverbal communication during therapeutic intervention in dementia care. A set of new socially interactive modular robotic devices called rolling pins (RPs) has been designed and developed to assist the therapist...... is that they are able to communicate with each other or with other devices equipped with the same radio communication technology. The RPs are usually used in pairs, as the local feedback of an RP can be set depending not only on its own speed and orientation but also on the speed and the orientation of the peer RP...
Studying Robots Outside the Lab

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blond, Lasse

and ethnographic studies will enhance understandings of the dynamics of HRI. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes how users and the context of use matters to integration of robots, as it is shown how roboticists are unable to control how their designs are implemented in practice and that the sociality of social...... robots is inscribed by its users in social practice. This paper can be seen as a contribution to studies of long-term HRI. It presents the challenges of robot adaptation in practice and discusses the limitations of the present conceptual understanding of human-robotic relations. The ethnographic data......As more and more robots enter our social world there is a strong need for further field studies of human-robotic interaction. Based on a two-year ethnographic study of the implementation of the South Korean socially assistive robot in Danish elderly care this paper argues that empirical...
Robotic Nudges: The Ethics of Engineering a More Socially Just Human Being.

Science.gov (United States)

Borenstein, Jason; Arkin, Ron

2016-02-01

Robots are becoming an increasingly pervasive feature of our personal lives. As a result, there is growing importance placed on examining what constitutes appropriate behavior when they interact with human beings. In this paper, we discuss whether companion robots should be permitted to "nudge" their human users in the direction of being "more ethical". More specifically, we use Rawlsian principles of justice to illustrate how robots might nurture "socially just" tendencies in their human counterparts. Designing technological artifacts in such a way to influence human behavior is already well-established but merely because the practice is commonplace does not necessarily resolve the ethical issues associated with its implementation.
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Make a Fruit Salad with Probo, the Social Robot: An Interaction Study

Science.gov (United States)

Simut, Ramona E.; Vanderfaeillie, Johan; Peca, Andreea; Van de Perre, Greet; Vanderborght, Bram

2016-01-01

Social robots are thought to be motivating tools in play tasks with children with autism spectrum disorders. Thirty children with autism were included using a repeated measurements design. It was investigated if the children's interaction with a human differed from the interaction with a social robot during a play task. Also, it was examined if…
The principle of double effect applied to ethical dilemmas of social robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bentzen, Martin Mose

2016-01-01

The introduction of social robots into society will require that they follow ethical principles which go beyond consequentialism. In this paper, I show how to apply the principle of double effect to solve an ethical dilemma involving robots studied by Alan Winfield and colleagues. The principle......, the question of whether an action is permitted according to the principle of double effect is reduced to deciding whether a certain formula is true or otherwise....
Designing Emotionally Expressive Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tsiourti, Christiana; Weiss, Astrid; Wac, Katarzyna

2017-01-01

Socially assistive agents, be it virtual avatars or robots, need to engage in social interactions with humans and express their internal emotional states, goals, and desires. In this work, we conducted a comparative study to investigate how humans perceive emotional cues expressed by humanoid...... robots through five communication modalities (face, head, body, voice, locomotion) and examined whether the degree of a robot's human-like embodiment affects this perception. In an online survey, we asked people to identify emotions communicated by Pepper -a highly human-like robot and Hobbit – a robot...... for robots....
Feasibility of using a humanoid robot for enhancing attention and social skills in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Kimberlee; King, Marcus; Hellersteth, Sophia; Wirén, Anna; Mulligan, Hilda

2013-09-01

This study investigated the use of robotic technology for promoting attention, communication and social skills in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Attention, communication and social skills were measured while participants played a memory card matching game (Face Match) using (a) a humanoid robot, (b) a Smart Board and (c) playing cards. Three participants with ASD and three with other cognitive impairments were recruited from a secondary school with a special needs unit. Participants were paired such that one of each pair had a diagnosis of ASD and Face Match was played in these pairs for ∼15 min, with a game organizer present. On 3 separate days, video recordings were made as the participants played Face Match; a different game mode (robot, Smart Board, playing cards) was used each day. A system for categorizing attention, communication and social skills was developed that described 16 subcategories of interactions and intra-actions. In general, participants with ASD showed highly individualized patterns of behaviour in the three different modes. However, repetitive behaviour was reduced in participants with ASD when using both the robot and the Smart Board compared with playing cards. We show that it is feasible to use a robot to assist teaching of social skills to adolescents with ASD, but suggest that the robot features could be further explored and utilized.
Jawi Writing in Malay Archipelago Manuscript: A General Overview

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haji Harun Makmur

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Jawi writing is the main form of writing in various manuscripts recovered around the Archipelago, especially during the early arrival of Islam. These manuscripts are found to record history, art, culture, language, social, as well as ancient knowledge. The usage of Jawi writings had covered a number of calligraphy which are high in value with deep philosophical meaning, are full with creative notion as well as countless of patterns that went along with the call to Islam around the Archipelago in a relatively short period of time. The development of Jawi writing had been immortalized in various genres such as books, manuscripts and letters written by individual writers and in groups as a local way of living. This writing was also introduced through a long process using certain methods of writing and reading, and kept as individual as well as institutional collections all around the Archipelago. This article is focused in various manuscripts that not only were exclusively used as learning and teaching aids, but were also garnished as beautiful symbols and philosophical Islamic art that deserves a high degree of honour. This article’s objective is to deeply analyze the usage of this writing from manuscripts found around the Archipelago as a proof on the importance of this form of writing. The methodology of this article is library study, through a number of theories and methods. The implication of this article is hoped to form a certain standard as well as its own identity for the local society through their acceptance of this writing form, especially during the early arrival of Islam in the Archipelago thus deemed as a national treasure.
Toward robotic socially believable behaving systems

CERN Document Server

Jain, Lakhmi

2016-01-01

This volume is a collection of research studies on the modeling of emotions in complex autonomous systems. Several experts in the field are reporting their efforts and reviewing the literature in order to shed lights on how the processes of coding and decoding emotional states took place in humans, which are the physiological, physical, and psychological variables involved, invent new mathematical models and algorithms to describe them, and motivate these investigations in the light of observable societal changes and needs, such as the aging population and the cost of health care services. The consequences are the implementation of emotionally and socially believable machines, acting as helpers into domestic spheres, where emotions drive behaviors and actions. The contents of the book are highly multidisciplinary since the modeling of emotions in robotic socially believable systems requires a holistic perspective on topics coming from different research domains such as computer science, engineering, sociology...
Brief Report: A Pilot Summer Robotics Camp to Reduce Social Anxiety and Improve Social/Vocational Skills in Adolescents with ASD

Science.gov (United States)

Kaboski, Juhi R.; Diehl, Joshua John; Beriont, Jane; Crowell, Charles R.; Villano, Michael; Wier, Kristin; Tang, Karen

2015-01-01

This pilot study evaluated a novel intervention designed to reduce social anxiety and improve social/vocational skills for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention utilized a shared interest in robotics among participants to facilitate natural social interaction between individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD)…
Using Social Robots in Health Settings: Implications of Personalization on Human-Machine Communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lisa Tam and Rajiv Khosla

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In view of the shortage of healthcare workers and a growing aging population, it is worthwhile to explore the applicability of new technologies in improving the quality of healthcare and reducing its cost. However, it remains a challenge to deploy such technologies in environments where individuals have limited knowledge about how to use them. Thus, this paper explores how the social robots designed for use in health settings in Australia have sought to overcome some of the limitations through personalization. Deployed in aged care and home-based care facilities, the social robots are person-centered, emphasizing the personalization of care with human-like attributes (e.g., human appearances to engage in reciprocal communication with users. While there have been debates over the advantages and disadvantages of personalization, this paper discusses the implications of personalization on the design of the robots for enhancing engagement, empowerment and enablement in health settings.
Socializing with Olivia, the Youngest Robot Receptionist Outside the Lab

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Niculescu, A.I.; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Nijholt, Antinus; Limbu, Dilip Kumar; See, Swan Lan; Wong, Alvin Hong Yee; Ge, S.S.; Li, H.; Cabibihan, J.-J.; Tan, Y.K.

2010-01-01

In this paper we present the evaluation results of an exploratory study performed in an open environment with the robot receptionist Olivia. The main focus of the study was to analyze relationships between the robot’s social skills and the perceived overall interaction quality, as well as to
Effects of a Socially Interactive Robot on the Conversational Turns between Parents and Their Young Children with Autism. Social Robots Research Reports, Number 6

Science.gov (United States)

Dunst, Carl J.; Hamby, Deborah W.; Trivette, Carol M.; Prior, Jeremy; Derryberry, Graham

2013-01-01

The effects of a socially interactive robot on the conversational turns between four young children with autism and their mothers were investigated as part of the intervention study described in this research report. The interventions with each child were conducted over 4 or 5 days in the children's homes where a practitioner facilitated…
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Make a Fruit Salad with Probo, the Social Robot: An Interaction Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Simut, Ramona E; Vanderfaeillie, Johan; Peca, Andreea; Van de Perre, Greet; Vanderborght, Bram

2016-01-01

Social robots are thought to be motivating tools in play tasks with children with autism spectrum disorders. Thirty children with autism were included using a repeated measurements design. It was investigated if the children's interaction with a human differed from the interaction with a social robot during a play task. Also, it was examined if the two conditions differed in their ability to elicit interaction with a human accompanying the child during the task. Interaction of the children with both partners did not differ apart from the eye-contact. Participants had more eye-contact with the social robot compared to the eye-contact with the human. The conditions did not differ regarding the interaction elicited with the human accompanying the child.
Robots for use in autism research.

Science.gov (United States)

Scassellati, Brian; Admoni, Henny; Matarić, Maja

2012-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders are a group of lifelong disabilities that affect people's ability to communicate and to understand social cues. Research into applying robots as therapy tools has shown that robots seem to improve engagement and elicit novel social behaviors from people (particularly children and teenagers) with autism. Robot therapy for autism has been explored as one of the first application domains in the field of socially assistive robotics (SAR), which aims to develop robots that assist people with special needs through social interactions. In this review, we discuss the past decade's work in SAR systems designed for autism therapy by analyzing robot design decisions, human-robot interactions, and system evaluations. We conclude by discussing challenges and future trends for this young but rapidly developing research area.
Child's culture-related experiences with a social robot at diabetes camps

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Neerincx, A.; Sacchitelli, F.; Kaptein, R.; Pal, S. van der; Oleari, E.; Neerincx, M.A.

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the experiences of Italian and Dutch children while interacting with a social robot that is designed to support their diabetes self-management. Observations of children's behaviors and analyses of questionnaires at diabetes camps, showed positive experiences with variation
How to Touch Humans : Guidelines for Social Agents and Robots that can Touch

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erp, J.B.F. van; Toet, A.

2013-01-01

Touch is an essential channel in interpersonal and affective communication, yet most social agents currently lack the capability to touch the user. In this paper we show the credibility of three premises that make the case that providing touch capability to social robots will increase their
THE USE OF DEIXIS IN GLADIATOR MOVIE MANUSCRIPT

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Chuswatul Hasanah

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This study is about the forms and references of deixis udes in "Gladiator" movie manuscript. The data, movie discourse are taken from observation and documentation using techniques of reading, indentifying, and noting. The data source is "Gladiator" movie manuscript. To identify the forms of deixis, the writer udes the theory of deixis in Discourse Analysis while to clarifying the references of deixis, the writer used the theory of meaning focusing on both semantic and pragmatic meaning. The result of study shows that the forms of deixis are person deixis, place dixis, time deixis, discourse deixis, and social deixis. Person dixis consists of first person, second person, and thrid person singular and plural. It is also distinguished based on its function in the sentence as subject and object personal pronoun, subject in possesive personal pronoun, object ini possesive personal pronoun and reflexive personal pronoun. The reference of deixis bades on semantic meaning refers to lexical meaning while based on pragmatic meaning refers to the meaning covered in the discourse, such as referring to the interlocutors, the war, the time process during the war, and the social relationship among the participants in the war. Key words: deixis, deictic, proximal, and distal
Application of the Naive Bayes Classifier for Representation and Use of Heterogeneous and Incomplete Knowledge in Social Robotics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trovato, Gabriele; Chrupala, Grzegorz; Takanishi, Atsuo

2016-01-01

As societies move towards integration of robots, it is important to study how robots can use their cognition in order to choose effectively their actions in a human environment, and possibly adapt to new contexts. When modelling these contextual data, it is common in social robotics to work with
Caregiver and social assistant robot for rehabilitation and coaching for the elderly.

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez, P J; Garcia-Zapirain, B; Mendez-Zorrilla, A

2015-01-01

Socially assistive robotics (SAR) has been a major field of investigation during the last decade and, as it develops, the groups the technology can be applied to and all ways in which these can be assisted are rapidly increasing. The main objective is to design and develop a complete robotic agent, so that it performs physical and mental activities for elderly people to maintain their healthy life habits and, as a final result, improve their quality of life. LEGO Mindstorms NXT® robot's unique capacity for adaptability and engaging its users to develop coaching activities and assistive rehabilitation for the elderly. Such activities will aim to enhance healthy habits and provide training in physical and mental rehabilitation. The robot is attached to an iPod Touch that acts as its interface. The robot has been tested by a voluntary group of residents, also from that retirement home. Results in the variables of the questionnaire show scores above 4 points out of 5 for all the categories. Based on the tests, an easy to use Robot is prepared to deliver basic coaching for physical activities as proposed by the client, the staff of La Misericordia, who confirmed their satisfaction regarding this aspect.

Vocal Production of Young Children with Disabilities during Child-Robot Interactions. Social Robots Research Reports, Number 5

Science.gov (United States)

Dunst, Carl J.; Hamby, Deborah W.; Trivette, Carol M.; Prior, Jeremy; Derryberry, Graham

2013-01-01

The effects of a socially interactive robot on the vocalization production of five children with disabilities (4 with autism, 1 with a sensory processing disorder) were the focus of the intervention study described in this research report. The interventions with each child were conducted over 4 or 5 days in the children's homes and involved…
Video-based peer feedback through social networking for robotic surgery simulation: a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, Stacey C; Chiang, Alexander; Shah, Galaxy; Kwan, Lorna; Montgomery, Jeffrey S; Karam, Amer; Tarnay, Christopher; Guru, Khurshid A; Hu, Jim C

2015-05-01

To examine the feasibility and outcomes of video-based peer feedback through social networking to facilitate robotic surgical skill acquisition. The acquisition of surgical skills may be challenging for novel techniques and/or those with prolonged learning curves. Randomized controlled trial involving 41 resident physicians performing the Tubes (Da Vinci Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA) simulator exercise with versus without peer feedback of video-recorded performance through a social networking Web page. Data collected included simulator exercise score, time to completion, and comfort and satisfaction with robotic surgery simulation. There were no baseline differences between the intervention group (n = 20) and controls (n = 21). The intervention group showed improvement in mean scores from session 1 to sessions 2 and 3 (60.7 vs 75.5, P feedback subjects were more comfortable with robotic surgery than controls (90% vs 62%, P = 0.021) and expressed greater satisfaction with the learning experience (100% vs 67%, P = 0.014). Of the intervention subjects, 85% found that peer feedback was useful and 100% found it effective. Video-based peer feedback through social networking appears to be an effective paradigm for surgical education and accelerates the robotic surgery learning curve during simulation.
Creating robots with personality : the effect of personality on social intelligence

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mileounis, A.; Cuijpers, R.H.; Barakova, E.I.

2015-01-01

This study investigates the effect of two personality traits, dominance and extroversion, on social intelligence. To test these traits, a NAO robot was used, which was teleoperated through a computer using a Wizard of Oz technique. A within-subject design was conducted with extroversion as
Social Robotic Experience and Media Communication Practices: An Exploration on the Emotional and Ritualized Human-technology-relations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christine Linke

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This article approaches the subject of social robots by focusing on the emotional relations people establish with media and information and communication technology (ICTs in their everyday life. It examines human-technology-relation from a social studies point of view, seeking to raise questions that enable us to make a connection between the research on human relationships and the topic of human-technology relation, especially human-humanoid-relation. In order to explore the human-technology-relations, theoretical ideas of a mediatization of communication and of a ritual interaction order are applied. Ritual theory is particularly used to enable a focus on emotion as a significant dimension in analyzing social technologies. This explorative article refers to empirical findings regarding media communication practices in close relationships. It argues that following the developed approach regarding mediatized and ritualized relational practices, useful insights for a conceptualization of the human-social robot relation can be achieved. The article concludes with remarks regarding the challenge of an empirical approach to human-social robot-relations.
Robots that care

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Looije, R.; Arendsen, J.; Saldien, J.; Vanderborght, B.; Broekens, J.; Neerincx, M.

2010-01-01

Many countries face pressure on their health care systems. To alleviate this pressure, 'self care' and 'self monitoring' are often stimulated with the use of new assistive technologies. Social robotics is a research area where robotic technology is optimized for various social functions. One of
Negative Affect in Human Robot Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rehm, Matthias; Krogsager, Anders

2013-01-01

The vision of social robotics sees robots moving more and more into unrestricted social environments, where robots interact closely with users in their everyday activities, maybe even establishing relationships with the user over time. In this paper we present a field trial with a robot in a semi...
The ten rules of touch : Guidelines for social agents and robots that can touch

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erp, J.B.F. van

2012-01-01

Touching is essential in interpersonal and affective communication, yet most social agents lack the capability to touch the user. In this paper we show the credibility of three premises that make the case that providing touch capability to social robots will increase their effectiveness in
Laser assisted robotic surgery in cornea transplantation

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi, Francesca; Micheletti, Filippo; Magni, Giada; Pini, Roberto; Menabuoni, Luca; Leoni, Fabio; Magnani, Bernardo

2017-03-01

Robotic surgery is a reality in several surgical fields, such as in gastrointestinal surgery. In ophthalmic surgery the required high spatial precision is limiting the application of robotic system, and even if several attempts have been designed in the last 10 years, only some application in retinal surgery were tested in animal models. The combination of photonics and robotics can really open new frontiers in minimally invasive surgery, improving the precision, reducing tremor, amplifying scale of motion, and automating the procedure. In this manuscript we present the preliminary results in developing a vision guided robotic platform for laser-assisted anterior eye surgery. The robotic console is composed by a robotic arm equipped with an "end effector" designed to deliver laser light to the anterior corneal surface. The main intended application is for laser welding of corneal tissue in laser assisted penetrating keratoplasty and endothelial keratoplasty. The console is equipped with an integrated vision system. The experiment originates from a clear medical demand in order to improve the efficacy of different surgical procedures: when the prototype will be optimized, other surgical areas will be included in its application, such as neurosurgery, urology and spinal surgery.
Modelling engagement in dementia through behaviour. Contribution for socially interactive robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Perugia, Giulia; Diaz Doladeras, Marta; Mallofre, Andreu Catala; Rauterberg, Matthias; Barakova, Emilia

2017-07-01

In this paper, we present a novel tool to measure engagement in people with dementia playing board games and interacting with a social robot, Pleo. We carried out two studies to reach a comprehensive inventory of behaviours accounting for engagement in dementia. The first one is an exploratory study aimed at modelling engagement in cognitive board games. The second one is a longitudinal study to investigate how people with dementia express engagement in cognitive games and in interactions with social robots. We adopted a technique coming from Ethology to mould behaviour, the ethogram. Ethogram is founded on low level behaviours, and allows hierarchical structuring. Herein, we present preliminary results consisting in the description of two ethograms and in their structuring obtained through thematic analysis. Such results show that an underlying structure of engagement exists across activities, and that different activities trigger different behavioural displays of engagement that adhere to such a structure.
ROBIN, a Telepresence Robot to Support Older Users Monitoring and Social Inclusion: Development and Evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Cortellessa, Gabriella; Fracasso, Francesca; Sorrentino, Alessandra; Orlandini, Andrea; Bernardi, Giulio; Coraci, Luca; De Benedictis, Riccardo; Cesta, Amedeo

2018-02-01

This article describes an enhanced telepresence robot named ROBIN, part of a telecare system derived from the GIRAFFPLUS project for supporting and monitoring older adults at home. ROBIN is integrated in a sensor-rich environment that aims to continuously monitor physical and psychological wellbeing of older persons living alone. The caregivers (formal/informal) can communicate through it with their assisted persons. Long-term trials in real houses highlighted several user requirements that inspired improvements on the robotic platform. The enhanced telepresence robot was assessed by users to test its suitability to support social interaction and provide motivational feedback on health-related aspects. Twenty-five users (n = 25) assessed the new multimodal interaction capabilities and new communication services. A psychophysiological approach was adopted to investigate aspects like engagement, usability, and affective impact, as well as the possible role of individual differences on the quality of human-robot interaction. ROBIN was overall judged usable, the interaction with/through it resulted pleasant and the required workload was limited, thus supporting the idea of using it as a central component for remote assistance and social participation. Open-minded users tended to have a more positive interaction with it. This work describes an enabling technology for remote assistance and social communication. It highlights the importance of being compliant with users' needs to develop solutions easy to use and able to foster their social connections. The role of personality appeared to be relevant for the interaction, underscoring a clear role of the service personalization.
Systematic Analysis of Video Data from Different Human-Robot Interaction Studies: A Categorisation of Social Signals During Error Situations

OpenAIRE

Manuel eGiuliani; Nicole eMirnig; Gerald eStollnberger; Susanne eStadler; Roland eBuchner; Manfred eTscheligi

2015-01-01

Human?robot interactions are often affected by error situations that are caused by either the robot or the human. Therefore, robots would profit from the ability to recognize when error situations occur. We investigated the verbal and non-verbal social signals that humans show when error situations occur in human?robot interaction experiments. For that, we analyzed 201 videos of five human?robot interaction user studies with varying tasks from four independent projects. The analysis shows tha...
Facilitating Social Play for Children with PDDs: Effects of Paired Robotic Devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soichiro Matsuda

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Interacting with toys and other people is fundamental for developing social communication skills. However, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD are characterized by having a significant impairment in social interaction, which often leads to deficits in play skills. For this reason, methods of teaching play skills to young children with ASD have been well documented. Although previous studies have examined a variety of instructional strategies for teaching skills, few studies have evaluated the potential of using robotic devices. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether automatic feedback provided by colored lights and vibration via paired robotic devices, COLOLO, facilitates social play behaviors in children with ASD. We also explore how social play relates to social interaction. COLOLO is a system of paired spherical devices covered with soft fabric. All participants in this study were recruited as volunteers through the Department of Psychology at Keio University. The pilot study included three participants diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs; 5- to 6-year-old boys, and compared experimental conditions with and without automatic feedback from the devices (colored lights and vibration. The results indicated that the participants in the condition that included feedback from the devices exhibited increased rates of ball contact and looking at the therapist’s ball, but did not exhibit increased rates of eye contact or positive affect. In the experimental study, a systematic replication of the pilot study was performed with three other participants diagnosed with PDDs (3- to 6-year-old boys, using an A-B-A-B design. Again, the results demonstrated that, in the condition with colored lights and vibration, the children increased ball contact as well as looking at the therapist’s ball. However, the results did not show the effect of automatic feedback consistently for three children. These findings are
Social Robots vs. Computer Display: Does the Way Social Stories Are Delivered Make a Difference for Their Effectiveness on ASD Children?

Science.gov (United States)

Pop, Cristina A.; Simut, Ramona E.; Pintea, Sebastian; Saldien, Jelle; Rusu, Alina S.; Vanderfaeillie, Johan; David, Daniel O.; Lefeber, Dirk; Vanderborght, Bram

2013-01-01

Background and Objectives: The aim of this exploratory study is to test whether social stories presented by a social robot have a greater effect than ones presented on a computer display in increasing the independency in expressing social abilities of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Although much progress has been made in developing…
Collaboration by Design: Using Robotics to Foster Social Interaction in Kindergarten

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Kenneth T. H.; Sullivan, Amanda; Bers, Marina U.

2013-01-01

Research shows the importance of social interaction between peers in child development. Although technology can foster peer interactions, teachers often struggle with teaching with technology. This study examined a sample of (n = 19) children participating in a kindergarten robotics summer workshop to determine the effect of teaching using a…
Robots in Health and Social Care: A Complementary Technology to Home Care and Telehealthcare?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Torbjørn S. Dahl

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This article offers a brief overview of most current and potential uses and applications of robotics in health/care and social care, whether commercially ready and available on the market or still at the various stages of research and prototyping. We provide carefully hand-picked examples and pointers to on-going research for each set of identified robotics applications and then discuss the main ingredients for the success of these applications, as well as the main issues surrounding their adoption for everyday use, including sustainability in non-technical environments, patient/user safety and acceptance, ethical considerations such as patient/user privacy, and cost effectiveness. We examine how robotics could (partially fill in some of the identified gaps in current telehealthcare and home care/self-care provisions. The article concludes with a brief glimpse at a couple of emerging developments and promising applications in the field (soft robots and robots for disaster response that are expected to play important roles in the future.
Robot Futures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christoffersen, Anja; Grindsted Nielsen, Sally; Jochum, Elizabeth Ann

Robots are increasingly used in health care settings, e.g., as homecare assistants and personal companions. One challenge for personal robots in the home is acceptance. We describe an innovative approach to influencing the acceptance of care robots using theatrical performance. Live performance...... is a useful testbed for developing and evaluating what makes robots expressive; it is also a useful platform for designing robot behaviors and dialogue that result in believable characters. Therefore theatre is a valuable testbed for studying human-robot interaction (HRI). We investigate how audiences...... perceive social robots interacting with humans in a future care scenario through a scripted performance. We discuss our methods and initial findings, and outline future work....
The Influence of Social Interaction on the Perception of Emotional Expression: A Case Study with a Robot Head

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, John C.; Cañamero, Lola; Bard, Kim A.; Ross, Marina Davila; Thorsteinsson, Kate

In this paper we focus primarily on the influence that socio-emotional interaction has on the perception of emotional expression by a robot. We also investigate and discuss the importance of emotion expression in socially interactive situations involving human robot interaction (HRI), and show the importance of utilising emotion expression when dealing with interactive robots, that are to learn and develop in socially situated environments. We discuss early expressional development and the function of emotion in communication in humans and how this can improve HRI communications. Finally we provide experimental results showing how emotion-rich interaction via emotion expression can affect the HRI process by providing additional information.
A propaganda index for reviewing problem framing in articles and manuscripts: an exploratory study.

Science.gov (United States)

Gambrill, Eileen; Reiman, Amanda

2011-01-01

To determine the effectiveness of an index in increasing recognition of misleading problem framing in articles and manuscripts. A propaganda index consisting of 32 items was developed drawing on related literature. Seventeen subjects who review manuscripts for possible publication were requested to read five recent published reports of randomized controlled trials concerning social anxiety and to identify indicators of propaganda (defined as encouraging beliefs and actions with the least thought possible). They then re-read the same five articles using a propaganda index to note instances of propaganda. Convenience sample of individuals who review manuscripts for possible publication and sample of recent published reports of randomized controlled trials regarding social anxiety in five different journals by different authors, blinded by author and journal. Data showed that there was a high rate of propagandistic problem framing in reports of RCTs regarding social anxiety such as hiding well argued alternative views and vagueness. This occurred in 117 out of 160 opportunities over five research reports. A convenience sample of 17 academics spotted only 4.5 percent of propaganda indicators. This increased to 64 percent with use of the 32 item propaganda index. Use of a propaganda index increased recognition of related indicators. However many instances remained undetected. This propaganda index warrants further exploration as a complement to reporting guidelines such as CONSORT and PRISMA.
Semiotics and Human-Robot Interaction

OpenAIRE

Sequeira, Joao; Ribeiro, M.Isabel

2007-01-01

The social barriers that still constrain the use of robots in modern societies will tend to vanish with the sophistication increase of interaction strategies. Communication and interaction between people and robots occurring in a friendly manner and being accessible to everyone, independent of their skills in robotics issues, will certainly foster the breaking of barriers. Socializing behaviors, such as following people, are relatively easy to obtain with current state of the art robotics. Ho...
Interactive robots in experimental biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Krause, Jens; Winfield, Alan F T; Deneubourg, Jean-Louis

2011-07-01

Interactive robots have the potential to revolutionise the study of social behaviour because they provide several methodological advances. In interactions with live animals, the behaviour of robots can be standardised, morphology and behaviour can be decoupled (so that different morphologies and behavioural strategies can be combined), behaviour can be manipulated in complex interaction sequences and models of behaviour can be embodied by the robot and thereby be tested. Furthermore, robots can be used as demonstrators in experiments on social learning. As we discuss here, the opportunities that robots create for new experimental approaches have far-reaching consequences for research in fields such as mate choice, cooperation, social learning, personality studies and collective behaviour. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the static structural design of climbing robots: part 2.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Ausama Hadi; Menon, Carlo

This manuscript is the second of two parts of a work investigating optimal configurations of legged climbing robots while loitering on vertical surfaces. In this Part 2, a structural analysis based on the finite element method, specifically the stiffness method, is performed to address the problem. Parameters that are investigated in this Part 2 include the inclination of both the body and the legs of the robot. Outcomes of the performed study are validated by analyzing the posture of 150 ants when loitering on vertical surfaces. The obtained validation ensures the predictions of the developed structural model are correct and can be used to identify optimal configurations of legged robots when loitering on vertical surfaces.
Are We Ready for Robots That Care for Us? Attitudes and Opinions of Older Adults Towards Socially Assistive Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maribel ePino

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Socially Assistive Robots (SAR may help improve care delivery at home for older adults with cognitive impairment and reduce the burden of informal caregivers. Examining the views of these stakeholders on SAR is fundamental in order to conceive acceptable and useful SAR for dementia care. This study investigated SAR acceptance among three groups of older adults living in the community: persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment, informal caregivers of persons with dementia, and healthy older adults. Different technology acceptance questions related to the robot and user characteristics, potential applications, feelings about technology, ethical issues, and barriers and facilitators for SAR adoption, were addressed in a mixed-method study. Participants (n=25 completed a survey and took part in a focus group (n=7. A functional robot prototype, a multimedia presentation, and some use-case scenarios provided a base for the discussion. Content analysis was carried out based on recorded material from focus groups. Results indicated that an accurate insight of influential factors for SAR acceptance could be gained by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Participants acknowledged the potential benefits of SAR for supporting care at home for individuals with cognitive impairment. In all the three groups, intention to use SAR was found to be lower for the present time than that anticipated for the future. However, caregivers and persons with MCI had a higher perceived usefulness and intention to use SAR, at the present time, than healthy older adults, confirming that current needs are strongly related to technology acceptance and should influence SAR design. A key theme that emerged in this study was the importance of customizing SAR appearance, services, and social capabilities. Mismatch between needs and solutions offered by the robot, usability factors, and lack of experience with technology, were seen as the most important barriers for SAR
"Are we ready for robots that care for us?" Attitudes and opinions of older adults toward socially assistive robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Pino, Maribel; Boulay, Mélodie; Jouen, François; Rigaud, Anne-Sophie

2015-01-01

Socially Assistive Robots (SAR) may help improve care delivery at home for older adults with cognitive impairment and reduce the burden of informal caregivers. Examining the views of these stakeholders on SAR is fundamental in order to conceive acceptable and useful SAR for dementia care. This study investigated SAR acceptance among three groups of older adults living in the community: persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment, informal caregivers of persons with dementia, and healthy older adults. Different technology acceptance questions related to the robot and user characteristics, potential applications, feelings about technology, ethical issues, and barriers and facilitators for SAR adoption, were addressed in a mixed-method study. Participants (n = 25) completed a survey and took part in a focus group (n = 7). A functional robot prototype, a multimedia presentation, and some use-case scenarios provided a base for the discussion. Content analysis was carried out based on recorded material from focus groups. Results indicated that an accurate insight of influential factors for SAR acceptance could be gained by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Participants acknowledged the potential benefits of SAR for supporting care at home for individuals with cognitive impairment. In all the three groups, intention to use SAR was found to be lower for the present time than that anticipated for the future. However, caregivers and persons with MCI had a higher perceived usefulness and intention to use SAR, at the present time, than healthy older adults, confirming that current needs are strongly related to technology acceptance and should influence SAR design. A key theme that emerged in this study was the importance of customizing SAR appearance, services, and social capabilities. Mismatch between needs and solutions offered by the robot, usability factors, and lack of experience with technology, were seen as the most important barriers for SAR adoption.
Effects of different kinds of robot feedback

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fischer, Kerstin; Lohan, K. S.; Nehaniv, C.

2013-01-01

, we investigate the impact of the robot's learning success on tutors' tutoring strategies. Our results show that only in the condition in which the robot's behavior is socially contingent, the human tutors adjust their behavior to the robot. In the developmentally equally plausible object......In this paper, we investigate to what extent tutors' behavior is influenced by different kinds of robot feedback. In particular, we study the effects of online robot feedback in which the robot responds either contingently to the tutor's social behavior or by tracking the objects presented. Also......-driven condition, in which the robot tracked the objects presented, tutors do not change their behavior significantly, even though in both conditions the robot develops from a prelinguistic stage to producing keywords. Socially contingent robot feedback has thus the potential to influence tutors' behavior over...
Manuscript Transcription by Crowdsourcing: Transcribe Bentham

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Moyle

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Transcribe Bentham is testing the feasibility of outsourcing the work of manuscript transcription to members of the public. UCL Library Services holds 60,000 folios of manuscripts of the philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832. Transcribe Bentham will digitise 12,500 Bentham folios, and, through a wiki-based interface, allow volunteer transcribers to take temporary ownership of manuscript images and to create TEI-encoded transcription text for final approval by UCL experts. Approved transcripts will be stored and preserved, with the manuscript images, in UCL’s public Digital Collections repository. The project makes innovative use of traditional library material. It will stimulate public engagement with UCL’s scholarly archive collections and the challenges of palaeography and manuscript transcription; it will raise the profile of the work and thought of Jeremy Bentham; and it will create new digital resources for future use by professional researchers. Towards the end of the project, the transcription tool will be made available to other projects and services. This paper is based on a presentation given by the lead author at LIBER’s 39th Annual General Conference in Aarhus, Denmark, 2010.
Manuscripts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

François Delsarte

2012-11-01

Full Text Available In these excerpts from a manuscript from the François Delsarte archive, the French author offers us passages from his notebooks, with considerations on the techniques used by singers, especially on degrees and expression. It presents the foundations of his work and offers advices to students. The text explains Delsarte’s viewpoint on inspiration and its role in artistic work. It discusses aspects related to his form of pedagogy in the form of dialogue.
Fate of Manuscripts Rejected From the Red Journal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holliday, Emma B.; Yang, George; Jagsi, Reshma; Hoffman, Karen E.; Bennett, Katherine Egan; Grace, Calley; Zietman, Anthony L.

2015-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate characteristics associated with higher rates of acceptance for original manuscripts submitted for publication to the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (IJROBP) and describe the fate of rejected manuscripts. Methods and Materials: Manuscripts submitted to the IJROBP from May 1, 2010, to August 31, 2010, and May 1, 2012, to August 31, 2012, were evaluated for author demographics and acceptance status. A PubMed search was performed for each IJROBP-rejected manuscript to ascertain whether the manuscript was ultimately published elsewhere. The Impact Factor of the accepting journal and the number of citations of the published manuscript were also collected. Results: Of the 500 included manuscripts, 172 (34.4%) were accepted and 328 (65.6%) were rejected. There was no significant difference in acceptance rates according to gender or degree of the submitting author, but there were significant differences seen based on the submitting author's country, rank, and h-index. On multivariate analysis, earlier year submitted (P<.0001) and higher author h-index (P=.006) remained significantly associated with acceptance into the IJROBP. Two hundred thirty-five IJROBP-rejected manuscripts (71.7%) were ultimately published in a PubMed-listed journal as of July 2014. There were no significant differences in any submitting author characteristics. Journals accepting IJROBP-rejected manuscripts had a lower median [interquartile range] 2013 impact factor compared with the IJROBP (2.45 [1.53-3.71] vs 4.176). The IJROBP-rejected manuscripts ultimately published elsewhere had a lower median [interquartile range] number of citations (1 [0-4] vs 6 [2-11]; P<.001), which persisted on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: The acceptance rate for manuscripts submitted to the IJROBP is approximately one-third, and approximately 70% of rejected manuscripts are ultimately published in other PubMed-listed journals, but these ultimate
Effects of Child-Robot Interactions on the Vocalization Production of Young Children with Disabilities. Social Robots. Research Reports, Number 4

Science.gov (United States)

Dunst, Carl J.; Trivette, Carol M.; Hamby, Deborah W.; Prior, Jeremy; Derryberry, Graham

2013-01-01

Findings from two studies investigating the effects of a socially interactive robot on the vocalization production of young children with disabilities are reported. The two studies included seven children with autism, two children with Down syndrome, and two children with attention deficit disorders. The Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA)…
Detecting and Classifying Human Touches in a Social Robot Through Acoustic Sensing and Machine Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Martín, Fernando; Gamboa-Montero, Juan José; Castillo, José Carlos; Castro-González, Álvaro; Salichs, Miguel Ángel

2017-05-16

An important aspect in Human-Robot Interaction is responding to different kinds of touch stimuli. To date, several technologies have been explored to determine how a touch is perceived by a social robot, usually placing a large number of sensors throughout the robot's shell. In this work, we introduce a novel approach, where the audio acquired from contact microphones located in the robot's shell is processed using machine learning techniques to distinguish between different types of touches. The system is able to determine when the robot is touched (touch detection), and to ascertain the kind of touch performed among a set of possibilities: stroke , tap , slap , and tickle (touch classification). This proposal is cost-effective since just a few microphones are able to cover the whole robot's shell since a single microphone is enough to cover each solid part of the robot. Besides, it is easy to install and configure as it just requires a contact surface to attach the microphone to the robot's shell and plug it into the robot's computer. Results show the high accuracy scores in touch gesture recognition. The testing phase revealed that Logistic Model Trees achieved the best performance, with an F -score of 0.81. The dataset was built with information from 25 participants performing a total of 1981 touch gestures.
Attitudinal Change in Elderly Citizens Toward Social Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damholdt, Malene Flensborg; Nørskov, Marco; Yamazaki, Ryuji

2015-01-01

Attitudes toward robots influence the tendency to accept or reject robotic devices. Thus it is important to investigate whether and how attitudes toward robots can change. In this pilot study we investigate attitudinal changes in elderly citizens toward a tele-operated robot in relation to three...... relatedness (r = 0.581) whilst Neuroticism correlated negatively (r = -0.582) with mental relatedness with the robot. The results tentatively suggest that neither information about functionality nor direct repeated encounters are pivotal in changing attitudes toward robots in elderly citizens. This may...
Traveling Robots and Their Cultural Baggage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blond, Lasse

When social robots are imported from Asia to Europe they bring along with them a cultural luggage consisting of foreign sociotechnical imaginary. The effort to adopt the robot Silbot to Nordic social services exposed unfamiliar and cultural-dependent views of care, cognition, health and human...... nature. Studying Silbot in “the wild” highlighted these issues as well as the human-robot interaction and the adaptation of the robot to real life praxis. The importance of comprehending robots as parts of sociotechnical ensembles is emphasized as well as the observance of how robots are shaped...... by the cultural context in the recipient countries....
Preparing and Publishing a Scientific Manuscript

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Padma R Jirge

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Publishing original research in a peer-reviewed and indexed journal is an important milestone for a scientist or a clinician. It is an important parameter to assess academic achievements. However, technical and language barriers may prevent many enthusiasts from ever publishing. This review highlights the important preparatory steps for creating a good manuscript and the most widely used IMRaD (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion method for writing a good manuscript. It also provides a brief overview of the submission and review process of a manuscript for publishing in a biomedical journal.
Robots in Health and Social Care: A Complementary Technology to Home Care and Telehealthcare?

OpenAIRE

Torbjørn S. Dahl; Maged N. Kamel Boulos

2013-01-01

This article offers a brief overview of most current and potential uses and applications of robotics in health/care and social care, whether commercially ready and available on the market or still at the various stages of research and prototyping. We provide carefully hand-picked examples and pointers to on-going research for each set of identified robotics applications and then discuss the main ingredients for the success of these applications, as well as the main issues surrounding their a...
Using Empathy to Improve Human-Robot Relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Pereira, André; Leite, Iolanda; Mascarenhas, Samuel; Martinho, Carlos; Paiva, Ana

For robots to become our personal companions in the future, they need to know how to socially interact with us. One defining characteristic of human social behaviour is empathy. In this paper, we present a robot that acts as a social companion expressing different kinds of empathic behaviours through its facial expressions and utterances. The robot comments the moves of two subjects playing a chess game against each other, being empathic to one of them and neutral towards the other. The results of a pilot study suggest that users to whom the robot was empathic perceived the robot more as a friend.
From Child-Robot Interaction to Child-Robot-Therapist Interaction: A Case Study in Autism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Giannopulu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Troubles in social communication as well as deficits in the cognitive treatment of emotions are supposed to be a fundamental part of autism. We present a case study based on multimodal interaction between a mobile robot and a child with autism in spontaneous, free game play. This case study tells us that the robot mediates the interaction between the autistic child and therapist once the robot-child interaction has been established. In addition, the child uses the robot as a mediator to express positive emotion playing with the therapist. It is thought that the three-pronged interaction i.e., child-robot-therapist could better facilitate the transfer of social and emotional abilities to real life settings. Robot therapy has a high potential to improve the condition of brain activity in autistic children.
Árni Magnússon's rearrangement of paper manuscripts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stegmann, Beeke

Árni Magnússon’s rearrangement of paper manuscripts draws attention to the early history of Árni Magnússon’s (1663-1730) manuscript collection. The thesis examines Árni’s extensive rearrangement of paper manuscripts, showing that he repeatedly altered the physical composition of codices in his...
Application of the Naive Bayes Classifier for Representation and Use of Heterogeneous and Incomplete Knowledge in Social Robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriele Trovato

2016-02-01

Full Text Available As societies move towards integration of robots, it is important to study how robots can use their cognition in order to choose effectively their actions in a human environment, and possibly adapt to new contexts. When modelling these contextual data, it is common in social robotics to work with data extracted from human sciences such as sociology, anatomy, or anthropology. These heterogeneous data need to be efficiently used in order to make the robot adapt quickly its actions. In this paper we describe a methodology for the use of heterogeneous and incomplete knowledge, through an algorithm based on naive Bayes classifier. The model was successfully applied to two different experiments of human-robot interaction.
A robotic platform for laser welding of corneal tissue

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi, Francesca; Micheletti, Filippo; Magni, Giada; Pini, Roberto; Menabuoni, Luca; Leoni, Fabio; Magnani, Bernardo

2017-07-01

Robotic surgery is a reality in several surgical fields, such as in gastrointestinal surgery. In ophthalmic surgery the required high spatial precision is limiting the application of robotic system, and even if several attempts have been designed in the last 10 years, only some application in retinal surgery were tested in animal models. The combination of photonics and robotics can really open new frontiers in minimally invasive surgery, improving the precision, reducing tremor, amplifying scale of motion, and automating the procedure. In this manuscript we present the preliminary results in developing a vision guided robotic platform for laser-assisted anterior eye surgery. The robotic console is composed by a robotic arm equipped with an "end effector" designed to deliver laser light to the anterior corneal surface. The main intended application is for laser welding of corneal tissue in laser assisted penetrating keratoplasty and endothelial keratoplasty. The console is equipped with an integrated vision system. The experiment originates from a clear medical demand in order to improve the efficacy of different surgical procedures: when the prototype will be optimized, other surgical areas will be included in its application, such as neurosurgery, urology and spinal surgery.
A Passive Learning Sensor Architecture for Multimodal Image Labeling: An Application for Social Robots

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Marco A. Gutiérrez

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Object detection and classification have countless applications in human–robot interacting systems. It is a necessary skill for autonomous robots that perform tasks in household scenarios. Despite the great advances in deep learning and computer vision, social robots performing non-trivial tasks usually spend most of their time finding and modeling objects. Working in real scenarios means dealing with constant environment changes and relatively low-quality sensor data due to the distance at which objects are often found. Ambient intelligence systems equipped with different sensors can also benefit from the ability to find objects, enabling them to inform humans about their location. For these applications to succeed, systems need to detect the objects that may potentially contain other objects, working with relatively low-resolution sensor data. A passive learning architecture for sensors has been designed in order to take advantage of multimodal information, obtained using an RGB-D camera and trained semantic language models. The main contribution of the architecture lies in the improvement of the performance of the sensor under conditions of low resolution and high light variations using a combination of image labeling and word semantics. The tests performed on each of the stages of the architecture compare this solution with current research labeling techniques for the application of an autonomous social robot working in an apartment. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed sensor architecture outperforms state-of-the-art approaches.
Social behaviour of dogs encountering AIBO, an animal-like robot in a neutral and in a feeding situation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kubinyi, Eniko; Miklósi, Adám; Kaplan, Frédéric; Gácsi, Márta; Topál, József; Csányi, Vilmos

2004-03-31

The use of animal-like autonomous robots might offer new possibilities in the study of animal interactions, if the subject recognises it as a social partner. In this paper we investigate whether AIBO, a dog-like robot of the Sony Corp. can be used for this purpose. Twenty-four adult and sixteen 4-5 months old pet dogs were tested in two situations where subjects encountered one of four different test-partners: (1) a remote controlled car; (2) an AIBO robot; (3) AIBO with a puppy-scented furry cover; and (4) a 2-month-old puppy. In the neutral situation the dog could interact freely with one of the partners for 1 min in a closed arena in the presence of its owner. In the feeding situation the encounters were started while the dog was eating food. Our results show that age and context influence the social behaviour of dogs. Further, we have found that although both age groups differentiated the living and non-living test-partners for some extent, the furry AIBO evoked significantly increased responses in comparison to the car. These experiments show the first steps towards the application of robots in behavioural studies, notwithstanding that at present AIBO's limited ability to move constrains its effectiveness as social partner for dogs.

D'Nealian Manuscript--An Aid to Reading Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Thurber, Donald N.

A new method of continuous stroke manuscript print called D'Nealian Manuscript is challenging the traditional circle-stick method of teaching children how to write. The circle-stick uses component or splinter parts to form whole letters. Children are forced to form all writing with verticle lines and to learn a manuscript print that goes nowhere.…
Catalogue of Korean manuscripts and rare books

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lerbæk Pedersen, Bent

2014-01-01

Catalogue of Korean manuscripts and rare books in The Royal Library, Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark......Catalogue of Korean manuscripts and rare books in The Royal Library, Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark...
Seahorse Manuscript Data Set

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Metadata for figures presented in manuscript reporting bioenergetic effects of exposure to environmentally relevant organic compound in human airway epithelial...
Designing the robot inclusive space challenge

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Rajesh Elara Mohan

2015-11-01

Full Text Available A novel robotic challenge, namely the robot inclusive spaces (RIS challenge, is proposed in this paper, which is a cross disciplinary and design focused initiative. It aims to foster the roboticists, architects, and designers towards realizing robot friendly social spaces. Contrary to conventional robotics competitions focusing on designing robots and its component technologies, robot inclusive spaces challenge adopts an interdisciplinary “design for robots” strategy to overcome the traditional research problem in real world deployments of social robots. In order to realize the RIS, various architectural elements must be adapted including: design principles for inclusive spaces, lighting schemes, furniture choices and arrangement, wall and floor surfaces, pathways among others. This paper introduces the format and design principles of RIS challenge, presents a first run of the challenge, and gives the corresponding analysis.
On the static structural design of climbing robots: part 1.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Ausama Hadi; Menon, Carlo

This manuscript is the first of two parts of a work investigating optimal configurations of legged climbing robots while loitering on vertical surfaces. In this part 1, a mathematical model of a climbing robot based on the finite element method (FEM), specifically the stiffness method, is generated. A number of parameters, namely the height of the robot, the length of its body and the position of its legs, are investigated to assess their effect on the adhesion requirements needed for the robot to stay attached to a wall. Predictions of the developed mathematical model are validated using FEM commercial software. The body and the legs are assumed to be perpendicular to each other in this part 1. The effect of their inclination is investigated in the subsequent part 2 of our work. In part 2, the model is also used to predict postures that ants have while standing on vertical surfaces. The model is validated by comparing the predicted results to images of loitering ants. The parameters investigated provide guidelines to design legged climbing robots.
Rehabilitation robotics: an academic engineer perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Krebs, Hermano I

2011-01-01

In this paper, we present a retrospective review of our efforts to revolutionize the way physical medicine is practiced by developing and deploying rehabilitation robots. We present a sample of our clinical results with well over 600 stroke patients, both inpatients and outpatients. We discuss the different robots developed at our laboratory over the past 20 years and their unique characteristics. All are configured both to deliver reproducible interactive therapy and also to measure outcomes with minimal encumbrance, thus providing critical measurement tools to help unravel the key remaining question: what constitutes "best practice"? While success to date indicates that this therapeutic application of robots has opened an emerging new frontier in physical medicine and rehabilitation, the barrier to further progress lies not in developing new hardware but rather in finding the most effective way to enhance neuro-recovery. We close this manuscript discussing some of the tools required for advancing the effort beyond the present state to what we believe will be the central feature of research during the next 10 years.
Which Robot Features Can Stimulate Better Responses from Children with Autism in Robot-Assisted Therapy?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaeryoung Lee

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This study explores the response of autistic children to a few design features of the robots for autism therapy and provides suggestions on the robot features that have a stronger influence on the therapeutic process. First, we investigate the effect of selected robot features on the development of social communication skills in autistic children. The results indicate that the toy's “face” and “moving limb” usually draw the children's attention and improve children's facial expression skills, but do not contribute to the development of other social communication skills. Secondly, we study the response of children with low-functioning autism to robots with verbal communication functionalities. Test results show that children interacted with the verbal-featured robot more intensively than with the experimenter. We conclude that robots with faces and moving limbs can engage autistic children in a better way. Facial expression of the robots can elicit a greater response than prompting by humans.
Prolegomena to Social Robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørskov, Marco

2011-01-01

and some incipient philosophical inquiries have been directed to ethical questions pertaining to the particularities of first applications. In these first public and academic explorations of the nature of human-robot interaction in the ‘Western’ discussion context, certain fundamental tenets....... The dissertation consists of four essays, which are written for independent publication but are topically strongly interrelated. Each essay challenges our conceptualizations with respect to robots from a different perspective, bringing into focus four central issues of the current debate. The first essay addresses...... the foundational assumptions of classificatory knowledge, presenting a new angle on the problem of discrimination. The second essay traces public worries about human degradation to the philosophical foundations of public conceptions of freedom and human dignity; it discusses the dialectics of ‘lordship and bondage...
Irish Culinary Manuscripts and Printed Books:a Discussion

OpenAIRE

Mac Con Iomaire, Máirtín; Cashman, Dorothy

2011-01-01

This paper provides a discussion of Irish Culinary Manuscripts and Printed Cookbooks. It covers Gaelic hospitality and aristocratic hospitality, setting the background for the Anglo-Irish households from which many manuscripts emerge. It charts the growing sources of information on Irish culinary history. It outlines Barbara Wheaton's framework for reading historic cookbooks and discusses the growing manuscript cookbook collection in the National Library of Ireland.
Social robots in advanced dementia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meritxell eValentí Soler

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Aims: Testing the effect of the experimental robot-based therapeutic sessions for patients with dementia in: a controlled study of parallel groups of nursing home patients comparing the effects of therapy sessions utilizing a humanoid robot (NAO, an animal-shaped robot (PARO, or a trained dog (DOG, with conventional therapy (CONTROL on symptoms of dementia; and an experience for patients who attend a day care center, comparing symptom prevalence and severity before and after sessions utilizing NAO and PARO. Methods: In the nursing home, patients were randomly assigned by blocks, based on dementia severity, to one of the 3 therapeutic groups to compare: CONTROL, PARO and NAO (phase 1 and CONTROL, PARO and DOG (phase 2. In the day care center, all patients received therapy with NAO (phase 1 and PARO (phase 2. Therapy sessions were held 2 days/week for 3 months. Evaluation at baseline and follow-up was carried out by blind raters using: the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS, the Severe Mini Mental State Examination (sMMSE, the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI, the Apathy Scale for Institutionalized Patients with Dementia Nursing Home version (APADEM-NH, the Apathy Inventory (AI and the Quality of Life Scale (QUALID. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics and non parametric tests performed by a blinded investigator. Results: In the nursing home, 101 patients (phase 1 and 110 patients (phase 2 were included. There were no significant differences at baseline. The relevant changes at follow-up were: (phase 1 patients in the robot groups showed an improvement in apathy; patients in NAO group showed a decline in cognition as measured by the MMSE scores, but not the sMMSE; the robot groups showed no significant changes between them; (phase 2 QUALID scores increased in the PARO group. In the day care center, 20 patients (phase 1 and 17 patients (phase 2 were included. The main findings were: (phase 1 imp
Astronomical knowledge transmission through illustrated Aratea manuscripts

CERN Document Server

Dolan, Marion

2017-01-01

This carefully researched monograph is a historical investigation of the illustrated Aratea astronomical manuscript and its many interpretations over the centuries. Aratus' 270 B.C.E. Greek poem describing the constellations and astrological phenomena was translated and copied over 800 years into illuminated manuscripts that preserved and illustrated these ancient stories about the constellations. The Aratea survives in its entirety due to multiple translations from Greek to Latin and even to Arabic, with many illuminated versions being commissioned over the ages. The survey encompasses four interrelated disciplines: history of literature, history of myth, history of science, and history of art. Aratea manuscripts by their nature are a meeting place of these distinct branches, and the culling of information from historical literature and from the manuscripts themselves focuses on a wider, holistic view; a narrow approach could not provide a proper prospective. What is most essential to know about this work is...
Effects of Robot Facial Characteristics and Gender in Persuasive Human-Robot Interaction

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Aimi S. Ghazali

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The growing interest in social robotics makes it relevant to examine the potential of robots as persuasive agents and, more specifically, to examine how robot characteristics influence the way people experience such interactions and comply with the persuasive attempts by robots. The purpose of this research is to identify how the (ostensible gender and the facial characteristics of a robot influence the extent to which people trust it and the psychological reactance they experience from its persuasive attempts. This paper reports a laboratory study where SociBot™, a robot capable of displaying different faces and dynamic social cues, delivered persuasive messages to participants while playing a game. In-game choice behavior was logged, and trust and reactance toward the advisor were measured using questionnaires. Results show that a robotic advisor with upturned eyebrows and lips (features that people tend to trust more in humans is more persuasive, evokes more trust, and less psychological reactance compared to one displaying eyebrows pointing down and lips curled downwards at the edges (facial characteristics typically not trusted in humans. Gender of the robot did not affect trust, but participants experienced higher psychological reactance when interacting with a robot of the opposite gender. Remarkably, mediation analysis showed that liking of the robot fully mediates the influence of facial characteristics on trusting beliefs and psychological reactance. Also, psychological reactance was a strong and reliable predictor of trusting beliefs but not of trusting behavior. These results suggest robots that are intended to influence human behavior should be designed to have facial characteristics we trust in humans and could be personalized to have the same gender as the user. Furthermore, personalization and adaptation techniques designed to make people like the robot more may help ensure they will also trust the robot.
Ethorobotics: A New Approach to Human-Robot Relationship

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ádám Miklósi

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Here we aim to lay the theoretical foundations of human-robot relationship drawing upon insights from disciplines that govern relevant human behaviors: ecology and ethology. We show how the paradox of the so called “uncanny valley hypothesis” can be solved by applying the “niche” concept to social robots, and relying on the natural behavior of humans. Instead of striving to build human-like social robots, engineers should construct robots that are able to maximize their performance in their niche (being optimal for some specific functions, and if they are endowed with appropriate form of social competence then humans will eventually interact with them independent of their embodiment. This new discipline, which we call ethorobotics, could change social robotics, giving a boost to new technical approaches and applications.
Ethorobotics: A New Approach to Human-Robot Relationship

Science.gov (United States)

Miklósi, Ádám; Korondi, Péter; Matellán, Vicente; Gácsi, Márta

2017-01-01

Here we aim to lay the theoretical foundations of human-robot relationship drawing upon insights from disciplines that govern relevant human behaviors: ecology and ethology. We show how the paradox of the so called “uncanny valley hypothesis” can be solved by applying the “niche” concept to social robots, and relying on the natural behavior of humans. Instead of striving to build human-like social robots, engineers should construct robots that are able to maximize their performance in their niche (being optimal for some specific functions), and if they are endowed with appropriate form of social competence then humans will eventually interact with them independent of their embodiment. This new discipline, which we call ethorobotics, could change social robotics, giving a boost to new technical approaches and applications. PMID:28649213
Pose Estimation and Adaptive Robot Behaviour for Human-Robot Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svenstrup, Mikael; Hansen, Søren Tranberg; Andersen, Hans Jørgen

2009-01-01

Abstract—This paper introduces a new method to determine a person’s pose based on laser range measurements. Such estimates are typically a prerequisite for any human-aware robot navigation, which is the basis for effective and timeextended interaction between a mobile robot and a human. The robot......’s pose. The resulting pose estimates are used to identify humans who wish to be approached and interacted with. The interaction motion of the robot is based on adaptive potential functions centered around the person that respect the persons social spaces. The method is tested in experiments...
Reviewing Manuscripts for Biomedical Journals

Science.gov (United States)

Garmel, Gus M

2010-01-01

Writing for publication is a complex task. For many professionals, producing a well-executed manuscript conveying one's research, ideas, or educational wisdom is challenging. Authors have varying emotions related to the process of writing for scientific publication. Although not studied, a relationship between an author's enjoyment of the writing process and the product's outcome is highly likely. As with any skill, practice generally results in improvements. Literature focused on preparing manuscripts for publication and the art of reviewing submissions exists. Most journals guard their reviewers' anonymity with respect to the manuscript review process. This is meant to protect them from direct or indirect author demands, which may occur during the review process or in the future. It is generally accepted that author identities are masked in the peer-review process. However, the concept of anonymity for reviewers has been debated recently; many editors consider it problematic that reviewers are not held accountable to the public for their decisions. The review process is often arduous and underappreciated, one reason why biomedical journals acknowledge editors and frequently recognize reviewers who donate their time and expertise in the name of science. This article describes essential elements of a submitted manuscript, with the hopes of improving scientific writing. It also discusses the review process within the biomedical literature, the importance of reviewers to the scientific process, responsibilities of reviewers, and qualities of a good review and reviewer. In addition, it includes useful insights to individuals who read and interpret the medical literature. PMID:20740129
Robots and service innovation in health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Oborn, Eivor; Barrett, Michael; Darzi, Ara

2011-01-01

Robots have long captured our imagination and are being used increasingly in health care. In this paper we summarize, organize and criticize the health care robotics literature and highlight how the social and technical elements of robots iteratively influence and redefine each other. We suggest the need for increased emphasis on sociological dimensions of using robots, recognizing how social and work relations are restructured during changes in practice. Further, we propose the usefulness of a 'service logic' in providing insight as to how robots can influence health care innovation. The Royal Society of Medicine Press Ltd 2011.
Rehearsal for the Robot Revolution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth; Goldberg, Ken

that are central to social robotics. However automated performances that merely substitute robotic actors for human ones do not always capture our imagination or prove entertaining. While some plays explore ambivalence to robots or “misbehaving machines” thematically (such as R.U.R.), the exigencies of live...
Effect of cognitive biases on human-robot interaction: a case study of robot's misattribution

OpenAIRE

Biswas, Mriganka; Murray, John

2014-01-01

This paper presents a model for developing long-term human-robot interactions and social relationships based on the principle of 'human' cognitive biases applied to a robot. The aim of this work is to study how a robot influenced with human ‘misattribution’ helps to build better human-robot interactions than unbiased robots. The results presented in this paper suggest that it is important to know the effect of cognitive biases in human characteristics and interactions in order to better u...
The manuscript of Kartoteka (Card Index

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zbigniew Władysław Solski

2009-01-01

Full Text Available At the beginning of the 70s Tadeusz Różewicz presented the manuscript of Card Index to Professor Józef Kelera. It might have stayed a secret of friendship of the dramatist and the critic, however, Różewicz revealed the initials of his friend when in a commenatry to the play, he posed a question, whether there was a full stop after the last word in the manuscript or not? Posing this question, the author claimed the integrality of his masterpiece which was threatened by the widespread interpretations of Card Index as a play of a loose and dispersed structure. Appreciating the value of this question, I turned to Professor Kelera. This way I have had an access to the autograph of the play. In this manuscript has been preserved the play from before its final editing, which its author must surely have made during typing the text. Handwritten notes contain two unknown versions of the play with fragments which would not have been passed by the censors in the then Polish People’s Republic. In the reading of the manuscript the functions of the word and its graphic shape appeared of equal importance, so this version of Card Index can be recognised as a masterpiece of literature.

"Robovie, You'll Have to Go into the Closet Now": Children's Social and Moral Relationships with a Humanoid Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Kahn, Peter H., Jr.; Kanda, Takayuki; Ishiguro, Hiroshi; Freier, Nathan G.; Severson, Rachel L.; Gill, Brian T.; Ruckert, Jolina H.; Shen, Solace

2012-01-01

Children will increasingly come of age with personified robots and potentially form social and even moral relationships with them. What will such relationships look like? To address this question, 90 children (9-, 12-, and 15-year-olds) initially interacted with a humanoid robot, Robovie, in 15-min sessions. Each session ended when an experimenter…
A Simple Nod of the Head: The Effect of Minimal Robot Movements on Children's Perception of a Low-Anthropomorphic Robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zaga, Cristina; de Vries, Roelof A.J.; Li, Jamy; Truong, Khiet P.; Evers, Vanessa

In this note, we present minimal robot movements for robotic technology for children. Two types of minimal gaze movements were designed: social-gaze movements to communicate social engagement and deictic-gaze movements to communicate task-related referential information. In a two (social-gaze
Effects of Interruptibility-Aware Robot Behavior

OpenAIRE

Banerjee, Siddhartha; Silva, Andrew; Feigh, Karen; Chernova, Sonia

2018-01-01

As robots become increasingly prevalent in human environments, there will inevitably be times when a robot needs to interrupt a human to initiate an interaction. Our work introduces the first interruptibility-aware mobile robot system, and evaluates the effects of interruptibility-awareness on human task performance, robot task performance, and on human interpretation of the robot's social aptitude. Our results show that our robot is effective at predicting interruptibility at high accuracy, ...
Writing biomedical manuscripts part I: fundamentals and general rules.

Science.gov (United States)

Ohwovoriole, A E

2011-01-01

It is a professional obligation for health researchers to investigate and communicate their findings to the medical community. The writing of a publishable scientific manuscript can be a daunting task for the beginner and to even some established researchers. Many manuscripts fail to get off the ground and/or are rejected. The writing task can be made easier and the quality improved by using and following simple rules and leads that apply to general scientific writing .The manuscript should follow a standard structure:(e.g. (Abstract) plus Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion, the IMRAD model. The authors must also follow well established fundamentals of good communication in science and be systematic in approach. The manuscript must move from what is currently known to what was unknown that was investigated using a hypothesis, research question or problem statement. Each section has its own style of structure and language of presentation. The beginning of writing a good manuscript is to do a good study design and to pay attention to details at every stage. Many manuscripts are rejected because of errors that can be avoided if the authors follow simple guidelines and rules. One good way to avoid potential disappointment in manuscript writing is to follow the established general rules along with those of the journal in which the paper is to be published. An important injunction is to make the writing precise, clear, parsimonious, and comprehensible to the intended audience. The purpose of this article is to arm and encourage potential biomedical authors with tools and rules that will enable them to write contemporary manuscripts, which can stand the rigorous peer review process. The expectations of standard journals, and common pitfalls the major elements of a manuscript are covered.
Security Techniques for Prevention of Rank Manipulation in Social Tagging Services including Robotic Domains

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Okkyung Choi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available With smartphone distribution becoming common and robotic applications on the rise, social tagging services for various applications including robotic domains have advanced significantly. Though social tagging plays an important role when users are finding the exact information through web search, reliability and semantic relation between web contents and tags are not considered. Spams are making ill use of this aspect and put irrelevant tags deliberately on contents and induce users to advertise contents when they click items of search results. Therefore, this study proposes a detection method for tag-ranking manipulation to solve the problem of the existing methods which cannot guarantee the reliability of tagging. Similarity is measured for ranking the grade of registered tag on the contents, and weighted values of each tag are measured by means of synonym relevance, frequency, and semantic distances between tags. Lastly, experimental evaluation results are provided and its efficiency and accuracy are verified through them.
Security techniques for prevention of rank manipulation in social tagging services including robotic domains.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Okkyung; Jung, Hanyoung; Moon, Seungbin

2014-01-01

With smartphone distribution becoming common and robotic applications on the rise, social tagging services for various applications including robotic domains have advanced significantly. Though social tagging plays an important role when users are finding the exact information through web search, reliability and semantic relation between web contents and tags are not considered. Spams are making ill use of this aspect and put irrelevant tags deliberately on contents and induce users to advertise contents when they click items of search results. Therefore, this study proposes a detection method for tag-ranking manipulation to solve the problem of the existing methods which cannot guarantee the reliability of tagging. Similarity is measured for ranking the grade of registered tag on the contents, and weighted values of each tag are measured by means of synonym relevance, frequency, and semantic distances between tags. Lastly, experimental evaluation results are provided and its efficiency and accuracy are verified through them.
Timbuktu Rare Manuscripts Project: Promoting African partnerships ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article describes the Timbuktu Rare Manuscripts Project. The project is concerned with providing assistance to Mali in the conservation and preservation of the rich trove of manuscripts to be found in and around the immediate environs of Timbuktu. The project is a result of a bilateral agreement concluded between the ...
The Tactile Ethics of Soft Robotics: Designing Wisely for Human-Robot Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Thomas; Scheutz, Matthias

2017-06-01

Soft robots promise an exciting design trajectory in the field of robotics and human-robot interaction (HRI), promising more adaptive, resilient movement within environments as well as a safer, more sensitive interface for the objects or agents the robot encounters. In particular, tactile HRI is a critical dimension for designers to consider, especially given the onrush of assistive and companion robots into our society. In this article, we propose to surface an important set of ethical challenges for the field of soft robotics to meet. Tactile HRI strongly suggests that soft-bodied robots balance tactile engagement against emotional manipulation, model intimacy on the bonding with a tool not with a person, and deflect users from personally and socially destructive behavior the soft bodies and surfaces could normally entice.
A robotic home telehealth platform system for treatment adherence, social assistance and companionship - an overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Oddsson, Lars I E; Radomski, Mary V; White, Matthew; Nilsson, Daniel

2009-01-01

Well-known difficulties of making patients adhere to assigned treatments have made engineers and clinicians look towards technology for possible solutions. Recent studies have found that cell phone-based text messaging can help drive positive changes in patients' disease management and preventive health behavior. Furthermore, work in the area of assistive robotics indicates benefits for patients although robotic solutions tend to become expensive. However, continued improvement in sensor, computer and wireless technologies combined with decreases in cost is paving the way for development of affordable robotic systems that can help improve patient care and potentially add value to the healthcare system. This paper provides a high-level design overview of SKOTEE, the Sister Kenny hOme ThErapy systEm, an inexpensive robotic platform system designed to provide adherence support for home exercise programs, taking medication, appointment reminders and clinician communication. SKOTEE will also offer companionship as well as entertainment and social networking opportunities to the patient in their home. A video of the system is presented at the conference.
Manuscript of Marc Popovski about Tolstoyan movement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kolupaev Vladimir Evgen'yevich

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Publication of archival documents, i.e. manuscripts of Marc Popovski, a famous writer, journalist, human rights activist, dissident, and vice president of the organization “Writers in Exile” American branch of PEN. The manuscript is dedicated to the fate of Russian religious philosophical sect, Tolstoyan movement, in the Soviet period, its repressions and its eventual destruction.
To kill a mockingbird robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bartneck, C.; Verbunt, M.N.C.; Mubin, O.; Al Mahmud, A.

2007-01-01

Robots are being introduced in our society but their social status is still unclear. A critical issue is if the robot's exhibition of intelligent life-like behavior leads to the users' perception of animacy. The ultimate test for the life-likeness of a robot is to kill it. We therefore conducted an
Selecting the right robot: Influence of user attitude, robot sociability and embodiment on user preferences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ligthart, Mike; Truong, Khiet Phuong

Selecting the suitable form of a robot, i.e. physical or virtual, for a task is not straightforward. The choice for a physical robot is not self-evident when the task is not physical but entirely social in nature. Results from previous studies comparing robots with different body types are found to
Investigating the Effect of Social Robot Embodiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Whelan, Sally; Kouroupetroglou, Christos; Santorelli, Adam; Raciti, Massimiliano; Barrett, Eva; Casey, Dympna

2017-01-01

The experiment described in this paper is an early assessment to identify if the embodiment of a verbal and visual user interaction system in a robot is more effective in people with dementia than when using the same system in a simple laptop. This study provides input for the robot's design.
Fish and robots swimming together in a water tunnel: robot color and tail-beat frequency influence fish behavior.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Polverino

Full Text Available The possibility of integrating bioinspired robots in groups of live social animals may constitute a valuable tool to study the basis of social behavior and uncover the fundamental determinants of animal functions and dysfunctions. In this study, we investigate the interactions between individual golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas and robotic fish swimming together in a water tunnel at constant flow velocity. The robotic fish is designed to mimic its live counterpart in the aspect ratio, body shape, dimension, and locomotory pattern. Fish positional preference with respect to the robot is experimentally analyzed as the robot's color pattern and tail-beat frequency are varied. Behavioral observations are corroborated by particle image velocimetry studies aimed at investigating the flow structure behind the robotic fish. Experimental results show that the time spent by golden shiners in the vicinity of the bioinspired robotic fish is the highest when the robot mimics their natural color pattern and beats its tail at the same frequency. In these conditions, fish tend to swim at the same depth of the robotic fish, where the wake from the robotic fish is stronger and hydrodynamic return is most likely to be effective.
Fish and robots swimming together in a water tunnel: robot color and tail-beat frequency influence fish behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Polverino, Giovanni; Phamduy, Paul; Porfiri, Maurizio

2013-01-01

The possibility of integrating bioinspired robots in groups of live social animals may constitute a valuable tool to study the basis of social behavior and uncover the fundamental determinants of animal functions and dysfunctions. In this study, we investigate the interactions between individual golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) and robotic fish swimming together in a water tunnel at constant flow velocity. The robotic fish is designed to mimic its live counterpart in the aspect ratio, body shape, dimension, and locomotory pattern. Fish positional preference with respect to the robot is experimentally analyzed as the robot's color pattern and tail-beat frequency are varied. Behavioral observations are corroborated by particle image velocimetry studies aimed at investigating the flow structure behind the robotic fish. Experimental results show that the time spent by golden shiners in the vicinity of the bioinspired robotic fish is the highest when the robot mimics their natural color pattern and beats its tail at the same frequency. In these conditions, fish tend to swim at the same depth of the robotic fish, where the wake from the robotic fish is stronger and hydrodynamic return is most likely to be effective.
âAriscoâ un robot social con capacidad de interaccion, motivacion y aprendizaje

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. DomÃnguez

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Resumen: En este artÃculo se describe la arquitectura del robot social âAriscoâ con especial atenciÃ³n a su sistemas de interacciÃ³n, motivaciÃ³n, planificaciÃ³n y aprendizaje. Arisco es una cabeza mecatrÃ³nica con capacidad de interacciÃ³n y que incluye: gran expresividad mediante gesticulaciÃ³n, reconocimiento y sÃntesis de voz, seguimiento visual, extracciÃ³n de informaciÃ³n de internet, y sistema de aprendizaje y motivaciÃ³n. Palabras clave: robot social, aprendizaje, interacciÃ³n, visiÃ³n artificial, localizaciÃ³n sonora
Child's recognition of emotions in robot's face and body

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cohen, I.; Looije, R.; Neerincx, M.A.

2011-01-01

Social robots can comfort and support children who have to cope with chronic diseases. In previous studies, a "facial robot", the iCat, proved to show well-recognized emotional expressions that are important in social interactions. The question is if a mobile robot without a face, the Nao, can
Towards the implementation of a system for manuscript editor certification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyun Jung Yi

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Style and format are important criteria for evaluating a journal and indexing it in major databases. In Korean science, technology, and medical journals, interest in manuscript editing has increased over the past seven to eight years, and the responsibilities of manuscript editors have expanded as well. However, since no clear standards for the roles and qualifications for manuscript editors are yet available, a formal certification system is needed to establish appropriate standards and to provide professional training. To identify ways of developing a manuscript editor certification program in Korea, this study investigated similar certification programs in and outside the country and surveyed 195 Korean editors, manuscript editors, publishers, and medical librarians. The survey revealed that manuscript editors were necessary (mean score of 4.38 on a five-point Likert scale, with a score of 5 indicating strong agreement, and that their main contributions were efficiently managing the editorial board, improving the accuracy of references, and accelerating the editing process. The respondents were also positive about the possibility of implementing a manuscript editor certification; 45.1% showed interest in becoming certified, and 47.1% reported interest in hiring a certified manuscript editor. Regarding the system for issuing certification, respondents favored a professional training course (53.1%, validation of work experience (27.1%, or an examination (16.8%. This study concludes that it is essential to establish a formal certification program to train manuscript editors properly, and an examination system is the most efficient and suitable method for managing the certification process.
Making Humanoid Robots More Acceptable Based on the Study of Robot Characters in Animation

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Fatemeh Maleki

2015-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper we take an approach in Humanoid Robots are not considered as robots who resembles human beings in a realistic way of appearance and act but as robots who act and react like human that make them more believable by people. Regarding this approach we will study robot characters in animation movies and discuss what makes some of them to be accepted just like a moving body and what makes some other robot characters to be believable as a living human. The goal of this paper is to create a rule set that describes friendly, socially acceptable, kind, cute... robots and in this study we will review example robots in popular animated movies. The extracted rules and features can be used for making real robots more acceptable.
Specifying and testing the design rationale of social robots for behavior change in children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Looije, R.; Neerincx, M.A.; Hindriks, K.V.

2016-01-01

We are developing a social robot that helps children with diabetes Type 1 to acquire self-management skills and routines. There is a diversity of Behavior Change Techniques (BCTs) and guidelines that seem to be useful for the development of such support, but it is not yet clear how to work out the

Multiscale Pigment Analysis of Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts

Science.gov (United States)

Sestak, Erica; Manukyan, Khachatur; Wiescher, Michael; Gura, David

2017-09-01

Three medieval illuminated manuscripts (codd. Lat. b. 1; Lat. b. 2; Lat. e. 4), housed at the University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Library, vary in style, pigments, scribes, and regions, despite all three being Psalters used in the Late Middle Ages. XRF and Raman spectroscopy, which provided the elemental and molecular composition of the pigments, respectively, were used to analyze the pigments' compositions in an attempt to narrow further the manuscripts' possible origins. This experimental investigation emphasizes the importance of understanding the history of the manuscript through their pigments. Codd. Lat. b. 1 and Lat. b. 2 are Latinate German Psalters from the fifteenth century likely used in Katharinenkloster in Nuremberg. While there are visible differences in style within each Psalter, the variations in some of the pigment compositions, such as the inconstant presence of zinc, suggest different admixtures. Cod. Lat. e. 4 is a Latinate English Psalter from the fourteenth century, and it was written by two scribes and illuminated by two distinct painters. It is currently being tested to determine whether there are any correlations between the scribes and painters. These physical analyses will clarify the origins and provenances of the manuscripts.
Robot friendship: Can a robot be a friend?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Emmeche, Claus

2014-01-01

Friendship is used here as a conceptual vehicle for framing questions about the distinctiveness of human cognition in relation to natural systems such as other animal species and to artificial systems such as robots. By exploring this very common form of a human interpersonal relationship......, the author indicates that even though it is difficult to say something generally true about friendship among humans, distinct forms of friendship as practiced and distinct notions of friendship have been investigated in the social and human sciences and in biology. A more general conceptualization...... of friendship as a triadic relation analogous to the sign relation is suggested. Based on this the author asks how one may conceive of robot-robot and robot-human friendships; and how an interdisciplinary perspective upon that relation can contribute to analyse levels of embodied cognition in natural...
Spatiotemporal Aspects of Engagement during Dialogic Storytelling Child–Robot Interaction

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Scott Heath

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The success of robotic agents in close proximity of humans depends on their capacity to engage in social interactions and maintain these interactions over periods of time that are suitable for learning. A critical requirement is the ability to modify the behavior of the robot contingently to the attentional and social cues signaled by the human. A benchmark challenge for an engaging social robot is that of storytelling. In this paper, we present an exploratory study to investigate dialogic storytelling—storytelling with contingent responses—using a child-friendly robot. The aim of the study was to develop an engaging storytelling robot and to develop metrics for evaluating engagement. Ten children listened to an illustrated story told by a social robot during a science fair. The responses of the robot were adapted during the interaction based on the children’s engagement and touches of the pictures displayed by the robot on a tablet embedded in its torso. During the interaction the robot responded contingently to the child, but only when the robot invited the child to interact. We describe the robot architecture used to implement dialogic storytelling and evaluate the quality of human–robot interaction based on temporal (patterns of touch, touch duration and spatial (motions in the space surrounding the robot metrics. We introduce a novel visualization that emphasizes the temporal dynamics of the interaction and analyze the motions of the children in the space surrounding the robot. The study demonstrates that the interaction through invited contingent responses succeeded in engaging children, although the robot missed some opportunities for contingent interaction and the children had to adapt to the task. We conclude that (i the consideration of both temporal and spatial attributes is fundamental for establishing metrics to estimate levels of engagement in real-time, (ii metrics for engagement are sensitive to both the group and
User localization during human-robot interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Alonso-Martín, F; Gorostiza, Javi F; Malfaz, María; Salichs, Miguel A

2012-01-01

This paper presents a user localization system based on the fusion of visual information and sound source localization, implemented on a social robot called Maggie. One of the main requisites to obtain a natural interaction between human-human and human-robot is an adequate spatial situation between the interlocutors, that is, to be orientated and situated at the right distance during the conversation in order to have a satisfactory communicative process. Our social robot uses a complete multimodal dialog system which manages the user-robot interaction during the communicative process. One of its main components is the presented user localization system. To determine the most suitable allocation of the robot in relation to the user, a proxemic study of the human-robot interaction is required, which is described in this paper. The study has been made with two groups of users: children, aged between 8 and 17, and adults. Finally, at the end of the paper, experimental results with the proposed multimodal dialog system are presented.
Swarm robotics and minimalism

Science.gov (United States)

Sharkey, Amanda J. C.

2007-09-01

Swarm Robotics (SR) is closely related to Swarm Intelligence, and both were initially inspired by studies of social insects. Their guiding principles are based on their biological inspiration and take the form of an emphasis on decentralized local control and communication. Earlier studies went a step further in emphasizing the use of simple reactive robots that only communicate indirectly through the environment. More recently SR studies have moved beyond these constraints to explore the use of non-reactive robots that communicate directly, and that can learn and represent their environment. There is no clear agreement in the literature about how far such extensions of the original principles could go. Should there be any limitations on the individual abilities of the robots used in SR studies? Should knowledge of the capabilities of social insects lead to constraints on the capabilities of individual robots in SR studies? There is a lack of explicit discussion of such questions, and researchers have adopted a variety of constraints for a variety of reasons. A simple taxonomy of swarm robotics is presented here with the aim of addressing and clarifying these questions. The taxonomy distinguishes subareas of SR based on the emphases and justifications for minimalism and individual simplicity.
ON COPIES OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF THE GLAGOLITIC QUARESIMALE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea Radošević

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Studies about the linguistic characteristics of a few Glagolitic manuscript versions of Quaresimale, as well as studies about other texts (The Treatise on the Seven Deadly Sins; Greblo's Commentary on the Passion of Christ that were included in the same manuscripts as the Lenten sermons, have already been published. After the structure of the Glagolitic Quaresimale, that has been preserved in the form of five Glagolitic manuscripts (Kolunić Quaresimale, Quaresimale III a 19, Greblo Quaresimale, Oport Quaresimale, Fatević Miscellany, had been studied, the next step in the research of the Glagolitic Quaresimale was to study the relationship between the written sermons and their performance, because the performance, or orality, is one of the main characteristics of sermons as a genre. The results of this study show that the different places in which the copies of the manuscript were kept, the thematic similarity between the sermons and other texts in manuscripts, as well as the attitude of the scribes towards the graphic design of the text, had influenced the performance of the Lenten sermons. The performances of these Glagolitic sermons reflect a great deal more variety than would be expected on the basis of the content of sermons in all five manuscripts which is very similar.
Organising a manuscript reporting quality improvement or patient safety research.

Science.gov (United States)

Holzmueller, Christine G; Pronovost, Peter J

2013-09-01

Peer-reviewed publication plays important roles in disseminating research findings, developing generalisable knowledge and garnering recognition for authors and institutions. Nonetheless, many bemoan the whole manuscript writing process, intimidated by the arbitrary and somewhat opaque conventions. This paper offers practical advice about organising and writing a manuscript reporting quality improvement or patient safety research for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Each section of the paper discusses a specific manuscript component-from title, abstract and each section of the manuscript body, through to reference list and tables and figures-explaining key principles, offering content organisation tips and providing an example of how this section may read. The paper also offers a checklist of common mistakes to avoid in a manuscript.
Personality of social robots perceived through the appearance.

Science.gov (United States)

Chee, Benedict Tay Tiong; Taezoon, Park; Xu, Qianli; Ng, Jamie; Tan, Odelia

2012-01-01

Past research showed that people are able to perceive the personality of others at zero acquaintances. There are two main ways, verbal and non-verbal methods, which play an important role for one in perceiving personality of others. Extensive research was conducted in relating personality with verbal, paralinguistic and gestures cues. However, there are not much research, to our knowledge, that relates the appearance and perceived personality of robots. The main objective of this research is to relate individual design features with big five perceived personality of the robots. We used the results of rated perceptions across 100 pictorial images of robots and relate the results with the 40 individual design features using General Linear Model (GLM). The initial results of the GLM analysis showed that participants' rating of personality of robot fell along the dimension of perceived friendliness which is a common rotation of extroversion and agreeableness. Some relationships were found between humanlike design features and perceived friendliness of robots. Since participants are more familiar with humans, participants perceived robots with humanlike features friendlier than the others. Some other findings such as color and surface material were found related with participants' perceived friendliness as well. In the future, we will work on the analysis of the main and interaction effects of individual features on user's perceived friendliness.
Intrinsically motivated reinforcement learning for human-robot interaction in the real-world.

Science.gov (United States)

Qureshi, Ahmed Hussain; Nakamura, Yutaka; Yoshikawa, Yuichiro; Ishiguro, Hiroshi

2018-03-26

For a natural social human-robot interaction, it is essential for a robot to learn the human-like social skills. However, learning such skills is notoriously hard due to the limited availability of direct instructions from people to teach a robot. In this paper, we propose an intrinsically motivated reinforcement learning framework in which an agent gets the intrinsic motivation-based rewards through the action-conditional predictive model. By using the proposed method, the robot learned the social skills from the human-robot interaction experiences gathered in the real uncontrolled environments. The results indicate that the robot not only acquired human-like social skills but also took more human-like decisions, on a test dataset, than a robot which received direct rewards for the task achievement. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Design of robust robotic proxemic behaviour

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Torta, E.; Cuijpers, R.H.; Juola, J.F.; Pol, van der D.; Mutlu, B.; Bartneck, C.; Ham, J.R.C.; Evers, V.; Kanda, T.

2011-01-01

Personal robots that share the same space with humans need to be socially acceptable and effective as they interact with people. In this paper we focus our attention on the definition of a behaviour-based robotic architecture that, (1) allows the robot to navigate safely in a cluttered and
Improving the efficiency of manuscript selection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Martínez–Abrain

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Science relies strongly on the publication of articles in scientific journals and it is clear that decisions concer¬ning which papers merit publishing should be based on a process of manuscript selection that is as objective, repeatable, reliable and transparent as possible. Manuscript selection, however, has many practical downfalls. There is considerable controversy concerning issues such as whether or not the process should be blind both for authors and reviewers in order to prevent biased selection in relation to country of origin (Budden et al., 2008, sex (Young et al. 2008 or research topic (Michaels, 2008. Another critical point is the imbalance between supply and demand of manuscripts as this likely leads to biased selection (Young et al., 2008. Also important is the issue that following rejection, the editor and reviewers of the new journal selected for would-be publication by the authors start the process from scratch, as if the opus had not already passed through a thorough process of peer review. Such rules of play seem to promote the role of sheer luck in the process of manuscript selection. Authors of a rejected paper have the growing hope of "greater luck" the next time regarding reviewer assignment as they believe in the quality of their work. For the correct advancement of science I consider there should be a common global database available to editors, where each manuscript which has been subjected to an SCI journal is recorded. It should include a copy of the editor’s and reviewers’ comments, and also the authors’ replies. Hochberg et al. (2009 recently expressed their concern regarding the fact that authors usually think that manuscript submittal is a stochastic process, whereas in fact reviewers usually focus on the same set of criticisms. To solve this problem they suggest a having colleagues reviewing a manuscript before submission, and b requiring authors to state in a cover letter that reviewer comments from the
The robotics divide a new frontier in the 21st century?

CERN Document Server

López Peláez, Antonio

2013-01-01

Analyzes how robotics will shape our societies in the twenty-first century; a time when industrial and service robotics, particularly for military and aerospace purposes, will become an essential technology Examines an emerging divide: the "robotics divide"; a phenomenon linked to the model to integrate advanced robotics in economic, social and military spheres Focuses on the main technological trends in the field of robotics, and the impact that robotics will have on different facets of social life
Conceptions of health service robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lystbæk, Christian Tang

2015-01-01

Technology developments create rich opportunities for health service providers to introduce service robots in health care. While the potential benefits of applying robots in health care are extensive, the research into the conceptions of health service robot and its importance for the uptake...... of robotics technology in health care is limited. This article develops a model of the basic conceptions of health service robots that can be used to understand different assumptions and values attached to health care technology in general and health service robots in particular. The article takes...... a discursive approach in order to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the social values of health service robots. First a discursive approach is proposed to develop a typology of conceptions of health service robots. Second, a model identifying four basic conceptions of health service robots...
Influence of facial feedback during a cooperative human-robot task in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Laura; Khoramshahi, Mahdi; Salesse, Robin N; Bortolon, Catherine; Słowiński, Piotr; Zhai, Chao; Tsaneva-Atanasova, Krasimira; Di Bernardo, Mario; Capdevielle, Delphine; Marin, Ludovic; Schmidt, Richard C; Bardy, Benoit G; Billard, Aude; Raffard, Stéphane

2017-11-03

Rapid progress in the area of humanoid robots offers tremendous possibilities for investigating and improving social competences in people with social deficits, but remains yet unexplored in schizophrenia. In this study, we examined the influence of social feedbacks elicited by a humanoid robot on motor coordination during a human-robot interaction. Twenty-two schizophrenia patients and twenty-two matched healthy controls underwent a collaborative motor synchrony task with the iCub humanoid robot. Results revealed that positive social feedback had a facilitatory effect on motor coordination in the control participants compared to non-social positive feedback. This facilitatory effect was not present in schizophrenia patients, whose social-motor coordination was similarly impaired in social and non-social feedback conditions. Furthermore, patients' cognitive flexibility impairment and antipsychotic dosing were negatively correlated with patients' ability to synchronize hand movements with iCub. Overall, our findings reveal that patients have marked difficulties to exploit facial social cues elicited by a humanoid robot to modulate their motor coordination during human-robot interaction, partly accounted for by cognitive deficits and medication. This study opens new perspectives for comprehension of social deficits in this mental disorder.
Telecare and Social Link Solution for Ambient Assisted Living Using a Robot Companion with Visiophony

Science.gov (United States)

Varène, Thibaut; Hillereau, Paul; Simonnet, Thierry

An increasing number of people are in need of help at home (elderly, isolated and/or disabled persons; people with mild cognitive impairment). Several solutions can be considered to maintain a social link while providing tele-care to these people. Many proposals suggest the use of a robot acting as a companion. In this paper we will look at an environment constrained solution, its drawbacks (such as latency) and its advantages (flexibility, integration…). A key design choice is to control the robot using a unified Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution, while addressing bandwidth limitations, providing good communication quality and reducing transmission latency
Can we trust robots?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coeckelbergh, Mark

2011-01-01

Can we trust robots? Responding to the literature on trust and e-trust, this paper asks if the question of trust is applicable to robots, discusses different approaches to trust, and analyses some preconditions for trust. In the course of the paper a phenomenological-social approach to trust is
Remote radiation mapping and preliminary intervention using collaborating (European and Russian) mobile robots

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piotrowski, L.; Trouville, B.; Halbach, M.; Sidorkin, N.

1996-12-01

The primary objective of the IMPACT project is to develop a light-weight and inexpensive mobile robot that can be used for rapid inspection missions within nuclear power plants. These interventions are to cover normal, incident and accident situations and aim at primary reconnaissance (or 'data collecting') missions. The IMPACT robot was demonstrated (April 1996) in a realistic mission at the Russian nuclear plant SMOLENSK. The demonstration, composed of 2 independent but consecutive missions, was held in a radioactive zone near turbine ≠ 4 of Unit 2: remote radiation mapping with localisation of radioactive sources by the IMPACT robot equipped with a (Russian) gamma-radiation sensor; deployment of a Russian intervention robot for the construction of a protective lead shield around one of the identified sources and verification that the ambient radiation level has been reduce. This mission was executed remotely by 2 mobile robots working in collaboration: a NIKIMT robot equipped with a manipulator arm and carrying leads bricks and the IMPACT robot of mission I (radiation measurements and 'side-observer'). This manuscript describes (a) the technical characteristics of the IMPACT reconnaissance robot (3-segmented, caterpillar-tracked body; 6 video cameras placed around the mobile platform with simultaneous presentation of up to 4 video images at the control post; ability to detach remotely one of the robot's segments (i.e. the robot can divide itself into 2 separate mobile robots)) and (b) the SMOLENSK demonstration. (author)
Strategies for effective collaborative manuscript development in interdisciplinary science teams

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, Samantha K.; Fergus, C. Emi; Skaff, Nicholas K.; Wagner, Tyler; Tan, Pang-Ning; Cheruvelil, Kendra Spence; Soranno, Patricia A.

2018-01-01

Science is increasingly being conducted in large, interdisciplinary teams. As team size increases, challenges can arise during manuscript development, where achieving one team goal (e.g., inclusivity) may be in direct conflict with other goals (e.g., efficiency). Here, we present strategies for effective collaborative manuscript development that draw from our experiences in an interdisciplinary science team writing collaborative manuscripts for six years. These strategies are rooted in six guiding principles that were important to our team: to create a transparent, inclusive, and accountable research team that promotes and protects team members who have less power to influence decision‐making while fostering creativity and productivity. To help alleviate the conflicts that can arise in collaborative manuscript development, we present the following strategies: understand your team composition, create an authorship policy and discuss authorship early and often, openly announce manuscript ideas, identify and communicate the type of manuscript and lead author management style, and document and describe authorship contributions. These strategies can help reduce the probability of group conflict, uphold individual and team values, achieve fair authorship practices, and increase science productivity.
Physical Embodiment can Produce Robot Operator’s Pseudo Presence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kazuaki eTanaka

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Recent studies have focused on humanoid robots for improving distant communication. When a user talks with a remote conversation partner through a humanoid robot, the user can see the remote partner’s body motions with physical embodiment but not the partner’s current appearance. The physical embodiment existing in the same room with the user is the main feature of humanoid robots, but the effects on social telepresence, i.e. the sense of resembling face-to-face interaction, had not yet been well demonstrated. To find the effects, we conducted an experiment in which subjects talked with a partner through robots and various existing communication media (e.g. voice, avatar and video chats. As a result, we found that the physical embodiment enhances social telepresence. However, in terms of the degree of social telepresence, the humanoid robot remained at the same level as the partner’s live-video, since presenting partner’s appearance also enhances social telepresence. To utilize the anonymity of a humanoid robot, we proposed the way that produces pseudo presence that is the sense of interacting with a remote partner when they are actually interacting with an autonomous robot. Through the second experiment, we discovered that the subjects tended to evaluate the degree of pseudo presence of a remote partner based on their prior experience of watching the partner’s body motions reproduced by a robot. When a subject interacted with an autonomous robot after interacting with a teleoperated robot (i.e., a remote operator that is identical with the autonomous robot, the subjects tended to feel as if they were talking with a remote operator.
What do care robots reveal about technology?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

op den Akker, Hendrikus J.A.

2015-01-01

Ethical issues raised by the idea of social robots that care point at a fundamental difference between man and machine. What sort of “difference‿ is this? We propose a semiotic view on technology to clarify the relations users have with social robots. Are these autonomous agents just promising or

Feasibility Study of a Socially Assistive Humanoid Robot for Guiding Elderly Individuals during Walking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiara Piezzo

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The impact of the world-wide ageing population has commenced with respect to society in developed countries. Several researchers focused on exploring new methods to improve the quality of life of elderly individuals by allowing them to remain independent and healthy to the maximum possible extent. For example, new walking aids are designed to allow elderly individuals to remain mobile in a safe manner because the importance of walking is well-known. The aim of the present study involves designing a humanoid robot guide as a walking trainer for elderly individuals. It is hypothesized that the same service robot provides an assistive and social contribution with respect to interaction between elderly users by motivating them to walk more and simultaneously provides assistance, such as physical assistance and gait monitoring, while walking. This study includes a detailed statement of the research problem as well as a literature review of existing studies related to walking companion robots. A user-centred design approach is adopted to report the results of the current first feasibility study by using a commercially available humanoid robot known as Pepper developed by Softbank-Aldebaran. A quantitative questionnaire was used to investigate all elements that assess intrinsic motivation in users while performing a given activity. Conversely, basic gait data were acquired through a video analysis to test the capability of the robot to modify the gait of human users. The results in terms of the feedback received from elderly subjects and the literature review improve the design of the walking trainer for elderly individuals.
Novelty Detection for Interactive Pose Recognition by a Social Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor Gonzalez-Pacheco

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Active robot learners take an active role in their own learning by making queries to their human teachers when they receive new data. However, not every received input is useful for the robot, and asking for non-informative inputs or asking too many questions might worsen the user's perception of the robot. We present a novelty detection system that enables a robot to ask labels for new stimuli only when they seem both novel and interesting. Our system separates the decision process into two steps: first, it discriminates novel from known stimuli, and second, it estimates if these stimuli are likely to happen again. Our approach uses the notion of curiosity, which controls the eagerness with which the robot asks questions to the user. We evaluate our approach in the domain of pose learning by training our robot with a set of pointing poses able to detect up to 84%, 79%, and 78% of the observed novelties in three different experiments. Our approach enables robots to keep learning continuously, even after training is finished. The introduction of the curiosity parameter allows tuning, for the conditions in which the robot should want to learn more.
A review on humanoid robotics in healthcare

OpenAIRE

Joseph Azeta; Christian Bolu; Abiodun Abioye A.; Oyawale Festus

2018-01-01

Humanoid robots have evolved over the years and today it is in many different areas of applications, from homecare to social care and healthcare robotics. This paper deals with a brief overview of the current and potential applications of humanoid robotics in healthcare settings. We present a comprehensive contextualization of humanoid robots in healthcare by identifying and characterizing active research activities on humanoid robot that can work interactively and effectively with humans so ...
Preparing a scientific manuscript in Linux: Today's possibilities and limitations.

Science.gov (United States)

Tchantchaleishvili, Vakhtang; Schmitto, Jan D

2011-10-22

Increasing number of scientists are enthusiastic about using free, open source software for their research purposes. Authors' specific goal was to examine whether a Linux-based operating system with open source software packages would allow to prepare a submission-ready scientific manuscript without the need to use the proprietary software. Preparation and editing of scientific manuscripts is possible using Linux and open source software. This letter to the editor describes key steps for preparation of a publication-ready scientific manuscript in a Linux-based operating system, as well as discusses the necessary software components. This manuscript was created using Linux and open source programs for Linux.
Perception, Imagination and Affect in Human–Robot Relationships

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erika Kerruish

2016-11-01

Full Text Available As they arrive in our homes, nursing facilities and educational institutions, urgent questions are being asked about the ethics of encouraging people to have feelings towards social robots that have roles as companions, carers and teachers. This article suggests that the quality of these debates is enhanced by examining how people perceive robots and, in particular, how robots’ expressive characteristics stimulate feelings through engaging the embodied imagination. I discuss the perception and expression of the zoomorphic therapeutic robot Paro, before considering the directions an understanding of these processes can take discussions about the aesthetics and ethics of social robots.
Emotion based human-robot interaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Berns Karsten

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Human-machine interaction is a major challenge in the development of complex humanoid robots. In addition to verbal communication the use of non-verbal cues such as hand, arm and body gestures or mimics can improve the understanding of the intention of the robot. On the other hand, by perceiving such mechanisms of a human in a typical interaction scenario the humanoid robot can adapt its interaction skills in a better way. In this work, the perception system of two social robots, ROMAN and ROBIN of the RRLAB of the TU Kaiserslautern, is presented in the range of human-robot interaction.
People-Centered Development of a Smart Learning Ecosystem of Adaptive Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fischer, Daniel Kjær Bonde; Kristiansen, Jakob; Mariager, Casper

2019-01-01

Robots are currently moving out of the laboratory and company floor into more human and social contexts including care, rehabilitation and education. While those robots are usually envisioned as a kind of social interaction partner, we suggest a different approach, where robots become adaptive...
The development of robot art

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pagliarini, Luigi; Lund, Henrik Hautop

2009-01-01

Going through a few examples of robot artists who are recognized worldwide, we try to analyze the deepest meaning of what is called “robot art” and the related art field definition. We also try to highlight its well-marked borders, such as kinetic sculptures, kinetic art, cyber art, and cyberpunk...... that might classify robot art as a unique and innovative discipline, and to track down some of the principles by which a robotic artifact can or cannot be considered an art piece in terms of social, cultural, and strictly artistic interest....
A Review of Mobile Robotic Telepresence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annica Kristoffersson

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Mobile robotic telepresence (MRP systems incorporate video conferencing equipment onto mobile robot devices which can be steered from remote locations. These systems, which are primarily used in the context of promoting social interaction between people, are becoming increasingly popular within certain application domains such as health care environments, independent living for the elderly, and office environments. In this paper, an overview of the various systems, application areas, and challenges found in the literature concerning mobile robotic telepresence is provided. The survey also proposes a set terminology for the field as there is currently a lack of standard terms for the different concepts related to MRP systems. Further, this paper provides an outlook on the various research directions for developing and enhancing mobile robotic telepresence systems per se, as well as evaluating the interaction in laboratory and field settings. Finally, the survey outlines a number of design implications for the future of mobile robotic telepresence systems for social interaction.
Robotics in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery: Recommendations for training and credentialing

Science.gov (United States)

Gross, Neil D.; Holsinger, F. Christopher; Magnuson, J. Scott; Duvvuri, Umamaheswar; Genden, Eric M.; Ghanem, Tamer AH.; Yaremchuk, Kathleen L.; Goldenberg, David; Miller, Matthew C.; Moore, Eric J.; Morris, Luc GT.; Netterville, James; Weinstein, Gregory S.; Richmon, Jeremy

2016-01-01

Training and credentialing for robotic surgery in otolaryngology - head and neck surgery is currently not standardized, but rather relies heavily on industry guidance. This manuscript represents a comprehensive review of this increasingly important topic and outlines clear recommendations to better standardize the practice. The recommendations provided can be used as a reference by individuals and institutions alike, and are expected to evolve over time. PMID:26950771
A First Step toward the Automatic Understanding of Social Touch for Naturalistic Human–Robot Interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jung, Merel Madeleine; Poel, Mannes; Reidsma, Dennis; Heylen, Dirk K.J.

2017-01-01

Social robots should be able to automatically understand and respond to human touch. The meaning of touch does not only depend on the form of touch but also on the context in which the touch takes place. To gain more insight into the factors that are relevant to interpret the meaning of touch within
Using robots to understand animal cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Frohnwieser, Anna; Murray, John C; Pike, Thomas W; Wilkinson, Anna

2016-01-01

In recent years, robotic animals and humans have been used to answer a variety of questions related to behavior. In the case of animal behavior, these efforts have largely been in the field of behavioral ecology. They have proved to be a useful tool for this enterprise as they allow the presentation of naturalistic social stimuli whilst providing the experimenter with full control of the stimulus. In interactive experiments, the behavior of robots can be controlled in a manner that is impossible with real animals, making them ideal instruments for the study of social stimuli in animals. This paper provides an overview of the current state of the field and considers the impact that the use of robots could have on fundamental questions related to comparative psychology: namely, perception, spatial cognition, social cognition, and early cognitive development. We make the case that the use of robots to investigate these key areas could have an important impact on the field of animal cognition. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
Integration of μ-XRF, and u-Raman techniques to study ancient Islamic manuscripts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamdan, N M; Alawadhi, H; Jisrawi, N

2012-01-01

Systematic characterizations of inks used in three ancient Arabic manuscripts were performed using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) and RAMAN spectroscopy. Spatially resolved element distributions obtained by area scans in addition to spot analysis provided detailed information about the manuscripts. RAMAN spectroscopy, on the other hand provided decisive information about the compounds used in various color pigments. Different compounds were found in the red ink in each manuscript: HgS (cinnabar) in one manuscript, red lead Pb 3 0 4 (minium) in the second, and a mixture of the two in the third manuscript. The green pigment was Cu based and it is probably malachite (Cu 2 CO 3 (OH) 2 ), while the black ink pigment in the three manuscripts is iron gall (Fe 2 SO 4 plus gallottanic acid). Analytical results and the context of the manuscripts were used to extract information about the authenticity and origin of the manuscripts. For example, the use of cinnabar as a red ink pigment found in the third manuscript reveals that this manuscript attributed to Al-Gazali (11 th century) is probably a copy from a later period, because cinnabar was first introduced in the 16th century.
Robot-assisted therapy for improving social interactions and activity participation among institutionalized older adults: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sung, Huei-Chuan; Chang, Shu-Min; Chin, Mau-Yu; Lee, Wen-Li

2015-03-01

Animal-assisted therapy is gaining popularity as part of therapeutic activities for older adults in many long-term care facilities. However, concerns about dog bites, allergic responses to pets, disease, and insufficient available resources to care for a real pet have led to many residential care facilities to ban this therapy. There are situations where a substitute artificial companion, such as robotic pet, may serve as a better alternative. This pilot study used a one-group pre- and posttest design to evaluate the effect of a robot-assisted therapy for older adults. Sixteen eligible participants participated in the study and received a group robot-assisted therapy using a seal-like robot pet for 30 minutes twice a week for 4 weeks. All participants received assessments of their communication and interaction skills using the Assessment of Communication and Interaction Skills (ACIS-C) and activity participation using the Activity Participation Scale at baseline and at week 4. A total of 12 participants completed the study. Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that participants' communication and interaction skills (z = -2.94, P = 0.003) and activity participation (z = -2.66, P = 0.008) were significantly improved after receiving 4-week robot-assisted therapy. By interacting with a robot pet, such as Paro, the communication, interaction skills, and activity participation of the older adults can be improved. The robot-assisted therapy can be provided as a routine activity program and has the potential to improve social health of older adults in residential care facilities. Copyright © 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.
Manuscript 101: A Data-Driven Writing Exercise For Beginning Scientists

OpenAIRE

Ralston, Amy; Halbisen, Michael

2017-01-01

Learning to write a scientific manuscript is one of the most important and rewarding scientific training experiences, yet most young scientists only embark on this experience relatively late in graduate school, after gathering sufficient data in the lab. Yet, familiarity with the process of writing a scientific manuscript and receiving peer reviews, often leads to a more focused and driven experimental approach. To jump-start this training, we developed a protocol for teaching manuscript writ...
Pigment identification on medieval manuscripts, paintings and other artefacts by Raman microscopy: applications to the study of three German manuscripts

Science.gov (United States)

Burgio, Lucia; Ciomartan, Dan A.; Clark, Robin J. H.

1997-03-01

The identification of the pigments used to illuminate medieval manuscripts, paintings and other artefacts has received a major boost recently through perceptive studies carried out by Raman microscopy. A brief summary of the background of the technique is given. The results of studies on three illuminated German manuscripts are presented. The pigments vermilion HgS, iron oxide Fe 2O 3, azurite 2CuCO 3.Cu(OH) 2, malachite CuCo 3.Cu(OH) 2, lampblack (essentially carbon), white lead 2PbCO 3.Pb(OH) 2, lead tin yellow type I Pb 2SnO 4, and lazurite Na 8[Al 6Si 6O 24]S n (but only in admixture with Pb 2SnO 4, whereby it forms a green pigment), have been identified on these manuscripts on the basis of Raman microscopy and the results discussed.
Lounging with robots--social spaces of residents in care: A comparison trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Peri, Kathryn; Kerse, Ngaire; Broadbent, Elizabeth; Jayawardena, Chandimal; Kuo, Tony; Datta, Chandan; Stafford, Rebecca; MacDonald, Bruce

2016-03-01

To investigate whether robots could reduce resident sleeping and stimulate activity in the lounges of an older persons' care facility. Non-randomised controlled trial over a 12-week period. The intervention involved situating robots in low-level and high-dependency ward lounges and a comparison with similar lounges without robots. A time sampling observation method was utilised to observe resident behaviour, including sleep and activities over periods of time, to compare interactions in robot and no robot lounges. The use of robots was modest; overall 13% of residents in robot lounges used the robot. Utilisation was higher in the low-level care lounges; on average, 23% used the robot, whereas in high-level care lounges, the television being on was the strongest predictor of sleep. This study found that having robots in lounges was mostly a positive experience. The amount of time residents slept during the day was significantly less in low-level care lounges that had a robot. © 2015 AJA Inc.
Current state of virtual reality simulation in robotic surgery training: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Bric, Justin D; Lumbard, Derek C; Frelich, Matthew J; Gould, Jon C

2016-06-01

Worldwide, the annual number of robotic surgical procedures continues to increase. Robotic surgical skills are unique from those used in either open or laparoscopic surgery. The acquisition of a basic robotic surgical skill set may be best accomplished in the simulation laboratory. We sought to review the current literature pertaining to the use of virtual reality (VR) simulation in the acquisition of robotic surgical skills on the da Vinci Surgical System. A PubMed search was conducted between December 2014 and January 2015 utilizing the following keywords: virtual reality, robotic surgery, da Vinci, da Vinci skills simulator, SimSurgery Educational Platform, Mimic dV-Trainer, and Robotic Surgery Simulator. Articles were included if they were published between 2007 and 2015, utilized VR simulation for the da Vinci Surgical System, and utilized a commercially available VR platform. The initial search criteria returned 227 published articles. After all inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, a total of 47 peer-reviewed manuscripts were included in the final review. There are many benefits to utilizing VR simulation for robotic skills acquisition. Four commercially available simulators have been demonstrated to be capable of assessing robotic skill. Three of the four simulators demonstrate the ability of a VR training curriculum to improve basic robotic skills, with proficiency-based training being the most effective training style. The skills obtained on a VR training curriculum are comparable with those obtained on dry laboratory simulation. The future of VR simulation includes utilization in assessment for re-credentialing purposes, advanced procedural-based training, and as a warm-up tool prior to surgery.
Persuasive robotics : artificial embodied agents as persuasive technology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Liu, C.; Ham, J.R.C.; Midden, C.J.H.

2011-01-01

• Social robots may provide a solution to many societal challenges. One of their core qualities must be the ability of effectively influencing human behavior or attitudes. • As a basis for strong influence, persuasive robots can take on the role of a social actor that can build a relationship with
Improving Robustness against Environmental Sounds for Directing Attention of Social Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Nicolai Bæk; Tan, Zheng-Hua; Lindberg, Børge

2015-01-01

This paper presents a multi-modal system for finding out where to direct the attention of a social robot in a dialog scenario, which is robust against environmental sounds (door slamming, phone ringing etc.) and short speech segments. The method is based on combining voice activity detection (VAD......) and sound source localization (SSL) and furthermore apply post-processing to SSL to filter out short sounds. The system is tested against a baseline system in four different real-world experiments, where different sounds are used as interfering sounds. The results are promising and show a clear improvement....

Hindrance of conservation biology by delays in the submission of manuscripts.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Donnell, Ryan P; Supp, Sarah R; Cobbold, Stephanie M

2010-04-01

Timely dissemination of scientific findings depends not only on rapid publication of submitted manuscripts, a topic which has received much discussion, but also on rapid submission of research after the research is completed. We measured submission delay (time from the last date of data collection to the submission of a manuscript) for every paper from 14 journals in 2007 and compared these submission delays among four fields of biology (conservation, taxonomy, behavior, and evolution). Manuscripts published in leading journals in the field of conservation biology have the longest delays in publication of accepted manuscripts and the longest intervals between completion of research and submission of the manuscript. Delay in manuscript submission accounts for more than half of the total time from last date of data collection to publication. Across fields, the number of authors was significantly negatively correlated with submission delay, but conservation journals had the second highest number of authors and the greatest submission delay, so submission of conservation manuscripts was not hindered by a shortage of collaboration relative to other fields. Rejection rates were greater in conservation journals than in behavior and evolution, but rejection times were faster; thus, there were no obvious net differences among fields in the time papers spent waiting to be rejected. Publication delay has been reduced significantly in the last 7 years, but was still greater in conservation journals than in any of the other three fields we studied. Thus, the urgent field of conservation biology is hindered in both preparation and publication of manuscripts.
A review on humanoid robotics in healthcare

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joseph Azeta

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Humanoid robots have evolved over the years and today it is in many different areas of applications, from homecare to social care and healthcare robotics. This paper deals with a brief overview of the current and potential applications of humanoid robotics in healthcare settings. We present a comprehensive contextualization of humanoid robots in healthcare by identifying and characterizing active research activities on humanoid robot that can work interactively and effectively with humans so as to fill some identified gaps in current healthcare deficiency.
Service Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clemmensen, Torkil; Nielsen, Jeppe Agger; Andersen, Kim Normann

The position presented in this paper is that in order to understand how service robots shape, and are being shaped by, the physical and social contexts in which they are used, we need to consider both work/organizational analysis and interaction design. We illustrate this with qualitative data...... and personal experiences to generate discussion about how to link these two traditions. This paper presents selected results from a case study that investigated the implementation and use of robot vacuum cleaners in Danish eldercare. The study demonstrates interpretive flexibility with variation...
The ethics of human-robot relationships

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Graaf, M.M.A.

2015-01-01

Currently, human-robot interactions are constructed according to the rules of human-human interactions inviting users to interact socially with robots. Is there something morally wrong with deceiving humans into thinking they can foster meaningful interactions with a technological object? Or is this
HiMoP: A three-component architecture to create more human-acceptable social-assistive robots : Motivational architecture for assistive robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez-Lera, Francisco J; Matellán-Olivera, Vicente; Conde-González, Miguel Á; Martín-Rico, Francisco

2018-05-01

Generation of autonomous behavior for robots is a general unsolved problem. Users perceive robots as repetitive tools that do not respond to dynamic situations. This research deals with the generation of natural behaviors in assistive service robots for dynamic domestic environments, particularly, a motivational-oriented cognitive architecture to generate more natural behaviors in autonomous robots. The proposed architecture, called HiMoP, is based on three elements: a Hierarchy of needs to define robot drives; a set of Motivational variables connected to robot needs; and a Pool of finite-state machines to run robot behaviors. The first element is inspired in Alderfer's hierarchy of needs, which specifies the variables defined in the motivational component. The pool of finite-state machine implements the available robot actions, and those actions are dynamically selected taking into account the motivational variables and the external stimuli. Thus, the robot is able to exhibit different behaviors even under similar conditions. A customized version of the "Speech Recognition and Audio Detection Test," proposed by the RoboCup Federation, has been used to illustrate how the architecture works and how it dynamically adapts and activates robots behaviors taking into account internal variables and external stimuli.
Sharing Your Practice Expertise: Writing Clinical Manuscripts for Publication.

Science.gov (United States)

McGrath, Jacqueline M; Brandon, Debra

2015-08-01

Please do not be afraid of the writing process; we are here to help you through this journey. If you need mentorship through the process, consider looking to an expert or mentor on your unit or at a nearby university. If you do not find the mentorship you are seeking nearby, please let us know. We will put you in contact with 1 of our editorial board members to help guide you through the writing process. We want you to be successful so please have an outline of your idea and the type of manuscript you are planning to write developed. When you contact us, please share your questions openly—there are no “dumb” questions. Please refer often to our author guidelines during the writing process. Details for how best to submit a manuscript for the Clinical Issues in Neonatal Care section are outlined within the author guidelines. Finally, it is important to remember that ANC is a 4-color journal, so please submit full-color tables, graphs, and pictures to enhance the readability of your manuscript. During the editorial process we will do everything we can to facilitate and enhance your work. We will make recommendations that we believe will increase its scholarly application to improving neonatal care and outcomes. Revisions are often requested. After peer review, the section editor and coeditors will review the manuscript well in advance of the production deadline and provide additional feedback as needed. The end goal is excellent presentation of materials for our readers. If you are a reviewer for ANC , the next time you are asked to review a Clinical Issues in Neonatal Care manuscript, please consider the quality of the manuscript in relationship to guiding clinical care at the bedside and make recommendations to improve the manuscript so that staff nurses will best relate to the content. Do not be afraid to make recommendations about missing content or suggestions about ways to enhance the content and make it easier for clinicians to understand. Help us and the
Human Robot Interaction for Hybrid Collision Avoidance System for Indoor Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mazen Ghandour

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a novel approach for collision avoidance for indoor mobile robots based on human-robot interaction is realized. The main contribution of this work is a new technique for collision avoidance by engaging the human and the robot in generating new collision-free paths. In mobile robotics, collision avoidance is critical for the success of the robots in implementing their tasks, especially when the robots navigate in crowded and dynamic environments, which include humans. Traditional collision avoidance methods deal with the human as a dynamic obstacle, without taking into consideration that the human will also try to avoid the robot, and this causes the people and the robot to get confused, especially in crowded social places such as restaurants, hospitals, and laboratories. To avoid such scenarios, a reactive-supervised collision avoidance system for mobile robots based on human-robot interaction is implemented. In this method, both the robot and the human will collaborate in generating the collision avoidance via interaction. The person will notify the robot about the avoidance direction via interaction, and the robot will search for the optimal collision-free path on the selected direction. In case that no people interacted with the robot, it will select the navigation path autonomously and select the path that is closest to the goal location. The humans will interact with the robot using gesture recognition and Kinect sensor. To build the gesture recognition system, two models were used to classify these gestures, the first model is Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN, and the second model is Support Vector Machine (SVM. Furthermore, a novel collision avoidance system for avoiding the obstacles is implemented and integrated with the HRI system. The system is tested on H20 robot from DrRobot Company (Canada and a set of experiments were implemented to report the performance of the system in interacting with the human and avoiding
THE USE OF DEIXIS IN GLADIATOR MOVIE MANUSCRIPT

OpenAIRE

Chuswatul Hasanah; Malikatul Laila; Aryati Prasetyarini

2015-01-01

This study is about the forms and references of deixis udes in "Gladiator" movie manuscript. The data, movie discourse are taken from observation and documentation using techniques of reading, indentifying, and noting. The data source is "Gladiator" movie manuscript. To identify the forms of deixis, the writer udes the theory of deixis in Discourse Analysis while to clarifying the references of deixis, the writer used the theory of meaning focusing on both semantic and pragmatic meaning. The ...
Modelling and testing proxemic behaviour for humanoid robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Torta, E.; Cuijpers, R.H.; Juola, J.F.; Pol, van der D.

2012-01-01

Humanoid robots that share the same space with humans need to be socially acceptable and effective as they interact with people. In this paper we focus our attention on the definition of a behavior-based robotic architecture that (1) allows the robot to navigate safely in a cluttered and dynamically
Introduction of symbiotic human-robot-cooperation in the steel sector: an example of social innovation

Science.gov (United States)

Colla, Valentina; Schroeder, Antonius; Buzzelli, Andrea; Abbà, Dario; Faes, Andrea; Romaniello, Lea

2018-05-01

The introduction of new technologies, which can support and empower human capabilities in a number of professional tasks while possibly reducing the need for cumbersome operations and the exposure to risk and professional diseases, is nowadays perceived as a must in any industrial field, process industry included. However, despite their relevant potentials, new technologies are not always easy to introduce in the professional environment. A design procedure which takes into account the workers' acceptance, needing and capabilities as well as a continuing education and training process of the personnel who must exploit the innovation, is as fundamental as the technical reliability for the successful introduction of any new technology in a professional environment. An exemplary case is provided by symbiotic human-robot-cooperation. In the steel sector, the difficulties for the implementation of symbiotic human-robot-cooperation is bigger with respect to the manufacturing sector, due to the environmental conditions, which in some cases are not favorable to robots. On the other hand, the opportunities and potential advantages are also greater, as robots could replace human operators in repetitive, heavy tasks, by improving workers' health and safety. The present paper provides an example of the potential and opportunities of human-robot interaction and discusses how this approach can be included in a social innovation paradigm. Moreover, an example will be provided of an ongoing project funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, "ROBOHARSH", which aims at implementing such approach in the steel industry, in order to develop a very sensitive task, i.e. the replacement of the refractory components of the ladle sliding gate.
Shall I show you some other shirts too? : the psychology and ethics of persuasive robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ham, J.R.C.; Spahn, A.

2015-01-01

Social robots may provide a solution to various societal challenges (e.g. the aging society, unhealthy lifestyles, sustainability). In the current contribution, we argue that crucial in the interactions of social robots with humans is that social robots are always created to some extent to influence
International Conference on Robot Ethics

CERN Document Server

Sequeira, Joao; Tokhi, Mohammad; Kadar, Endre; Virk, Gurvinder

2017-01-01

This book contains the Proceedings of the International Conference on Robot Ethics, held in Lisbon on October 23 and 24, 2015. The conference provided a multidisciplinary forum for discussing central and evolving issues concerning safety and ethics that have arisen in various contexts where robotic technologies are being applied. The papers are intended to promote the formulation of more precise safety standards and ethical frameworks for the rapidly changing field of robotic applications. The conference was held at Pavilhão do Conhecimento/Ciência Viva in Lisbon and brought together leading researchers and industry representatives, promoting a dialogue that combines different perspectives and experiences to arrive at viable solutions for ethical problems in the context of robotics. The conference topics included but were not limited to emerging ethical, safety, legal and societal problems in the following domains: • Service/Social Robots: Robots performing tasks in human environments and involving close ...
Assistant Personal Robot (APR: Conception and Application of a Tele-Operated Assisted Living Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eduard Clotet

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the technical description, mechanical design, electronic components, software implementation and possible applications of a tele-operated mobile robot designed as an assisted living tool. This robotic concept has been named Assistant Personal Robot (or APR for short and has been designed as a remotely telecontrolled robotic platform built to provide social and assistive services to elderly people and those with impaired mobility. The APR features a fast high-mobility motion system adapted for tele-operation in plain indoor areas, which incorporates a high-priority collision avoidance procedure. This paper presents the mechanical architecture, electrical fundaments and software implementation required in order to develop the main functionalities of an assistive robot. The APR uses a tablet in order to implement the basic peer-to-peer videoconference and tele-operation control combined with a tactile graphic user interface. The paper also presents the development of some applications proposed in the framework of an assisted living robot.
Discovering Social Circles in Ego Networks (Author’s Manuscript)

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-10

refer to as social cir- cles. Practically all major social networks provide such functionality, for example, ‘circles’ on Google+, and ‘lists’ on Facebook ...Discovering Social Circles in Ego Networks Julian McAuley and Jure Leskovec Stanford jmcauley@cs.stanford.edu, jure@cs.stanford.edu January 11, 2013...Abstract People’s personal social networks are big and cluttered, and currently there is no good way to automatically organize them. Social networking
Sundanese ancient manuscripts search engine using probability approach

Science.gov (United States)

Suryani, Mira; Hadi, Setiawan; Paulus, Erick; Nurma Yulita, Intan; Supriatna, Asep K.

2017-10-01

Today, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a regular thing for every aspect of live include cultural and heritage aspect. Sundanese ancient manuscripts as Sundanese heritage are in damage condition and also the information that containing on it. So in order to preserve the information in Sundanese ancient manuscripts and make them easier to search, a search engine has been developed. The search engine must has good computing ability. In order to get the best computation in developed search engine, three types of probabilistic approaches: Bayesian Networks Model, Divergence from Randomness with PL2 distribution, and DFR-PL2F as derivative form DFR-PL2 have been compared in this study. The three probabilistic approaches supported by index of documents and three different weighting methods: term occurrence, term frequency, and TF-IDF. The experiment involved 12 Sundanese ancient manuscripts. From 12 manuscripts there are 474 distinct terms. The developed search engine tested by 50 random queries for three types of query. The experiment results showed that for the single query and multiple query, the best searching performance given by the combination of PL2F approach and TF-IDF weighting method. The performance has been evaluated using average time responds with value about 0.08 second and Mean Average Precision (MAP) about 0.33.
Abstract robots with an attitude : applying interpersonal relation models to human-robot interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hiah, J.L.; Beursgens, L.; Haex, R.; Perez Romero, L.M.; Teh, Y.; Bhomer, ten M.; Berkel, van R.E.A.; Barakova, E.I.

2013-01-01

This paper explores new possibilities for social interaction between a human user and a robot with an abstract shape. The social interaction takes place by simulating behaviors such as submissiveness and dominance and analyzing the corresponding human reactions. We used an object that has no
Integrating socially assistive robotics into mental healthcare interventions: applications and recommendations for expanded use.

Science.gov (United States)

Rabbitt, Sarah M; Kazdin, Alan E; Scassellati, Brian

2015-02-01

As a field, mental healthcare is faced with major challenges as it attempts to close the huge gap between those who need services and those who receive services. In recent decades, technological advances have provided exciting new resources in this battle. Socially assistive robotics (SAR) is a particularly promising area that has expanded into several exciting mental healthcare applications. Indeed, a growing literature highlights the variety of clinically relevant functions that these robots can serve, from companion to therapeutic play partner. This paper reviews the ways that SAR have already been used in mental health service and research and discusses ways that these applications can be expanded. We also outline the challenges and limitations associated with further integrating SAR into mental healthcare. SAR is not proposed as a replacement for specially trained and knowledgeable professionals nor is it seen as a panacea for all mental healthcare needs. Instead, robots can serve as clinical tools and assistants in a wide range of settings. Given the dramatic growth in this area, now is a critical moment for individuals in the mental healthcare community to become engaged in this research and steer it toward our field's most pressing clinical needs. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Survey on Inadequate and Omitted Citations in Manuscripts: A Precursory Study in Identification of Tasks for a Literature Review and Manuscript Writing Assistive System

Science.gov (United States)

Raamkumar, Aravind Sesagiri; Foo, Schubert; Pang, Natalie

2016-01-01

Introduction: This paper looks at the issue of inadequate and omitted citations in manuscripts by collecting the experiential opinions of researchers from the dual perspectives of manuscript reviewers and authors. Method: An online survey was conducted with participation from 207 respondents who had experience of reviewing and authoring research…
Image-based historical manuscript dating using contour and stroke fragments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

He, Sheng; Samara, Petros; Burgers, Jan; Schomaker, Lambertus

2016-01-01

Historical manuscript dating has always been an important challenge for historians but since countless manuscripts have become digitally available recently, the pattern recognition community has started addressing the dating problem as well. In this paper, we present a family of local contour
Image Segmentation of Historical Handwriting from Palm Leaf Manuscripts

Science.gov (United States)

Surinta, Olarik; Chamchong, Rapeeporn

Palm leaf manuscripts were one of the earliest forms of written media and were used in Southeast Asia to store early written knowledge about subjects such as medicine, Buddhist doctrine and astrology. Therefore, historical handwritten palm leaf manuscripts are important for people who like to learn about historical documents, because we can learn more experience from them. This paper presents an image segmentation of historical handwriting from palm leaf manuscripts. The process is composed of three steps: 1) background elimination to separate text and background by Otsu's algorithm 2) line segmentation and 3) character segmentation by histogram of image. The end result is the character's image. The results from this research may be applied to optical character recognition (OCR) in the future.

Implementation and Outcomes of a Faculty-Based, Peer Review Manuscript Writing Workshop.

Science.gov (United States)

Kulage, Kristine M; Larson, Elaine L

2016-01-01

The publication of scholarly work and research findings is an important expectation for nursing faculty; however, academic writing is often neglected, leaving dissemination through manuscript writing an area of concern for the nursing profession. Writing initiatives have been utilized to promote scholarly dissemination in schools of nursing, but those described in the literature have been primarily non-United States based and student focused. This article describes a faculty-based manuscript writing workshop, assesses participants' impressions, and describes its impact on scholarly output. The workshop is a collaborative learning process utilizing peer review to improve manuscript quality and model behaviors for improving writing and peer-reviewing skills. Seventeen workshop participants including three predoctoral students, 6 postdoctoral fellows, and 8 faculty members completed an anonymous workshop survey (81% response rate). All but 1 of 17 manuscripts reviewed in the workshop are published, accepted, or in the review process. All participants indicated that the workshop was a valuable use of time and would recommend it to colleagues. The greatest reported workshop benefit was its function as an impetus to complete and submit manuscripts. We recommend the manuscript writing workshop model for other schools of nursing seeking ways to expand their scholarly output and create accountability for dissemination through manuscript writing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Young hands, old books: Drawings by children in a fourteenth-century manuscript, LJS MS. 361.

Science.gov (United States)

Thorpe, Deborah Ellen

This article scrutinises three marginal drawings in LJS 361, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries. It first considers the provenance of the manuscript, questioning how it got into the hands of children. Then, it combines developmental psychology with close examination of the material evidence to develop a list of criteria to attribute the drawings to children. There is consideration of the features that help us estimate the age of the artists, and which indicate that one drawing was a collaborative effort between two children. A potential relationship is identified between the doodles and the subject matter of the text, prompting questions about pre-modern child education and literacy. Finally, the article considers the implications of this finding in both codicology and social history since these marginal illustrations demonstrate that children were active in the material life of medieval books.
Young hands, old books: Drawings by children in a fourteenth-century manuscript, LJS MS. 361

Science.gov (United States)

Thorpe, Deborah Ellen

2016-01-01

Abstract This article scrutinises three marginal drawings in LJS 361, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries. It first considers the provenance of the manuscript, questioning how it got into the hands of children. Then, it combines developmental psychology with close examination of the material evidence to develop a list of criteria to attribute the drawings to children. There is consideration of the features that help us estimate the age of the artists, and which indicate that one drawing was a collaborative effort between two children. A potential relationship is identified between the doodles and the subject matter of the text, prompting questions about pre-modern child education and literacy. Finally, the article considers the implications of this finding in both codicology and social history since these marginal illustrations demonstrate that children were active in the material life of medieval books. PMID:27517059
Mobile Robot Designed with Autonomous Navigation System

Science.gov (United States)

An, Feng; Chen, Qiang; Zha, Yanfang; Tao, Wenyin

2017-10-01

With the rapid development of robot technology, robots appear more and more in all aspects of life and social production, people also ask more requirements for the robot, one is that robot capable of autonomous navigation, can recognize the road. Take the common household sweeping robot as an example, which could avoid obstacles, clean the ground and automatically find the charging place; Another example is AGV tracking car, which can following the route and reach the destination successfully. This paper introduces a new type of robot navigation scheme: SLAM, which can build the environment map in a totally strange environment, and at the same time, locate its own position, so as to achieve autonomous navigation function.
Twitter discussions about the predicaments of robots in geriatric nursing: forecast of nursing robotics in aged care.

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksson, Henrik; Salzmann-Erikson, Martin

2018-02-01

People use social media to express perceptions, attitudes and a wide range of concerns regarding human life. This study aims at analysing the ongoing discussions on the internet microblog Twitter and offers some coming predicaments regarding developments in geriatric nursing regarding nursing robots. Data were retrospectively collected from Twitter. 1322 mentions were included in the final analyses, where principles of interpreting data by using netnography were utilized. Many ideas are presented expressing functional, psychological and social aspects of robots in nursing care. Most postings come from metropolitan cities around the globe. The discussion focuses on market-driven, science fiction solutions for aged care. Twitter users overall seem to be positive using various nursing robots in aged care. These discussions offer a window into the attitudes and ideas of this group of users. We suggest that monitoring Twitter discussions on social media can provide valuable insights into current attitudes as well as forecast coming trends.
Folk-Psychological Interpretation of Human vs. Humanoid Robot Behavior: Exploring the Intentional Stance toward Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Thellman, Sam; Silvervarg, Annika; Ziemke, Tom

2017-01-01

People rely on shared folk-psychological theories when judging behavior. These theories guide people's social interactions and therefore need to be taken into consideration in the design of robots and other autonomous systems expected to interact socially with people. It is, however, not yet clear to what degree the mechanisms that underlie people's judgments of robot behavior overlap or differ from the case of human or animal behavior. To explore this issue, participants ( N = 90) were exposed to images and verbal descriptions of eight different behaviors exhibited either by a person or a humanoid robot. Participants were asked to rate the intentionality, controllability and desirability of the behaviors, and to judge the plausibility of seven different types of explanations derived from a recently proposed psychological model of lay causal explanation of human behavior. Results indicate: substantially similar judgments of human and robot behavior, both in terms of (1a) ascriptions of intentionality/controllability/desirability and in terms of (1b) plausibility judgments of behavior explanations; (2a) high level of agreement in judgments of robot behavior - (2b) slightly lower but still largely similar to agreement over human behaviors; (3) systematic differences in judgments concerning the plausibility of goals and dispositions as explanations of human vs. humanoid behavior. Taken together, these results suggest that people's intentional stance toward the robot was in this case very similar to their stance toward the human.
Robots and people with dementia: Unintended consequences and moral hazard.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brolcháin, Fiachra

2017-01-01

The use of social robots in elder care is entering the mainstream as robots become more sophisticated and populations age. While there are many potential benefits to the use of social robots in care for the older people, there are ethical challenges as well. This article focuses on the societal consequences of the adoption of social robots in care for people with dementia. Making extensive use of Alasdair MacIntyre's Dependent Rational Animals to discuss issues of unintended consequences and moral hazard, we contend that in choosing to avoid the vulnerability and dependency of human existence, a society blinds itself from the animal reality of humankind. The consequence of this is that a flourishing society, in which each individual is helped to develop the virtues essential to her flourishing, becomes harder to achieve.
Presence of Life-Like Robot Expressions Influences Children’s Enjoyment of Human-Robot Interactions in the Field

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cameron, David; Fernando, Samuel; Collins, Emily; Millings, Abigail; Moore, Roger; Sharkey, Amanda; Evers, Vanessa; Prescott, Tony

Emotions, and emotional expression, have a broad influence on the interactions we have with others and are thus a key factor to consider in developing social robots. As part of a collaborative EU project, this study examined the impact of lifelike affective facial expressions, in the humanoid robot
Social Networks, Interpersonal Social Support, and Health Outcomes: A Health Communication Perspective

OpenAIRE

Wright, Kevin

2016-01-01

This manuscript discusses the development, impact, and several major research findings of studies in the area of social network support and health outcomes. The review focuses largely on the development of online social support networks and the ways in which they may interact with face-to-face support networks to influence physical and psychological health outcomes. The manuscript discusses this area, and it presents a research agenda for future work in this area from an Associate Editor’s pe...
Social Sensorimotor Contingencies

OpenAIRE

Bütepage, Judith

2016-01-01

As the field of robotics advances, more robots are employed in our everyday environment. Thus, the implementation of robots that can actively engage in physical collaboration and naturally interact with humans is of high importance. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to study human interaction and social cognition and how these aspects can be implemented in robotic agents. The theory of social sensorimotor contingencies hypothesises that many aspects of human-human interaction de...
Recognition for old Arabic manuscripts using spatial gray level dependence (SGLD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad M. Abd Al-Aziz

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Texture analysis forms the basis of object recognition and classification in several domains, one of these domains is historical document manuscripts because the manuscripts hold our culture heritage and also large numbers of undated manuscripts exist. This paper presents results for historical document classification of old Arabic manuscripts using texture analysis and a segmentation free approach. The main objective is to discriminate between historical documents of different writing styles to three different ages: Contemporary (Modern Age, Ottoman Age and Mamluk Age. This classification depends on a Spatial Gray-level Dependence (SGLD technique which provides eight distinct texture features for each sample document. We applied Stepwise Discriminant Analysis and Multiple discriminant analysis methods to decrease the dimensionality of features and extract training vector features from samples. To classify historical documents into three main historical age classes the decision tree classification is applied. The system has been tested on 48 Arabic historical manuscripts documents from the Dar Al-Kotob Al-Masria Library. Our results so far yield 95.83% correct classification for the historical Arabic documents.
Fate of manuscripts rejected by a non-English-language general medical journal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vinther, Siri; Rosenberg, Jacob

2011-01-01

Objective The objective of this study was to determine whether, where and when manuscripts were published following rejection by the Journal of the Danish Medical Association, a general medical journal published in Danish. Similar previous studies have focused on specialty/subspecialty journals...... published in English. Design Manuscripts rejected during a 4-year period were searched for in PubMed and Embase in order to assess the percentage of manuscripts subsequently published in other journals. In addition, characteristics of both the published manuscripts and the journals in which they were...... evaluated. Results Of 198 rejected manuscripts, 21 (10.6%) were eventually published after a median of 685 days (range 209-1463). The majority of these were original research, published in English-language specialty/subspecialty journals. The median number of citations per article was 2-3 (IQR 0...
Robot Learning a New Subfield? The Robolearn-96 Workshop

OpenAIRE

Hexmoor, Henry; Meeden, Lisa; Murphy, Robin R.

1997-01-01

This article posits the idea of robot learning as a new subfield. The results of the Robolearn-96 Workshop provide evidence that learning in modern robotics is distinct from traditional machine learning. The article examines the role of robotics in the social and natural sciences and the potential impact of learning on robotics, generating both a continuum of research issues and a description of the divergent terminology, target domains, and standards of proof associated with robot learning. ...
The Dominant Robot: Threatening Robots Cause Psychological Reactance, Especially When They Have Incongruent Goals

Science.gov (United States)

Roubroeks, M. A. J.; Ham, J. R. C.; Midden, C. J. H.

Persuasive technology can take the form of a social agent that persuades people to change behavior or attitudes. However, like any persuasive technology, persuasive social agents might trigger psychological reactance, which can lead to restoration behavior. The current study investigated whether interacting with a persuasive robot can cause psychological reactance. Additionally, we investigated whether goal congruency plays a role in psychological reactance. Participants programmed a washing machine while a robot gave threatening advice. Confirming expectations, participants experienced more psychological reactance when receiving high-threatening advice compared to low-threatening advice. Moreover, when the robot gave high-threatening advice and expressed an incongruent goal, participants reported the highest level of psychological reactance (on an anger measure). Finally, high-threatening advice led to more restoration, and this relationship was partially mediated by psychological reactance. Overall, results imply that under certain circumstances persuasive technology can trigger opposite effects, especially when people have incongruent goal intentions.
["A" or ... "The" precious manuscript of the "Long life Elixir" just discovered].

Science.gov (United States)

Grelaud, Jean-Pierre

2012-05-01

This study relates, describes, analyzes & comments the content of a recently discovered old manuscript, written probably at the beginning of the 18th century, and compares it with the well known "Long life Elixir, or Swedish Elixir", manuscript found on a Swedish doctor who died at 104 years old as a result of a fall from his horse... The origin of this new manuscript can be established from 1700 to 1710, and seems to be probably anterior to the well known Swedish manuscript, meanwhile the text is almost similar,... and also is more complete than this one! We learn that the "Manna" is synonymic here of "fine Rhubarb". Another recipe, unknown on the other manuscript and titled "Dalibour Water" is also published: By similar way, this formula brings some new details, in particular in the exact composition, the preparation and the use of the "Long Life Elixir".
Experiences of a Motivational Interview Delivered by a Robot: Qualitative Study

Science.gov (United States)

Galvão Gomes da Silva, Joana; Kavanagh, David J; Belpaeme, Tony; Taylor, Lloyd; Beeson, Konna

2018-01-01

Background Motivational interviewing is an effective intervention for supporting behavior change but traditionally depends on face-to-face dialogue with a human counselor. This study addressed a key challenge for the goal of developing social robotic motivational interviewers: creating an interview protocol, within the constraints of current artificial intelligence, which participants will find engaging and helpful. Objective The aim of this study was to explore participants’ qualitative experiences of a motivational interview delivered by a social robot, including their evaluation of usability of the robot during the interaction and its impact on their motivation. Methods NAO robots are humanoid, child-sized social robots. We programmed a NAO robot with Choregraphe software to deliver a scripted motivational interview focused on increasing physical activity. The interview was designed to be comprehensible even without an empathetic response from the robot. Robot breathing and face-tracking functions were used to give an impression of attentiveness. A total of 20 participants took part in the robot-delivered motivational interview and evaluated it after 1 week by responding to a series of written open-ended questions. Each participant was left alone to speak aloud with the robot, advancing through a series of questions by tapping the robot’s head sensor. Evaluations were content-analyzed utilizing Boyatzis’ steps: (1) sampling and design, (2) developing themes and codes, and (3) validating and applying the codes. Results Themes focused on interaction with the robot, motivation, change in physical activity, and overall evaluation of the intervention. Participants found the instructions clear and the navigation easy to use. Most enjoyed the interaction but also found it was restricted by the lack of individualized response from the robot. Many positively appraised the nonjudgmental aspect of the interview and how it gave space to articulate their motivation for
The determinants of home healthcare robots adoption: an empirical investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Alaiad, Ahmad; Zhou, Lina

2014-11-01

Home healthcare robots promise to make clinical information available at the right place and time, thereby reducing error and increasing safety and quality. However, it has been frequently reported that more than 40% of previous information technology (IT) developments have failed or been abandoned due to the lack of understanding of the sociotechnical aspects of IT. Previous home healthcare robots research has focused on technology development and clinical applications. There has been little discussion of associated social, technical and managerial issues that are arguably of equal importance for robot success. To fill this knowledge gap, this research aims to understand the determinants of home healthcare robots adoption from these aspects by applying technology acceptance theories. We employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The participants were recruited from home healthcare agencies located in the U.S. (n=108), which included both patients and healthcare professionals. We collected data via a survey study to test a research model. The usage intention of home healthcare robots is a function of social influence, performance expectancy, trust, privacy concerns, ethical concerns and facilitating conditions. Among them, social influence is the strongest predictor. Monitoring vital signs and facilitating communication with family and medication reminders are the most preferable tasks and applications for robots. Sociotechnical factors play a powerful role in explaining the adoption intention for home healthcare robots. The findings provide insights on how home healthcare service providers and robot designers may improve the success of robot technologies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Care Robot ZORA in Dutch Nursing Homes; An Evaluation Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kort, Helianthe; Huisman, Chantal

2017-01-01

From May 2016 - November 2016 the use of the ZORA robot was investigated in 15 long-term care facilities for older people. The ZORA robot is built as a social robot and used for pleasure and entertainment or to stimulate physical activities of the residents.
“I just have diabetes”: children’s need for diabetes self-management support and how a social robot can accommodate their needs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blanson Henkemans OA

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Olivier A Blanson Henkemans, Vera Hoondert, Femke Schrama-Groot, Rosemarijn Looije, Laurence L Alpay, Mark A NeerincxTNO, Lifestyle, Leiden, The NetherlandsPurpose: Children with type 1 diabetes need to self-manage their illness to minimize its impact on their long-term health. However, because children are still developing cognitively and emotionally, self-management is challenging. The European FP7 project, ALIZ-E, looks at how social robots can support children aged 8–12 years with their diabetes self-management. To acquire user requirements for such a robot, we studied how diabetes self-management is organized for children and how they experience their illness and its management regarding their quality of life.Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with diabetes caregivers (n = 6 and children 8–12 with type 1 diabetes (n = 9, and surveyed their parents (n = 9.Results: Results of the interviews with caregivers show that parents play a prominent role in diabetes self-management and, accordingly, children do not experience significant problems. However, because children develop a need for autonomy during puberty, it is important that they become more proficient in their self-management at an earlier age. Results of the interviews with children show that they accept diabetes as a part of their life and want to be seen as regular children. Also, children experience difficulties in unusual situations (eg, doing sports and vacationing and at school. The illness comes at the cost of the child’s mental well-being (eg, insecurity, fear, and worry and physical well-being (eg, listlessness and tiredness. Regarding social well-being, children enjoy attending diabetes camps and having friends with diabetes, due to a common understanding of their condition. Finally, parents are not always fully aware of how children experience their illness.Conclusion: Children could benefit from social robots offering motivation, training, and (parental
An Ethical Evaluation of Human–Robot Relationships

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Graaf, M.M.A.

2016-01-01

When people interact with socially interactive robots on a regular basis, it could be that people start developing some kind of relationship with such robots. People are able to get attached to several objects in our everyday world. However, the relationships we build with regular objects differ

Acceptance rate and reasons for rejection of manuscripts submitted to Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound during 2012.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamb, Christopher R; Mai, Wilfried

2015-01-01

Better understanding of the reasons why manuscripts are rejected, and recognition of the most frequent manuscript flaws identified by reviewers, should help submitting authors to avoid these pitfalls. Of 219 manuscripts submitted to Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound in 2012, none (0%) was accepted without revision, four (2%) were withdrawn by the authors, 99 (45%) were accepted after revision, and 116 (53%) were rejected. All manuscripts for which minor revision was requested, and 73/86 (85%) manuscripts for which major revision was requested, were ultimately accepted. Acceptance rate was greater for retrospective studies and for manuscripts submitted from countries in which English was the primary language. The prevalences of flaws in manuscripts were poor writing (62%), deficiencies in data (60%), logical or methodological errors (28%), content not suitable for Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound (26%), and lack of new or useful knowledge (25%). Likelihood of manuscript rejection was greater for lack of new or useful knowledge and content not suitable than for other manuscript flaws. The lower acceptance rate for manuscripts from countries in which English was not the primary language was associated with content not suitable and not poor writing. Submitting authors are encouraged to do more to recognize and address manuscript flaws before submission, for example by internal review. Specifically, submitting authors should express clearly the potential added value of their study in the introduction section of their manuscript, describe completely their methods and results, and consult the Editor-in-Chief if they are uncertain whether their subject matter would be suitable for the journal. © 2014 American College of Veterinary Radiology.
Fish and robot dancing together: bluefin killifish females respond differently to the courtship of a robot with varying color morphs.

Science.gov (United States)

Phamduy, P; Polverino, G; Fuller, R C; Porfiri, M

2014-09-01

The experimental integration of bioinspired robots in groups of social animals has become a valuable tool to understand the basis of social behavior and uncover the fundamental determinants of animal communication. In this study, we measured the preference of fertile female bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei) for robotic replicas whose aspect ratio, body size, motion pattern, and color morph were inspired by adult male killifish. The motion of the fish replica was controlled via a robotic platform, which simulated the typical courtship behavior observed in killifish males. The positional preferences of females were measured for three different color morphs (red, yellow, and blue). While variation in preference was high among females, females tend to spend more time in the vicinity of the yellow painted robot replicas. This preference may have emerged because the yellow robot replicas were very bright, particularly in the longer wavelengths (550–700 nm) compared to the red and blue replicas. These findings are in agreement with previous observations in mosquitofish and zebrafish on fish preference for artificially enhanced yellow pigmentation.
Fish and robot dancing together: bluefin killifish females respond differently to the courtship of a robot with varying color morphs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phamduy, P; Polverino, G; Porfiri, M; Fuller, R C

2014-01-01

The experimental integration of bioinspired robots in groups of social animals has become a valuable tool to understand the basis of social behavior and uncover the fundamental determinants of animal communication. In this study, we measured the preference of fertile female bluefin killifish (Lucania goodei) for robotic replicas whose aspect ratio, body size, motion pattern, and color morph were inspired by adult male killifish. The motion of the fish replica was controlled via a robotic platform, which simulated the typical courtship behavior observed in killifish males. The positional preferences of females were measured for three different color morphs (red, yellow, and blue). While variation in preference was high among females, females tend to spend more time in the vicinity of the yellow painted robot replicas. This preference may have emerged because the yellow robot replicas were very bright, particularly in the longer wavelengths (550–700 nm) compared to the red and blue replicas. These findings are in agreement with previous observations in mosquitofish and zebrafish on fish preference for artificially enhanced yellow pigmentation. (paper)
A Survey of Expectations About the Role of Robots in Robot-Assisted Therapy for Children with ASD: Ethical Acceptability, Trust, Sociability, Appearance, and Attachment.

Science.gov (United States)

Coeckelbergh, Mark; Pop, Cristina; Simut, Ramona; Peca, Andreea; Pintea, Sebastian; David, Daniel; Vanderborght, Bram

2016-02-01

The use of robots in therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) raises issues concerning the ethical and social acceptability of this technology and, more generally, about human-robot interaction. However, usually philosophical papers on the ethics of human-robot-interaction do not take into account stakeholders' views; yet it is important to involve stakeholders in order to render the research responsive to concerns within the autism and autism therapy community. To support responsible research and innovation in this field, this paper identifies a range of ethical, social and therapeutic concerns, and presents and discusses the results of an exploratory survey that investigated these issues and explored stakeholders' expectations about this kind of therapy. We conclude that although in general stakeholders approve of using robots in therapy for children with ASD, it is wise to avoid replacing therapists by robots and to develop and use robots that have what we call supervised autonomy. This is likely to create more trust among stakeholders and improve the quality of the therapy. Moreover, our research suggests that issues concerning the appearance of the robot need to be adequately dealt with by the researchers and therapists. For instance, our survey suggests that zoomorphic robots may be less problematic than robots that look too much like humans.
Experiences of a Motivational Interview Delivered by a Robot: Qualitative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Galvão Gomes da Silva, Joana; Kavanagh, David J; Belpaeme, Tony; Taylor, Lloyd; Beeson, Konna; Andrade, Jackie

2018-05-03

Motivational interviewing is an effective intervention for supporting behavior change but traditionally depends on face-to-face dialogue with a human counselor. This study addressed a key challenge for the goal of developing social robotic motivational interviewers: creating an interview protocol, within the constraints of current artificial intelligence, which participants will find engaging and helpful. The aim of this study was to explore participants' qualitative experiences of a motivational interview delivered by a social robot, including their evaluation of usability of the robot during the interaction and its impact on their motivation. NAO robots are humanoid, child-sized social robots. We programmed a NAO robot with Choregraphe software to deliver a scripted motivational interview focused on increasing physical activity. The interview was designed to be comprehensible even without an empathetic response from the robot. Robot breathing and face-tracking functions were used to give an impression of attentiveness. A total of 20 participants took part in the robot-delivered motivational interview and evaluated it after 1 week by responding to a series of written open-ended questions. Each participant was left alone to speak aloud with the robot, advancing through a series of questions by tapping the robot's head sensor. Evaluations were content-analyzed utilizing Boyatzis' steps: (1) sampling and design, (2) developing themes and codes, and (3) validating and applying the codes. Themes focused on interaction with the robot, motivation, change in physical activity, and overall evaluation of the intervention. Participants found the instructions clear and the navigation easy to use. Most enjoyed the interaction but also found it was restricted by the lack of individualized response from the robot. Many positively appraised the nonjudgmental aspect of the interview and how it gave space to articulate their motivation for change. Some participants felt that the
‘Active citizenship’ and feeding assistive robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nickelsen, Niels Christian Mossfeldt

2018-01-01

Would you want to be fed by a robot? This question may or may not sound attractive to a severely disabled citizen striving for self-reliance. Recently assistive robotics have become a new factor to rely on in relation to a number of aspects of social work and health care. These initiatives have...... study, I discuss the ways humans engage with them, how they co-produce everyday life in housing institutions, and the sensitivity of assistive robotics. During the latest years, Feeding Assistive Robotics (FAR) have enjoyed strong political endorsement in Denmark. Nevertheless, I argue, it is difficult...
Analysis of the results of the first implementation of the Korea Manuscript Editors Certification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyun Jung Yi

2017-02-01

Full Text Available In the field of international scholarly journal publishing, manuscript editing has been established as an essential component of the publication process. As the necessity of this process has increased, the Korean Council of Science Editors has consistently provided education for training professional manuscript editors, and has worked to implement a manuscript editor certification system. Starting in 2014, the Korean Council of Science Editors thoroughly conducted background research and advanced analysis in preparation for such a system. Subsequently, a committee of experts was formed to develop and simulate an examination for this certification. This process culminated in the first manuscript editor certification examination, which was held in November 2016 and resulted in 40 initial Korea Manuscript Editors Certification holders. Examinations for the Korea Manuscript Editors Certification are scheduled to be held annually. The establishment of this certification system will contribute to strengthening individual capacities and further developing science journal publication in Korea by expanding the field of manuscript editing. Ultimately, this system will contribute to the promotion of Korean scientific journals to the level of prominent international journals.
Robot Rights? Towards a Social-Relational Justification of Moral Consideration.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coeckelbergh, Mark

2010-01-01

Should we grant rights to artificially intelligent robots? Most current and near-future robots do not meet the hard criteria set by deontological and utilitarian theory. Virtue ethics can avoid this problem with its indirect approach. However, both direct and indirect arguments for moral
source files for manuscript in tex format

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Source tex files used to create the manuscript including original figure files and raw data used in tables and inline text. This dataset is associated with the...
Self-Imitation and Environmental Scaffolding for Robot Teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joe Saunders

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Imitative learning and learning by observation are social mechanisms that allow a robot to acquire knowledge from a human or another robot. However to be able to obtain skills in this way the robot faces many complex issues, one of which is that of finding solutions to the correspondence problem. Evolutionary predecessors to observational imitation may have been self-imitation where an agent avoids the complexities of the correspondence problem by learning and replicating actions it has experienced through the manipulation of its body. We investigate how a robotic control and teaching system using self-imitation can be constructed with reference to psychological models of motor control and ideas from social scaffolding seen in animals. Within these scaffolded environments sets of competencies can be built by constructing hierarchical state/action memory maps of the robot's interaction within that environment. The scaffolding process provides a mechanism to enable learning to be scaled up. The resulting system allows a human trainer to teach a robot new skills and modify skills that the robot may possess. Additionally the system allows the robot to notify the trainer when it is being taught skills it already has in its repertoire and to direct and focus its attention and sensor resources to relevant parts of the skill being executed. We argue that these mechanisms may be a first step towards the transformation from self-imitation to observational imitation. The system is validated on a physical pioneer robot that is taught using self-imitation to track, follow and point to a patterned object.
Self-imitation and Environmental Scaffolding for Robot Teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chrystopher L. Nehaniv

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Imitative learning and learning by observation are social mechanisms that allow a robot to acquire knowledge from a human or another robot. However to be able to obtain skills in this way the robot faces many complex issues, one of which is that of finding solutions to the correspondence problem. Evolutionary predecessors to observational imitation may have been self-imitation where an agent avoids the complexities of the correspondence problem by learning and replicating actions it has experienced through the manipulation of its body. We investigate how a robotic control and teaching system using self-imitation can be constructed with reference to psychological models of motor control and ideas from social scaffolding seen in animals. Within these scaffolded environments sets of competencies can be built by constructing hierarchical state/action memory maps of the robot's interaction within that environment. The scaffolding process provides a mechanism to enable learning to be scaled up. The resulting system allows a human trainer to teach a robot new skills and modify skills that the robot may possess. Additionally the system allows the robot to notify the trainer when it is being taught skills it already has in its repertoire and to direct and focus its attention and sensor resources to relevant parts of the skill being executed. We argue that these mechanisms may be a first step towards the transformation from self-imitation to observational imitation. The system is validated on a physical pioneer robot that is taught using self-imitation to track, follow and point to a patterned object.
25th Conference on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region

CERN Document Server

Borangiu, Theodor

2017-01-01

This book presents the proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region, RAAD 2016 held in Belgrade, Serbia, on June 30th–July 2nd, 2016. In keeping with the tradition of the event, RAAD 2016 covered all the important areas of research and innovation in new robot designs and intelligent robot control, with papers including Intelligent robot motion control; Robot vision and sensory processing; Novel design of robot manipulators and grippers; Robot applications in manufacturing and services; Autonomous systems, humanoid and walking robots; Human–robot interaction and collaboration; Cognitive robots and emotional intelligence; Medical, human-assistive robots and prosthetic design; Robots in construction and arts, and Evolution, education, legal and social issues of robotics. For the first time in RAAD history, the themes cloud robots, legal and ethical issues in robotics as well as robots in arts were included in the technical program. The book is a valuable resource f...
Robotic Software Integration Using MARIE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carle Côté

2006-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents MARIE, a middleware framework oriented towards developing and integrating new and existing software for robotic systems. By using a generic communication framework, MARIE aims to create a flexible distributed component system that allows robotics developers to share software programs and algorithms, and design prototypes rapidly based on their own integration needs. The use of MARIE is illustrated with the design of a socially interactive autonomous mobile robot platform capable of map building, localization, navigation, tasks scheduling, sound source localization, tracking and separation, speech recognition and generation, visual tracking, message reading and graphical interaction using a touch screen interface.
Combining psychological and engineering approaches to utilizing social robots with children with autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Dickstein-Fischer, Laurie; Fischer, Gregory S

2014-01-01

It is estimated that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 68 children. Early identification of an ASD is exceedingly important to the introduction of an intervention. We are developing a robot-assisted approach that will serve as an improved diagnostic and early intervention tool for children with autism. The robot, named PABI® (Penguin for Autism Behavioral Interventions), is a compact humanoid robot taking on an expressive cartoon-like embodiment. The robot is affordable, durable, and portable so that it can be used in various settings including schools, clinics, and the home. Thus enabling significantly enhanced and more readily available diagnosis and continuation of care. Through facial expressions, body motion, verbal cues, stereo vision-based tracking, and a tablet computer, the robot is capable of interacting meaningfully with an autistic child. Initial implementations of the robot, as part of a comprehensive treatment model (CTM), include Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy where the child interacts with a tablet computer wirelessly interfaced with the robot. At the same time, the robot makes meaningful expressions and utterances and uses stereo cameras in eyes to track the child, maintain eye contact, and collect data such as affect and gaze direction for charting of progress. In this paper we present the clinical justification, anticipated usage with corresponding requirements, prototype development of the robotic system, and demonstration of a sample application for robot-assisted ABA therapy.
The Effects of Exposure to Different Social Robots on Attitudes toward Preferences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vlachos, Evgenios; Jochum, Elizabeth Ann; Demers, Louis-Philippe

2016-01-01

for soft materials, preferred mutual contact despite initial preference of subject to initiate touch, and preferred communication with a robot that could touch rather than initial preference for a robot that could “see”. Overall, users showed a significant constant preference for the machine-like robot...
Personal robots, appearance and the Good: A methodological reflection on roboethics.

OpenAIRE

Coeckelbergh, Mark

2009-01-01

The development of pet robots, toy robots, and sex robots suggests a near-future scenario of habitual living with ‘personal’ robots. How should we evaluate their potential impact on the quality of our lives and existence? In this paper, I argue for an approach to ethics of personal robots that advocates a methodological turn from robots to humans, from mind to interaction, from intelligent thinking to social-emotional being, from reality to appearance, from right to good, from external criter...
Industrial Human-Robot Collaboration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Philipsen, Mark Philip; Rehm, Matthias; Moeslund, Thomas B.

2018-01-01

In the future, robots are envisioned to work side by side with humans in dynamic environments both in production contexts but also more and more in societal context like health care, education, or commerce. This will require robots to become socially accepted, to become able to analyze human...... intentions in meaningful ways, and to become proactive. It is our conviction that this can only be achieved on the basis of a tight combination of multimodal signal processing and AI techniques in real application context....
Human-Robot Interaction: Status and Challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheridan, Thomas B

2016-06-01

The current status of human-robot interaction (HRI) is reviewed, and key current research challenges for the human factors community are described. Robots have evolved from continuous human-controlled master-slave servomechanisms for handling nuclear waste to a broad range of robots incorporating artificial intelligence for many applications and under human supervisory control. This mini-review describes HRI developments in four application areas and what are the challenges for human factors research. In addition to a plethora of research papers, evidence of success is manifest in live demonstrations of robot capability under various forms of human control. HRI is a rapidly evolving field. Specialized robots under human teleoperation have proven successful in hazardous environments and medical application, as have specialized telerobots under human supervisory control for space and repetitive industrial tasks. Research in areas of self-driving cars, intimate collaboration with humans in manipulation tasks, human control of humanoid robots for hazardous environments, and social interaction with robots is at initial stages. The efficacy of humanoid general-purpose robots has yet to be proven. HRI is now applied in almost all robot tasks, including manufacturing, space, aviation, undersea, surgery, rehabilitation, agriculture, education, package fetch and delivery, policing, and military operations. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Robotics in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery: Recommendations for training and credentialing: A report of the 2015 AHNS education committee, AAO-HNS robotic task force and AAO-HNS sleep disorders committee.

Science.gov (United States)

Gross, Neil D; Holsinger, F Christopher; Magnuson, J Scott; Duvvuri, Umamaheswar; Genden, Eric M; Ghanem, Tamer Ah; Yaremchuk, Kathleen L; Goldenberg, David; Miller, Matthew C; Moore, Eric J; Morris, Luc Gt; Netterville, James; Weinstein, Gregory S; Richmon, Jeremy

2016-04-01

Training and credentialing for robotic surgery in otolaryngology - head and neck surgery is currently not standardized, but rather relies heavily on industry guidance. This manuscript represents a comprehensive review of this increasingly important topic and outlines clear recommendations to better standardize the practice. The recommendations provided can be used as a reference by individuals and institutions alike, and are expected to evolve over time. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E151-E158. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
4th International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications

CERN Document Server

Karray, Fakhri; Jo, Jun; Sincak, Peter; Myung, Hyun

2017-01-01

This book covers all aspects of robot intelligence from perception at sensor level and reasoning at cognitive level to behavior planning at execution level for each low level segment of the machine. It also presents the technologies for cognitive reasoning, social interaction with humans, behavior generation, ability to cooperate with other robots, ambience awareness, and an artificial genome that can be passed on to other robots. These technologies are to materialize cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, behavioral intelligence, collective intelligence, ambient intelligence and genetic intelligence. The book aims at serving researchers and practitioners with a timely dissemination of the recent progress on robot intelligence technology and its applications, based on a collection of papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications (RiTA), held in Bucheon, Korea, December 14 - 16, 2015. For better readability, this edition has the total of 49 article...

3rd International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications

CERN Document Server

Yang, Weimin; Jo, Jun; Sincak, Peter; Myung, Hyun

2015-01-01

This book covers all aspects of robot intelligence from perception at sensor level and reasoning at cognitive level to behavior planning at execution level for each low level segment of the machine. It also presents the technologies for cognitive reasoning, social interaction with humans, behavior generation, ability to cooperate with other robots, ambience awareness, and an artificial genome that can be passed on to other robots. These technologies are to materialize cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, behavioral intelligence, collective intelligence, ambient intelligence and genetic intelligence. The book aims at serving researchers and practitioners with a timely dissemination of the recent progress on robot intelligence technology and its applications, based on a collection of papers presented at the 3rd International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications (RiTA), held in Beijing, China, November 6 - 8, 2014. For better readability, this edition has the total 74 papers group...
Active Vision for Sociable Robots

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Breazeal, Cynthia; Edsinger, Aaron; Fitzpatrick, Paul; Scassellati, Brian

2001-01-01

.... In humanoid robotic systems, or in any animate vision system that interacts with people, social dynamics provide additional levels of constraint and provide additional opportunities for processing economy...
Blame my telepresence robot Joint effect of proxemics and attribution on interpersonal attraction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Houwelingen-Snippe, Josca; Vroon, Jered Hendrik; Englebienne, Gwenn; Haselager, W.F.G.

When remote users share autonomy with a telepresence robot, questions arise as to how the behaviour of the robot is interpreted by local users. We investigated how a robot's violations of social norms under shared autonomy influence the local user's evaluation of the robot's remote users.
Interactions With Robots: The Truths We Reveal About Ourselves.

Science.gov (United States)

Broadbent, Elizabeth

2017-01-03

In movies, robots are often extremely humanlike. Although these robots are not yet reality, robots are currently being used in healthcare, education, and business. Robots provide benefits such as relieving loneliness and enabling communication. Engineers are trying to build robots that look and behave like humans and thus need comprehensive knowledge not only of technology but also of human cognition, emotion, and behavior. This need is driving engineers to study human behavior toward other humans and toward robots, leading to greater understanding of how humans think, feel, and behave in these contexts, including our tendencies for mindless social behaviors, anthropomorphism, uncanny feelings toward robots, and the formation of emotional attachments. However, in considering the increased use of robots, many people have concerns about deception, privacy, job loss, safety, and the loss of human relationships. Human-robot interaction is a fascinating field and one in which psychologists have much to contribute, both to the development of robots and to the study of human behavior.
A literature review on new robotics : automation from love to war

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Royakkers, L.M.M.; Est, van Q.C.

2015-01-01

This article investigates the social significance of robotics for the years to come in Europe and the US by studying robotics developments in five different areas: the home, health care, traffic, the police force, and the army. Our society accepts the use of robots to perform dull, dangerous, and
Implementing a Robotics Curriculum in an Early Childhood Montessori Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Elkin, Mollie; Sullivan, Amanda; Bers, Marina Umaschi

2014-01-01

This paper explores how robotics can be used as a new educational tool in a Montessori early education classroom. It presents a case study of one early educator's experience of designing and implementing a robotics curriculum integrated with a social science unit in her mixed-age classroom. This teacher had no prior experience using robotics in…
Robotic-assisted laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (R-LESS) in urology: an evidence-based analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Barret, E; Sanchez-Salas, R; Ercolani, M; Forgues, A; Rozet, F; Galiano, M; Cathelineau, X

2011-06-01

The objective of this manuscript is to provide an evidence-based analysis of the current status and future perspectives of robotic laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (R-LESS). A PubMed search has been performed for all relevant urological literature regarding natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) and laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS). All clinical and investigative reports for robotic LESS and NOTES procedures in the urological literature have been considered. A significant number of clinical urological procedures have been successfully completed utilizing R-LESS procedures. The available experience is limited to referral centers, where the case volume is sufficient to help overcome the challenges and learning curve of LESS surgery. The robotic interface remains the best fit for LESS procedures but its mode of use continues to evolve in attempts to improve surgical technique. We stand today at the dawn of R-LESS surgery, but this approach may well become the standard of care in the near future. Further technological development is needed to allow widespread adoption of the technique.
How to Build a Supervised Autonomous System for Robot-Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esteban Pablo G.

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Robot-Assisted Therapy (RAT has successfully been used to improve social skills in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD through remote control of the robot in so-called Wizard of Oz (WoZ paradigms.However, there is a need to increase the autonomy of the robot both to lighten the burden on human therapists (who have to remain in control and, importantly, supervise the robot and to provide a consistent therapeutic experience. This paper seeks to provide insight into increasing the autonomy level of social robots in therapy to move beyond WoZ. With the final aim of improved human-human social interaction for the children, this multidisciplinary research seeks to facilitate the use of social robots as tools in clinical situations by addressing the challenge of increasing robot autonomy.We introduce the clinical framework in which the developments are tested, alongside initial data obtained from patients in a first phase of the project using a WoZ set-up mimicking the targeted supervised-autonomy behaviour. We further describe the implemented system architecture capable of providing the robot with supervised autonomy.
Randomized Controlled Trial of Social Media: Effect of Increased Intensity of the Intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Caroline S; Gurary, Ellen B; Ryan, John; Bonaca, Marc; Barry, Karen; Loscalzo, Joseph; Massaro, Joseph

2016-04-27

A prior randomized controlled trial of social media exposure at Circulation determined that social media did not increase 30-day page views. Whether insufficient social media intensity contributed to these results is uncertain. Original article manuscripts were randomized to social media exposure compared with no social media exposure (control) at Circulation beginning in January 2015. Social media exposure consisted of Facebook and Twitter posts on the journal's accounts. To increase social media intensity, a larger base of followers was built using advertising and organic growth, and posts were presented in triplicate and boosted on Facebook and retweeted on Twitter. The primary outcome was 30-day page views. Stopping rules were established at the point that 50% of the manuscripts were randomized and had 30-day follow-up to compare groups on 30-day page views. The trial was stopped for futility on September 26, 2015. Overall, 74 manuscripts were randomized to receive social media exposure, and 78 manuscripts were randomized to the control arm. The intervention and control arms were similar based on article type (P=0.85), geographic location of the corresponding author (P=0.33), and whether the manuscript had an editorial (P=0.80). Median number of 30-day page views was 499.5 in the social media arm and 450.5 in the control arm; there was no evidence of a treatment effect (P=0.38). There were no statistically significant interactions of treatment by manuscript type (P=0.86), by corresponding author (P=0.35), by trimester of publication date (P=0.34), or by editorial status (P=0.79). A more intensive social media strategy did not result in increased 30-day page views of original research. © 2016 The Authors. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley Blackwell.
The Creation of a Multi-Human, Multi-Robot Interactive Jam Session

OpenAIRE

Weinberg, Gil; Blosser, Brian; Mallikarjuna, Trishul; Raman, Aparna

2009-01-01

This paper presents an interactive and improvisational jam session, including human players and two robotic musicians. The project was developed in an effort to create novel and inspiring music through human-robot collaboration. The jam session incorporates Shimon, a newly-developed socially-interactive robotic marimba player, and Haile, a perceptual robotic percussionist developed in previous work. The paper gives an overview of the musical perception modules, adaptive improvisation modes an...
Laws on Robots, Laws by Robots, Laws in Robots : Regulating Robot Behaviour by Design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leenes, R.E.; Lucivero, F.

2015-01-01

Speculation about robot morality is almost as old as the concept of a robot itself. Asimov’s three laws of robotics provide an early and well-discussed example of moral rules robots should observe. Despite the widespread influence of the three laws of robotics and their role in shaping visions of
Flat vs. Expressive Storytelling: Young Children's Learning and Retention of a Social Robot's Narrative.

Science.gov (United States)

Kory Westlund, Jacqueline M; Jeong, Sooyeon; Park, Hae W; Ronfard, Samuel; Adhikari, Aradhana; Harris, Paul L; DeSteno, David; Breazeal, Cynthia L

2017-01-01

Prior research with preschool children has established that dialogic or active book reading is an effective method for expanding young children's vocabulary. In this exploratory study, we asked whether similar benefits are observed when a robot engages in dialogic reading with preschoolers. Given the established effectiveness of active reading, we also asked whether this effectiveness was critically dependent on the expressive characteristics of the robot. For approximately half the children, the robot's active reading was expressive; the robot's voice included a wide range of intonation and emotion ( Expressive ). For the remaining children, the robot read and conversed with a flat voice, which sounded similar to a classic text-to-speech engine and had little dynamic range ( Flat ). The robot's movements were kept constant across conditions. We performed a verification study using Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) to confirm that the Expressive robot was viewed as significantly more expressive, more emotional, and less passive than the Flat robot. We invited 45 preschoolers with an average age of 5 years who were either English Language Learners (ELL), bilingual, or native English speakers to engage in the reading task with the robot. The robot narrated a story from a picture book, using active reading techniques and including a set of target vocabulary words in the narration. Children were post-tested on the vocabulary words and were also asked to retell the story to a puppet. A subset of 34 children performed a second story retelling 4-6 weeks later. Children reported liking and learning from the robot a similar amount in the Expressive and Flat conditions. However, as compared to children in the Flat condition, children in the Expressive condition were more concentrated and engaged as indexed by their facial expressions; they emulated the robot's story more in their story retells; and they told longer stories during their delayed retelling. Furthermore, children who
Intelligence for Human-Assistant Planetary Surface Robots

Science.gov (United States)

Hirsh, Robert; Graham, Jeffrey; Tyree, Kimberly; Sierhuis, Maarten; Clancey, William J.

2006-01-01

The central premise in developing effective human-assistant planetary surface robots is that robotic intelligence is needed. The exact type, method, forms and/or quantity of intelligence is an open issue being explored on the ERA project, as well as others. In addition to field testing, theoretical research into this area can help provide answers on how to design future planetary robots. Many fundamental intelligence issues are discussed by Murphy [2], including (a) learning, (b) planning, (c) reasoning, (d) problem solving, (e) knowledge representation, and (f) computer vision (stereo tracking, gestures). The new "social interaction/emotional" form of intelligence that some consider critical to Human Robot Interaction (HRI) can also be addressed by human assistant planetary surface robots, as human operators feel more comfortable working with a robot when the robot is verbally (or even physically) interacting with them. Arkin [3] and Murphy are both proponents of the hybrid deliberative-reasoning/reactive-execution architecture as the best general architecture for fully realizing robot potential, and the robots discussed herein implement a design continuously progressing toward this hybrid philosophy. The remainder of this chapter will describe the challenges associated with robotic assistance to astronauts, our general research approach, the intelligence incorporated into our robots, and the results and lessons learned from over six years of testing human-assistant mobile robots in field settings relevant to planetary exploration. The chapter concludes with some key considerations for future work in this area.
Evolution of Signaling in a Multi-Robot System: Categorization and Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Ampatzis, Christos; Tuci, Elio; Trianni, Vito; Dorigo, Marco

We use Evolutionary Robotics to design robot controllers in which decision-making mechanisms to switch from solitary to social behavior are integrated with the mechanisms that underpin the sensory-motor repertoire of the robots. In particular, we study the evolution of behavioral and communicative skills in a categorization task. The individual decision-making structures are based on the integration over time of sensory information. The mechanisms for switching from solitary to social behavior and the ways in which the robots can affect each other's behavior are not predetermined by the experimenter, but are aspects of our model designed by artificial evolution. Our results show that evolved robots manage to cooperate and collectively discriminate between different environments by developing a simple communication protocol based on sound signaling. Communication emerges in the absence of explicit selective pressure coded in the fitness function. The evolution of communication is neither trivial nor obvious; for a meaningful signaling system to evolve, evolution must produce both appropriate signals and appropriate reactions to signals. The use of communication proves to be adaptive for the group, even if, in principle, non-cooperating robots can be equally successful with cooperating robots.
Investigating positioning and gaze behaviors of social robots : people's preferences, perceptions, and behaviors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Joosse, Michiel Pieter

2017-01-01

As technology advances, application areas for robots are no longer limited to the factories where they perform repetitive tasks behind fences. Robots are envisioned to provide services to us in everyday public spaces - in which they will encounter and interact with people. These types of robots can
Designing interruptive behaviors of a public environmental monitoring robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Evers, V.; de Vries, R.; Alvito, P.

2011-01-01

This paper reports ongoing research to inform the design of a social robot to monitor levels of pollutant gasses in the air. Next to licensed environmental agents and immobile chemical sensors, mobile technologies such as robotic agents are needed to collect complaints and smell descriptions from
I just have diabetes : children’s need for diabetes self-management support and how a social robot can accommodate their needs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blanson Henkemans, O.A.; Hoondert, V.; Schrama-Groot, F.; Looije, R.; Alpay, L.L.; Neerincx, M.A.

2012-01-01

Children with type 1 diabetes need to self-manage their illness to minimize its impact on their long-term health. However, because children are still developing cognitively and emotionally, self-management is challenging. The European FP7 project, ALIZ-E, looks at how social robots can support
Friendly network robotics; Friendly network robotics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-03-01

This paper summarizes the research results on the friendly network robotics in fiscal 1996. This research assumes an android robot as an ultimate robot and the future robot system utilizing computer network technology. The robot aiming at human daily work activities in factories or under extreme environments is required to work under usual human work environments. The human robot with similar size, shape and functions to human being is desirable. Such robot having a head with two eyes, two ears and mouth can hold a conversation with human being, can walk with two legs by autonomous adaptive control, and has a behavior intelligence. Remote operation of such robot is also possible through high-speed computer network. As a key technology to use this robot under coexistence with human being, establishment of human coexistent robotics was studied. As network based robotics, use of robots connected with computer networks was also studied. In addition, the R-cube (R{sup 3}) plan (realtime remote control robot technology) was proposed. 82 refs., 86 figs., 12 tabs.
Robot vision for nuclear advanced robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakayama, Ryoichi; Okano, Hideharu; Kuno, Yoshinori; Miyazawa, Tatsuo; Shimada, Hideo; Okada, Satoshi; Kawamura, Astuo

1991-01-01

This paper describes Robot Vision and Operation System for Nuclear Advanced Robot. This Robot Vision consists of robot position detection, obstacle detection and object recognition. With these vision techniques, a mobile robot can make a path and move autonomously along the planned path. The authors implemented the above robot vision system on the 'Advanced Robot for Nuclear Power Plant' and tested in an environment mocked up as nuclear power plant facilities. Since the operation system for this robot consists of operator's console and a large stereo monitor, this system can be easily operated by one person. Experimental tests were made using the Advanced Robot (nuclear robot). Results indicate that the proposed operation system is very useful, and can be operate by only person. (author)
Virtual museum of manuscripts in teaching humanitarian subjects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Нина Леонидовна Панина

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The author examines existing forms of representation of the book in museum's online resources and proposes a new approach for virtual museum of the manuscript, specifically focused on the educational purposes.

Control of flexible robots with prismatic joints and hydraulic drives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Love, L.J.; Kress, R.L.; Jansen, J.F.

1997-01-01

The design and control of long-reach, flexible manipulators has been an active research topic for over 20 years. Most of the research to date has focused on single link, fixed length, single plane of vibration test beds. In addition, actuation has been predominantly based upon electromagnetic motors. Ironically, these elements are rarely found in the existing industrial long-reach systems. One example is the Modified Light Duty Utility Arm (MLDUA) designed and built by Spar Aerospace for Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This arm operates in larger, underground waste storage tanks located at ORNL. The size and nature of the tanks require that the robot have a reach of approximately 15 ft and a payload capacity of 250 lb. In order to achieve these criteria, each joint is hydraulically actuated. Furthermore, the robot has a prismatic degree-of-freedom to ease deployment. When fully extended, the robot's first natural frequency is 1.76 Hz. Many of the projected tasks, coupled with the robot's flexibility, present an interesting problem. How will many of the existing flexure control algorithms perform on a hydraulic, long-reach manipulator with prismatic links? To minimize cost and risk of testing these algorithms on the MLDUA, the authors have designed a new test bed that contains many of the same elements. This manuscript described a new hydraulically actuated, long-reach manipulator with a flexible prismatic link at ORNL. Focus is directed toward both modeling and control of hydraulic actuators as well as flexible links that have variable natural frequencies
Facial expressions recognition with an emotion expressive robotic head

Science.gov (United States)

Doroftei, I.; Adascalitei, F.; Lefeber, D.; Vanderborght, B.; Doroftei, I. A.

2016-08-01

The purpose of this study is to present the preliminary steps in facial expressions recognition with a new version of an expressive social robotic head. So, in a first phase, our main goal was to reach a minimum level of emotional expressiveness in order to obtain nonverbal communication between the robot and human by building six basic facial expressions. To evaluate the facial expressions, the robot was used in some preliminary user studies, among children and adults.
Evaluation of an Assistive Telepresence Robot for Elderly Healthcare.

Science.gov (United States)

Koceski, Saso; Koceska, Natasa

2016-05-01

In this paper we described the telepresence robot system designed to improve the well-being of elderly by supporting them to do daily activities independently, to facilitate social interaction in order to overcome a sense of social isolation and loneliness as well as to support the professional caregivers in everyday care. In order to investigate the acceptance of the developed robot system, evaluation study involved elderly people and professional caregivers, as two potential user groups was conducted. The results of this study are also presented and discussed.
2nd International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications

CERN Document Server

Matson, Eric; Myung, Hyun; Xu, Peter; Karray, Fakhri

2014-01-01

We are facing a new technological challenge on how to store and retrieve knowledge and manipulate intelligence for autonomous services by intelligent systems which should be capable of carrying out real world tasks autonomously. To address this issue, robot researchers have been developing intelligence technology (InT) for “robots that think” which is in the focus of this book. The book covers all aspects of intelligence from perception at sensor level and reasoning at cognitive level to behavior planning at execution level for each low level segment of the machine. It also presents the technologies for cognitive reasoning, social interaction with humans, behavior generation, ability to cooperate with other robots, ambience awareness, and an artificial genome that can be passed on to other robots. These technologies are to materialize cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, behavioral intelligence, collective intelligence, ambient intelligence and genetic intelligence. The book aims at serving resear...
The Idea of an Old Qur'an Manuscript: On the Commercialization of the Indonesian Islamic Heritage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edwin Wieringa

2015-02-01

Full Text Available A Qur’an manuscript, now in the possession of the University of Cologne, Germany (call number Cod. Malaiologie 001/2012, can be regarded as a “fake” in the sense of having a misleading appearance. This manuscript is a fairly recent bricolage which aims to represent the idea of an old Qur’an manuscript, thereby catering to the increased demand on the international market for old manuscripts from insular Southeast Asia.
A social net? Internet and social media use during unemployment

OpenAIRE

Feuls, Miriam; Fieseler, Christian; Suphan, Anne

2014-01-01

This is the author’s accepted, refereed manuscript to the article Many people who are unemployed tend to experience forms of psychological and social losses, including a weakened time structure, diminished social contacts, an absence of collective purpose, falling status, and inactivity. This article focuses on the experience of diminished social contacts and addresses whether social media help the unemployed maintain their relationships. Based on qualitative interviews with unempl...
Robots for Elderly Care: Their Level of Social Interactions and the Targeted End User.

Science.gov (United States)

Bedaf, Sandra; de Witte, Luc

2017-01-01

Robots for older adults have a lot of potential. In order to create an overview of the developments in this area a systematic review of robots for older adults living independently was conducted. Robots were categorized based on their market readiness, the type of provided support (i.e., physical, non-physical, non-specified), and the activity domain they claim to support. Additionally, the commercially available robots are places in a proposed framework to help to distinguish the different types of robots and their focus. During the presentation an updated version of the state of the art will be presented.
You, Robot: On the Linguistic Conctruction of Artificial Others.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Coeckelbergh, Mark

2010-01-01

How can we make sense of the idea of ‘personal’ or ‘social’ relations with robots? Starting from a social and phenomenological approach to human–robot relations, this paper explores how we can better understand and evaluate these relations by attending to the ways our conscious experience of the
Household Scribes and the Production of Literary Manuscripts in Early Modern England

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcy L. North

2015-03-01

Full Text Available In early modern English households, literate servants such as tutors, chaplains, stewards, secretaries, and ladies in waiting were well positioned to assist their employers in the assembly and copying of verse miscellanies, anthologies, and other literary manuscripts. Looking at several literary manuscripts, some with known servant contributions and others that suggest the participation of household retainers, the essay explores the likelihood that literate servants often performed scribal tasks above and beyond their formal job descriptions, even serving as scribe for their employers’ hobbies and leisure activities. Although copying was an arduous task, servants appear to have viewed these duties not simply as part of their job but also as gift exchanges, as appeals for promotion or patronage, and as a means by which they might gain access to manuscript literature and literary circles. Studies of early modern letter writing have called attention to many of the copy tasks of literate household servants, but the integral role of literate servants in the collection, copying, and preservation of literary manuscripts deserves much more attention.
Toward an Ontology of Simulated Social Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Seibt, Johanna

2017-01-01

and asymmetric modes of realizing Á, called the ‘simulatory expansion’ of interaction type Á. Simulatory expansions of social interactions can be used to map out different kinds and degrees of sociality in human-human and human-robot interaction, relative to current notions of sociality in philosophy......, anthropology, and linguistics. The classificatory framework developed (SISI) thus represents the field of possible simulated social interactions. SISI can be used to clarify which conceptual and empirical grounds we can draw on to evaluate capacities and affordances of robots for social interaction......The paper develops a general conceptual framework for the ontological classification of human-robot interaction. After arguing against fictionalist interpretations of human-robot interactions, I present five notions of simulation or partial realization, formally defined in terms of relationships...
Robot education peers in a situated primary school study: Personalisation promotes child learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Baxter, Paul; Ashurst, Emily; Read, Robin; Kennedy, James; Belpaeme, Tony

2017-01-01

The benefit of social robots to support child learning in an educational context over an extended period of time is evaluated. Specifically, the effect of personalisation and adaptation of robot social behaviour is assessed. Two autonomous robots were embedded within two matched classrooms of a primary school for a continuous two week period without experimenter supervision to act as learning companions for the children for familiar and novel subjects. Results suggest that while children in both personalised and non-personalised conditions learned, there was increased child learning of a novel subject exhibited when interacting with a robot that personalised its behaviours, with indications that this benefit extended to other class-based performance. Additional evidence was obtained suggesting that there is increased acceptance of the personalised robot peer over a non-personalised version. These results provide the first evidence in support of peer-robot behavioural personalisation having a positive influence on learning when embedded in a learning environment for an extended period of time.
Robot education peers in a situated primary school study: Personalisation promotes child learning.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Baxter

Full Text Available The benefit of social robots to support child learning in an educational context over an extended period of time is evaluated. Specifically, the effect of personalisation and adaptation of robot social behaviour is assessed. Two autonomous robots were embedded within two matched classrooms of a primary school for a continuous two week period without experimenter supervision to act as learning companions for the children for familiar and novel subjects. Results suggest that while children in both personalised and non-personalised conditions learned, there was increased child learning of a novel subject exhibited when interacting with a robot that personalised its behaviours, with indications that this benefit extended to other class-based performance. Additional evidence was obtained suggesting that there is increased acceptance of the personalised robot peer over a non-personalised version. These results provide the first evidence in support of peer-robot behavioural personalisation having a positive influence on learning when embedded in a learning environment for an extended period of time.
Robot education peers in a situated primary school study: Personalisation promotes child learning

Science.gov (United States)

Ashurst, Emily; Read, Robin; Kennedy, James; Belpaeme, Tony

2017-01-01

The benefit of social robots to support child learning in an educational context over an extended period of time is evaluated. Specifically, the effect of personalisation and adaptation of robot social behaviour is assessed. Two autonomous robots were embedded within two matched classrooms of a primary school for a continuous two week period without experimenter supervision to act as learning companions for the children for familiar and novel subjects. Results suggest that while children in both personalised and non-personalised conditions learned, there was increased child learning of a novel subject exhibited when interacting with a robot that personalised its behaviours, with indications that this benefit extended to other class-based performance. Additional evidence was obtained suggesting that there is increased acceptance of the personalised robot peer over a non-personalised version. These results provide the first evidence in support of peer-robot behavioural personalisation having a positive influence on learning when embedded in a learning environment for an extended period of time. PMID:28542648
Rapid prototyping framework for robot-assisted training of autistic children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kim, Mingyu; Barakova, E.I.; Lourens, T.

2014-01-01

Research in uptake and actual use of robots in socially assistive tasks is rapidly growing. However, practical applications lack behind due to the enormous effort to create meaningful behaviours. This paper describes a rapid prototyping framework for robot-assisted training of children with Autism
On ‘Spillikin – A Love Story’: Issues around the Humanoid Robot as a Social Actor on Stage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eugenia Stamboliev

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The inclusion of media technology in theatrical plays (Saltz, 2013 follows a contingent fascination and entanglement between human actors, technology and automata (Reilly, 2011 on stage. The contemporary play Spillikin – A Love Story places a new digital ‘ac⁠tor’ in this debate: the humanoid robot as a socially interactive agent (Breazeal, 2002; Fong, Nourbakhsh, & Dautenhahn, 2003 and caring companion. This paper discusses the exhibition of sociability through the robot’s humanlike gestures and its ability to decipher human gestures on stage. The aim is to point to the ethical consequences for the audience concerning the robot’s implied autonomy to interact socially.
To delegate or not to delegate : Care robots, moral agency and moral responsibility

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Wynsberghe, Aimee

2014-01-01

The use of robots in healthcare is on the rise, from robots to assist with lifting, bathing and feeding, to robots used for social companionship. Given that the tradition and professionalization of medicine and nursing has been grounded on the fact that care providers can assume moral responsibility
Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Popov, E. P.; Iurevich, E. I.

The history and the current status of robotics are reviewed, as are the design, operation, and principal applications of industrial robots. Attention is given to programmable robots, robots with adaptive control and elements of artificial intelligence, and remotely controlled robots. The applications of robots discussed include mechanical engineering, cargo handling during transportation and storage, mining, and metallurgy. The future prospects of robotics are briefly outlined.
On the identification of folium and orchil on illuminated manuscripts.

Science.gov (United States)

Aceto, Maurizio; Calà, Elisa; Agostino, Angelo; Fenoglio, Gaia; Idone, Ambra; Porter, Cheryl; Gulmini, Monica

2017-01-15

The identification of the two purple dyes folium and orchil has rarely been reported in the analysis of painted artworks, especially when analysing illuminated manuscripts. This is not consistent with the fact that ancient literary sources suggested their use as substitutes for the more expensive Tyrian purple dye. By employing non-invasive spectroscopic techniques, the present work demonstrates that these dyes were actually widely used in the production of ancient manuscripts. By employing UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optic fibres (FORS) and spectrofluorimetry, the abundant identification of both dyes on medieval manuscripts was performed by comparing the spectra recorded on ancient codices with those obtained on accurate replicas of dyed or painted parchment. Moreover, examples are also reported whereby the considered purple dyes were used in mixtures with other colourants. The overall information obtained here allowed us to define new boundaries for the time range in which orchil and folium dyes were used which is wider than previously thought, and to focus on their particular uses in the decoration of books. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Robotics/Automated Systems Technicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Doty, Charles R.

Major resources exist that can be used to develop or upgrade programs in community colleges and technical institutes that educate robotics/automated systems technicians. The first category of resources is Economic, Social, and Education Issues. The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) report, "Automation and the Workplace," presents analyses of…
Robots, Disability, and Good Human Life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Carnevale

2015-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper, I want to show the role that emerging robotic technologies could play in the future in daily life of disabled people. When I talk about disability, I mean any temporary or permanent limitation due to a chronic disease and deficit, as well as, socially disadvantaged conditions, which imply functional and emotional restrictions experienced at any age. All these limitations can be characterized by a specific mental and physical impairment or, more often, by a cluster of medical impairments and social barriers. To this end, the academic literature has generally differentiated between two disability models: 'medical' versus 'social'. The main attempt of this paper consists into showing how the development of robotic technologies — particularly in assistive and healthcare fields — could allow us to go beyond this outdated dichotomy, contributing to create new philosophical premises to rethink the universality of the human condition, that is, the sense of what we intend for 'good human life'.

Robot 2015 : Second Iberian Robotics Conference : Advances in Robotics

CERN Document Server

Moreira, António; Lima, Pedro; Montano, Luis; Muñoz-Martinez, Victor

2016-01-01

This book contains a selection of papers accepted for presentation and discussion at ROBOT 2015: Second Iberian Robotics Conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal, November 19th-21th, 2015. ROBOT 2015 is part of a series of conferences that are a joint organization of SPR – “Sociedade Portuguesa de Robótica/ Portuguese Society for Robotics”, SEIDROB – Sociedad Española para la Investigación y Desarrollo de la Robótica/ Spanish Society for Research and Development in Robotics and CEA-GTRob – Grupo Temático de Robótica/ Robotics Thematic Group. The conference organization had also the collaboration of several universities and research institutes, including: University of Minho, University of Porto, University of Lisbon, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, University of Aveiro, University of Zaragoza, University of Malaga, LIACC, INESC-TEC and LARSyS. Robot 2015 was focussed on the Robotics scientific and technological activities in the Iberian Peninsula, although open to research and delegates from other...
On medieval manuscript production in the Latin West, explorations with a global database

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buringh, E.

2009-01-01

This study is the first to present detailed information on the production and uses of manuscripts in eleven geographical areas, together comprising the Latin West. We estimated the absolute production (in numbers of manuscripts copied per century) in Europe between 500 and 1500. In total some eleven
A literature review on new robotics : automation from love to war

OpenAIRE

Royakkers, L.M.M.; Est, van, Q.C.

2015-01-01

This article investigates the social significance of robotics for the years to come in Europe and the US by studying robotics developments in five different areas: the home, health care, traffic, the police force, and the army. Our society accepts the use of robots to perform dull, dangerous, and dirty industrial jobs. But now that robotics is moving out of the factory, the relevant question is how far do we want to go with the automation of care for children and the elderly, of killing terro...
Care staff perceptions of a social robot called Paro and a look-alike Plush Toy: a descriptive qualitative approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Moyle, Wendy; Bramble, Marguerite; Jones, Cindy; Murfield, Jenny

2018-03-01

Social robots such as Paro, a therapeutic companion robot, have recently been introduced into dementia care as a means to reduce behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. The purpose of this study was to explore care staff perceptions of Paro and a look-alike non-robotic animal, including benefits and limitations in dementia care. The study assumed a descriptive qualitative approach, nested within a large cluster-randomised controlled trial. We interviewed a subsample of 20 facility care staff, from nine long-term care facilities in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Thematic analysis of the data, which was inductive and data-driven, was undertaken with the assistance of the qualitative software, ATLAS.ti®. The findings refer to four categories: increasing excitement for Paro and decreasing enthusiasm for Plush Toy; value and function of Paro; opportunities for engagement; and alternatives vs. robustness. Staff caring for people with dementia preferred Paro compared to a look-alike Plush Toy. Staff identified that Paro had the potential to improve quality of life for people with dementia, whereas the Plush Toy had limitations when compared to Paro. However, participants expressed concern that the cost of Paro could reduce opportunities for use within aged care.
An empirical analysis of overlap publication in Chinese language and English research manuscripts.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joseph D Tucker

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: There are a number of sound justifications for publishing nearly identical information in Chinese and English medical journals, assuming several conditions are met. Although overlap publication is perceived as undesirable and ethically questionable in Europe and North America, it may serve an important function in some regions where English is not the native tongue. There is no empirical data on the nature and degree of overlap publication in English and Chinese language journals. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A random sample of 100 English manuscripts from Chinese institutions was selected from PubMed. Key words and institutions were searched in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, a comprehensive Chinese language research database. Unacknowledged overlap was a priori defined according to International Committee of Medical Journal Editor (ICMJE guidelines following examination by two individuals. 19% (95% CI 11-27 of English manuscripts from Chinese institutions were found to have substantial overlap with Chinese published work based on full text examination. None of the manuscripts met all of the criteria established by the ICMJE for an acknowledged overlap publication. Individual-level, journal-level, and institutional factors seem to influence overlap publication. Manuscripts associated with an institution outside of China and with more than one institution were significantly less likely to have substantial overlap (p<0.05. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Overlap publication was common in this context, but instances of standard ICMJE notations to acknowledge this practice were rare. This research did not cite the identified overlap manuscripts with the hope that these empirical data will inform journal policy changes and structural initiatives to promote clearer policies and manuscripts.
Towards a Sociological Understanding of Robots as Companions

Science.gov (United States)

van Oost, Ellen; Reed, Darren

While Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have, in the past, primarily mediated or facilitated emotional bonding between humans, contemporary robot technologies are increasingly making the bond between human and robots the core issue. Thinking of robots as companions is not only a development that opens up huge potential for new applications, it also raises social and ethical issues. In this paper we will argue that current conceptions of human-robot companionship are primarily rooted in cognitive psychological traditions and provide important, yet limited understanding of the companion relationship. Elaborating on a sociological perspective on the appropriation of new technology, we will argue for a richer understanding of companionship that takes the situatedness (in location, network and time) of the use-context into account.
Mina: A Sensorimotor Robotic Orthosis for Mobility Assistance

OpenAIRE

Raj, Anil K.; Neuhaus, Peter D.; Moucheboeuf, Adrien M.; Noorden, Jerryll H.; Lecoutre, David V.

2011-01-01

While most mobility options for persons with paraplegia or paraparesis employ wheeled solutions, significant adverse health, psychological, and social consequences result from wheelchair confinement. Modern robotic exoskeleton devices for gait assistance and rehabilitation, however, can support legged locomotion systems for those with lower extremity weakness or paralysis. The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) has developed the Mina, a prototype sensorimotor robotic ort...
Robot Actors, Robot Dramaturgies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jochum, Elizabeth

This paper considers the use of tele-operated robots in live performance. Robots and performance have long been linked, from the working androids and automata staged in popular exhibitions during the nineteenth century and the robots featured at Cybernetic Serendipity (1968) and the World Expo...
A Novel Greeting Selection System for a Culture-Adaptive Humanoid Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriele Trovato

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Robots, especially humanoids, are expected to perform human-like actions and adapt to our ways of communication in order to facilitate their acceptance in human society. Among humans, rules of communication change depending on background culture: greetings are a part of communication in which cultural differences are strong. Robots should adapt to these specific differences in order to communicate effectively, being able to select the appropriate manner of greeting for different cultures depending on the social context. In this paper, we present the modelling of social factors that influence greeting choice, and the resulting novel culture-dependent greeting gesture and words selection system. An experiment with German participants was run using the humanoid robot ARMAR-IIIb. Thanks to this system, the robot, after interacting with Germans, can perform greeting gestures appropriate to German culture in addition to a repertoire of greetings appropriate to Japanese culture.
The Potential of Peer Robots to Assist Human Creativity in Finding Problems and Problem Solving

Science.gov (United States)

Okita, Sandra

2015-01-01

Many technological artifacts (e.g., humanoid robots, computer agents) consist of biologically inspired features of human-like appearance and behaviors that elicit a social response. The strong social components of technology permit people to share information and ideas with these artifacts. As robots cross the boundaries between humans and…
micROS: a morphable, intelligent and collective robot operating system.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xuejun; Dai, Huadong; Yi, Xiaodong; Wang, Yanzhen; Yang, Shaowu; Zhang, Bo; Wang, Zhiyuan; Zhou, Yun; Peng, Xuefeng

2016-01-01

Robots are developing in much the same way that personal computers did 40 years ago, and robot operating system is the critical basis. Current robot software is mainly designed for individual robots. We present in this paper the design of micROS, a morphable, intelligent and collective robot operating system for future collective and collaborative robots. We first present the architecture of micROS, including the distributed architecture for collective robot system as a whole and the layered architecture for every single node. We then present the design of autonomous behavior management based on the observe-orient-decide-act cognitive behavior model and the design of collective intelligence including collective perception, collective cognition, collective game and collective dynamics. We also give the design of morphable resource management, which first categorizes robot resources into physical, information, cognitive and social domains, and then achieve morphability based on self-adaptive software technology. We finally deploy micROS on NuBot football robots and achieve significant improvement in real-time performance.
Robotic Fish to Aid Animal Behavior Studies and Informal Science Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Phamduy, Paul

The application of robotic fish in the fields of animal behavior and informal science learning are new and relatively untapped. In the context of animal behavior studies, robotic fish offers a consistent and customizable stimulus that could contribute to dissect the determinants of social behavior. In the realm of informal science learning, robotic fish are gaining momentum for the possibility of educating the general public simultaneously on fish physiology and underwater robotics. In this dissertation, the design and development of a number of robotic fish platforms and prototypes and their application in animal behavioral studies and informal science learning settings are presented. Robotic platforms for animal behavioral studies focused on the utilization replica or same scale prototypes. A novel robotic fish platform, featuring a three-dimensional swimming multi-linked robotic fish, was developed with three control modes varying in the level of robot autonomy offered. This platform was deployed at numerous science festivals and science centers, to obtain data on visitor engagement and experience.
Writing Biomedical Manuscripts Part II: Standard Elements and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Several reasons account for rejection or delay of manuscripts submitted to ... You need to have results sorted out early as the rest of what you will write is largely ... follow the universal rules of writing and those of the target journal rules while ...
Robots to assist daily activities: views of older adults with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Rosalie H; Sudhama, Aishwarya; Begum, Momotaz; Huq, Rajibul; Mihailidis, Alex

2017-01-01

Robots have the potential to both enable older adults with dementia to perform daily activities with greater independence, and provide support to caregivers. This study explored perspectives of older adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their caregivers on robots that provide stepwise prompting to complete activities in the home. Ten dyads participated: Older adults with mild-to-moderate AD and difficulty completing activity steps, and their family caregivers. Older adults were prompted by a tele-operated robot to wash their hands in the bathroom and make a cup of tea in the kitchen. Caregivers observed interactions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually. Transcribed interviews were thematically analyzed. Three themes summarized responses to robot interactions: contemplating a future with assistive robots, considering opportunities with assistive robots, and reflecting on implications for social relationships. Older adults expressed opportunities for robots to help in daily activities, were open to the idea of robotic assistance, but did not want a robot. Caregivers identified numerous opportunities and were more open to robots. Several wanted a robot, if available. Positive consequences of robots in caregiving scenarios could include decreased frustration, stress, and relationship strain, and increased social interaction via the robot. A negative consequence could be decreased interaction with caregivers. Few studies have investigated in-depth perspectives of older adults with dementia and their caregivers following direct interaction with an assistive prompting robot. To fulfill the potential of robots, continued dialogue between users and developers, and consideration of robot design and caregiving relationship factors are necessary.
End-user programming architecture facilitates the uptake of robots in social therapies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Barakova, E.I.; Gillesen, J.C.C.; Huskens, Bibi; Lourens, T.

2013-01-01

This paper proposes an architecture that makes programming of robot behavior of an arbitrary complexity possible for end-users and shows the technical solutions in a way that is easy to understand and generalize to different situations. It aims to facilitate the uptake and actual use of robot
Robot-mediated interviews--how effective is a humanoid robot as a tool for interviewing young children?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luke Jai Wood

Full Text Available Robots have been used in a variety of education, therapy or entertainment contexts. This paper introduces the novel application of using humanoid robots for robot-mediated interviews. An experimental study examines how children's responses towards the humanoid robot KASPAR in an interview context differ in comparison to their interaction with a human in a similar setting. Twenty-one children aged between 7 and 9 took part in this study. Each child participated in two interviews, one with an adult and one with a humanoid robot. Measures include the behavioural coding of the children's behaviour during the interviews and questionnaire data. The questions in these interviews focused on a special event that had recently taken place in the school. The results reveal that the children interacted with KASPAR very similar to how they interacted with a human interviewer. The quantitative behaviour analysis reveal that the most notable difference between the interviews with KASPAR and the human were the duration of the interviews, the eye gaze directed towards the different interviewers, and the response time of the interviewers. These results are discussed in light of future work towards developing KASPAR as an 'interviewer' for young children in application areas where a robot may have advantages over a human interviewer, e.g. in police, social services, or healthcare applications.
Manuscripts and Rare Books in an Undergraduate Library.

Science.gov (United States)

Mortimer, Ruth

1983-01-01

Description of Smith College Library's Rare Book Room notes printed book and manuscript collections including the Sylvia Plath collection, Ernest Hemingway collection, and collection of modern press books. Related undergraduate courses in typography and the history of printing, student exhibitions, and student publications are highlighted. (EJS)
Scientific composition and review of manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed dental journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Bayne, Stephen C; McGivney, Glen P; Mazer, Sarah C

2003-02-01

This article provides an extensive tutorial for writers and reviewers involved with the preparation and evaluation of manuscripts submitted for publication in dental journals. The contents were compiled from the Instructions for Authors printed in various peer-reviewed dental journals and from feedback from 10 workshops conducted for the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry. The 10 major sections of a scientific manuscript are reviewed in detail in terms of content, format, and common errors; examples of good content are provided. The review process is described, and instructions on conducting fair and expeditious manuscript evaluations are provided for reviewers. In addition, a number of special topics are addressed, including potential conflicts of interest for an author, institutional review of experiments that involve human subjects or animals, and the reproduction of photographs and other images in color versus black and white. In summary, this article presents key guidelines to ensure compliance with the principles of sound scientific writing and the expeditious review of manuscripts prepared for publication in peer-reviewed dental journals.
Robot-specific social cues in emotional body language

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Embgen, Stephanie; Luber, Matthias; Becker-Asano, Christian; Ragni, Marco; Evers, Vanessa; Arras, Kai O.

2012-01-01

Humans use very sophisticated ways of bodily emotion expression combining facial expressions, sound, gestures and full body posture. Like others, we want to apply these aspects of human communication to ease the interaction between robots and users. In doing so we believe there is a need to consider
ROSAPL: towards a heterogeneous multi‐robot system and Human interaction framework

OpenAIRE

Boronat Roselló, Emili

2014-01-01

The appearance of numerous robotic frameworks and middleware has provided researchers with reliable hardware and software units avoiding the need of developing ad-hoc platforms and focus their work on how improve the robots' high-level capabilities and behaviours. Despite this none of these are facilitating frameworks considering social capabilities as a factor in robots design. In a world that everyday seems more and more connected, with the slow but steady advance of th...

AAS Publishing News: Preparing Your Manuscript Just Got Easier

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Susanna

2016-03-01

Watermarking using the command watermark{DRAFT, v2}.Are you an astronomer considering submitting a paper to an AAS journal (i.e., AJ, ApJ, ApJ Letters, or ApJ Supplements)? If so, this post is for you! Read on to find out about the exciting new things you can do with the AASs newest LaTeX class file, available for download now.Why the Update?AAS publishing has maintained a consistent class file for LaTeX manuscript preparation for the past decade. But academic publishing is changing rapidly in todays era of electronic journals! Since its journals went fully electronic, the AAS has been continuously adding new publishing capabilities based on the recommendations of the Journals Task Force and the needs and requests of AAS authors. The AASs manuscript preparation tools are now being updated accordingly.Whats New in AASTex 6.0?There are many exciting new features and capabilities in AASTex 6.0. Here are just a few:Tracking options for author revisions include added{text}, deleted{text}, replaced{old}{new}, and explain{text}.Based on emulateapjDo you use the popular class file emulateapj to prepare your manuscripts? AASTex 6.0 is based on emulateapj, rather than on the older AASTex 5.2 (though 5.2 is still supported). This means that it is easy to produce a double-columned, single-spaced, and astro-ph-ready manuscript. Since two thirds of the AAS journals authors use emulateapj, this transition was designed to make manuscript preparation and sharing an easier and more seamless process.Tools for collaborationsDo you work in a large collaboration? AASTex now includes new tools to make preparing a manuscript within a collaboration easier. Drafts can now be watermarked to differentiate between versions. New markup for large author lists streamlines the display so that readers can access article information immediately, yet they can still access the full author list and affiliations at the end of the paper. And author revision markup allows members of a collaboration to
Microfilming of the Bach Manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek Berlin.

Science.gov (United States)

Penzold, Leonhard

1998-01-01

Describes a microfilming project to preserve music manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach at the Staatsbibliothek Berlin (Germany), highlighting project goals, problems and peculiarities encountered filming the collection, color micrography, and black-and-white filming. (PEN)
Exploratorium: Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Judith, Ed.

2002-01-01

This issue of Exploratorium Magazine focuses on the topic robotics. It explains how to make a vibrating robotic bug and features articles on robots. Contents include: (1) "Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns" (Ray Bradbury); (2) "Robots at Work" (Jake Widman); (3) "Make a Vibrating Robotic Bug" (Modesto Tamez); (4) "The Robot…
Review Article: Writing Biomedical Manuscripts Part I: Fundamentals ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The writing task can be made easier and the quality improved by using and following simple rules and leads that apply to general scientific writing .The manuscript should follow a standard structure:(e.g. (Abstract) plus Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion, the IMRAD model. The authors must
Pupillary Responses to Robotic and Human Emotions: The Uncanny Valley and Media Equation Confirmed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Reuten

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Physiological responses during human–robots interaction are useful alternatives to subjective measures of uncanny feelings for nearly humanlike robots (uncanny valley and comparable emotional responses between humans and robots (media equation. However, no studies have employed the easily accessible measure of pupillometry to confirm the uncanny valley and media equation hypotheses, evidence in favor of the existence of these hypotheses in interaction with emotional robots is scarce, and previous studies have not controlled for low level image statistics across robot appearances. We therefore recorded pupil size of 40 participants that viewed and rated pictures of robotic and human faces that expressed a variety of basic emotions. The robotic faces varied along the dimension of human likeness from cartoonish to humanlike. We strictly controlled for confounding factors by removing backgrounds, hair, and color, and by equalizing low level image statistics. After the presentation phase, participants indicated to what extent the robots appeared uncanny and humanlike, and whether they could imagine social interaction with the robots in real life situations. The results show that robots rated as nearly humanlike scored higher on uncanniness, scored lower on imagined social interaction, evoked weaker pupil dilations, and their emotional expressions were more difficult to recognize. Pupils dilated most strongly to negative expressions and the pattern of pupil responses across emotions was highly similar between robot and human stimuli. These results highlight the usefulness of pupillometry in emotion studies and robot design by confirming the uncanny valley and media equation hypotheses.
A Robotic Coach Architecture for Elder Care (ROCARE) Based on Multi-User Engagement Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Jing; Bian, Dayi; Zheng, Zhi; Beuscher, Linda; Newhouse, Paul A; Mion, Lorraine C; Sarkar, Nilanjan

2017-08-01

The aging population with its concomitant medical conditions, physical and cognitive impairments, at a time of strained resources, establishes the urgent need to explore advanced technologies that may enhance function and quality of life. Recently, robotic technology, especially socially assistive robotics has been investigated to address the physical, cognitive, and social needs of older adults. Most system to date have predominantly focused on one-on-one human robot interaction (HRI). In this paper, we present a multi-user engagement-based robotic coach system architecture (ROCARE). ROCARE is capable of administering both one-on-one and multi-user HRI, providing implicit and explicit channels of communication, and individualized activity management for long-term engagement. Two preliminary feasibility studies, a one-on-one interaction and a triadic interaction with two humans and a robot, were conducted and the results indicated potential usefulness and acceptance by older adults, with and without cognitive impairment.
Cognitive and sociocultural aspects of robotized technology: innovative processes of adaptation

Science.gov (United States)

Kvesko, S. B.; Kvesko, B. B.; Kornienko, M. A.; Nikitina, Y. A.; Pankova, N. M.

2018-05-01

The paper dwells upon interaction between socio-cultural phenomena and cognitive characteristics of robotized technology. The interdisciplinary approach was employed in order to cast light on the manifold and multilevel identity of scientific advance in terms of robotized technology within the mental realm. Analyzing robotized technology from the viewpoint of its significance for the modern society is one of the upcoming trends in the contemporary scientific realm. The robots under production are capable of interacting with people; this results in a growing necessity for the studies on social status of robotized technological items. Socio-cultural aspect of cognitive robotized technology is reflected in the fact that the nature becomes ‘aware’ of itself via human brain, a human being tends to strives for perfection in their intellectual and moral dimensions.
Design and motion control of bioinspired humanoid robot head from servo motors toward artificial muscles

Science.gov (United States)

Almubarak, Yara; Tadesse, Yonas

2017-04-01

The potential applications of humanoid robots in social environments, motivates researchers to design, and control biomimetic humanoid robots. Generally, people are more interested to interact with robots that have similar attributes and movements to humans. The head is one of most important part of any social robot. Currently, most humanoid heads use electrical motors, pneumatic actuators, and shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators for actuation. Electrical and pneumatic actuators take most of the space and would cause unsmooth motions. SMAs are expensive to use in humanoids. Recently, in many robotic projects, Twisted and Coiled Polymer (TCP) artificial muscles are used as linear actuators which take up little space compared to the motors. In this paper, we will demonstrate the designing process and motion control of a robotic head with TCP muscles. Servo motors and artificial muscles are used for actuating the head motion, which have been controlled by a cost efficient ARM Cortex-M7 based development board. A complete comparison between the two actuators is presented.
On the imitation of goal directed movements of a humanoid robot

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bao, Y.; Cuijpers, R.H.

2017-01-01

Interacting with a social robot should give people a better understanding of the robot’s actions and intentions. In terms of human–human interaction (HHI), people can interpret actions of others in an effortless way. However, it is still unclear whether people can do the same with humanoid robots.
Vision-based Navigation and Reinforcement Learning Path Finding for Social Robots

OpenAIRE

Pérez Sala, Xavier

2010-01-01

We propose a robust system for automatic Robot Navigation in uncontrolled en- vironments. The system is composed by three main modules: the Arti cial Vision module, the Reinforcement Learning module, and the behavior control module. The aim of the system is to allow a robot to automatically nd a path that arrives to a pre xed goal. Turn and straight movements in uncontrolled environments are automatically estimated and controlled using the proposed modules. The Arti cial Vi...
Robots in Elderly Care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alessandro Vercelli

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Low birth rate and the long life expectancy represent an explosive mixture, resulting in the rapid aging of population. The costs of healthcare in the grey society are increasing dramatically, and soon there will be not enough resources and people for care. This context requires conceptually new elderly care solutions progressively reducing the percentages of the human-based care. Research on robot-based solutions for elderly care and active ageing aims to answer these needs. From a general perspective, robotics has the power to completely reshape the landscape of healthcare both in its structure and its operation. In fact, the long-term sustainability of healthcare systems could be addressed by automation powered by digital health technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 3D-printing or robotics. The latter could take over monotonous work from healthcare workers, which would allow them to focus more on patients and to have lesser workload. Robots might be used in elder care with several different aims. (i Robots may act as caregivers, i.e. assist the elderly, (ii they can provide remainders and instructions for activities of daily life and safety, and/or assist their carers in daily tasks; (iii they can help monitor their behaviour and health; and (iv provide companionship, including entertainment and hobbies, reminiscence and social contact. The use of Robots with human subjects/patients raise several sensitive questions. First of all, robots may represent information hubs, and can collect an incredible amount of data about the subjects and their environment. In fact, they record habits such as sleeping, exercising, third persons entering in the house, appointments. Communications may be continuously recorded. Moreover, by connecting with medical devices, they can store medical data. On one hand, this represents a very powerful tool to collect information about the single subject (precision medicine, about disease (thus eventually finding
Home care robot for socially supporting the elderly: focus group studies in three European countries to screen user attitudes and requirements.

Science.gov (United States)

Zsiga, Katalin; Edelmayer, Georg; Rumeau, Pierre; Péter, Orsolya; Tóth, András; Fazekas, Gábor

2013-12-01

The growing number of elderly individuals presents new challenges for society. Many elderly individuals have physical or cognitive impairments and require support from caregivers. An attempt to overcome the limitations caused by the lack of human caregivers is the inclusion of assistive technology such as socially active robots. The Domeo-project of the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme of the European Union aims to develop a new companion robotic system that would allow assistance to the elderly. The requirements and attitude of the potential users and caregivers have been assessed in Austria, France and Hungary. The robot functions were demonstrated to the participants. Three focus groups were formed: potential end users, older caregivers and younger caregivers. The discussions were recorded and processed according to six aspects: (i) acceptability and privacy, (ii) pertinence of services, (iii) possible obstacles, (iv) motivation level to use the proposed services, (v) organizational issues and (vi) recommendations. Minor differences were observed between the countries, but there were considerable differences regarding the age of the participants. The younger caregivers want to be assured of the safety of their client and to receive immediate notification in case of an emergency. As for the elderly, the most important aspect is to gain a companion and a physical helper. Many of the recommendations can be taken into consideration during robot development, but some of them are not realistic at present.
The internet and academic manuscript processing in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Internet is growing at a rapid rate and has broken the territorial and geographical barriers that characterized traditional practices of editorial review process. Thus, a study on online manuscript review process and its utilization by academic staff became a necessity. This study examines the effect of the Internet on traditional ...
Timbuktu's Scientific Manuscript Heritage: The Reopening of an ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article maps a brief history of Timbuktu and provides some insight into its manuscript collections, before discussing the Timbuktu scientific heritage in light of contemporary debates on the history of science in Islamic societies. It is argued that the pre-modern Islamic legacy currently being unearthed in Timbuktu ...
Robotics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scheide, A.W.

1983-01-01

This article reviews some of the technical areas and history associated with robotics, provides information relative to the formation of a Robotics Industry Committee within the Industry Applications Society (IAS), and describes how all activities relating to robotics will be coordinated within the IEEE. Industrial robots are being used for material handling, processes such as coating and arc welding, and some mechanical and electronics assembly. An industrial robot is defined as a programmable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for a variety of tasks. The initial focus of the Robotics Industry Committee will be on the application of robotics systems to the various industries that are represented within the IAS
Wehmas et al. 94-04 Toxicol Sci: Datasets for manuscript

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Dataset includes overview text document (accepted version of manuscript) and tables, figures, and supplementary materials. Supplementary tables provide summary data...
[Illustrations of of alchemy vessels in a manuscript of Pseudo-Geber].

Science.gov (United States)

Kurzmann, Peter

2011-01-01

Manuscript ric. 933 "Geber de investigatione perfectionis magisterii", kept in the Libreria Riccardiana in Florence, is a 13th century Latin version of the "Book of the Secret of the Secrets" ("kitab sirr al-asrar") by the Arabian alchemist al-Razi (865-925). The manuscript shows on page 25r a series of drawings of alchemistic vessels and apparatus which do not figure in the Arabian original but which are of particular interest as they date from as early as the 13th century and are numbered amongst the earliest drawings of this kind which we possess. The publication of the manuscript by Julius Ruska in 1935 shows only copied drawings with his interpretations of the legends. There was considerable interest in the publication of the original page 25r and in the course of further study it became clear that these interpretations had to be revised. These new interpretations presented in detail in this paper are justified and put into an alchemistic context. In some cases they give a new understanding and differ considerably from Ruska's versions.
1st International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications

CERN Document Server

Matson, Eric; Myung, Hyun; Xu, Peter

2013-01-01

In recent years, robots have been built based on cognitive architecture which has been developed to model human cognitive ability. The cognitive architecture can be a basis for intelligence technology to generate robot intelligence. In this edited book the robot intelligence is classified into six categories: cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, behavioral intelligence, ambient intelligence, collective intelligence and genetic intelligence. This classification categorizes the intelligence of robots based on the different aspects of awareness and the ability to act deliberately as a result of such awareness. This book aims at serving researchers and practitioners with a timely dissemination of the recent progress on robot intelligence technology and its applications, based on a collection of papers presented at the 1st International Conference on Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications (RiTA), held in Gwangju, Korea, December 16-18, 2012. For a better readability, this edition has the total 101 ...
Use of robotics as a learning aid for disabled children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teodiano Freire Bastos

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Severe disabled children have little chance of environmental and social exploration and discovery, and due to this lack of interaction and independency, it may lead to an idea that they are unable to do anything by themselves. Trying to help these children on this situation, educational robotics can offer and aid, once it can give them a certain degree of independency in exploration of environment. The system developed in this work allows the child to transmit the commands to a robot. Sensors placed on the child’s body can obtain information from head movement or muscle signals to command the robot to carry out tasks. With the use of this system, the disabled children get a better cognitive development and social interaction, balancing in a certain way, the negative effects of their disabilities.
The Register of Slovenian-Language Manuscripts from the 17th and 18th Centuries: Repository, Digital Library and Research Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matija Ogrin

2013-09-01

Full Text Available EXTENDED ABSTRACT:The paper gives a thorough examination of the Register of Slovenian-language manuscripts from the 17th and 18th centuries from different points of view: it is presented as a digital repository in humanities disciplines available for searching (digital library and as a methodological framework of further scholarly research and discoveries in the field. Manuscripts, especially the manuscripts of Slovenian literature, have not been sufficiently taken into consideration so far. They have always been given but a sketchy treatment serving merely to illustrate the general outlines of the nation’s literary and cultural development. They have rarely been dealt with in specialised studies or scientific publications. This is the reason why they have not been registered and recorded in archival and library collections. Different guides to manuscripts offer only basic and limited information from which it is often impossible to identify the language, the content, and the history of a manuscript. With regard to the state-of-the- art of Slovenian manuscript research in the field of Slavic studies, archival studies and codicology, it was indispensable to thoroughly record and research the preserved manuscripts by the use of a uniform, rational and consistent method. In reference to these premises a new research project has been started resulting in accurate, thorough and rigorously structured descriptions of manuscripts. The idea of Slovenian manuscript register was developed comprising manuscript descriptions complemented by digital images or facsimiles thus visually presenting the manuscripts and facilitating further research in the field.The 3-year work resulted in the portal: Unknown Slovenian-language manuscripts from the 17th and 18 th centuries. The main project result was the register of Slovenian-language manuscripts from the 17th and 18th centuries. To date, it contains detailed descriptions of the first 100 manuscripts and over 7

Caveats in the proficient preparation of an APA-style research manuscript for publication.

Science.gov (United States)

Cash, Thomas F

2009-01-01

Writing a scientific research paper for submission to a peer-reviewed journal requires compositional skill and attention to details. In evaluating submitted manuscripts, journal editors and reviewers often encounter recurrent mistakes in composition and in compliance with the stylistic requirements of the particular publication. This editorial article identifies core tenets of effective scientific writing in the social and behavioral sciences, and it delineates commonly committed errors in violation of the style prescribed by the American Psychological Association (APA). The editor organizes his advice in a user-friendly checklist to assist both authors and reviewers associated with this journal (Body Image: An International Journal of Research), as well as other journals that adhere to APA style. This advisory article may also assist research supervisors and instructors in academic training contexts.
Reproducing crucible steel: a practical guide and a comparative analysis to persian manuscripts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moshtagh Khorasani, Manouchehr

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Different terms are used in old Persian manuscripts, such as Ta’id Besârat, to define and refer to crucible or watered steel and different types of swords. However, there are few manuscripts that describe the way crucible steel cakes and blades were made such as the manuscript Gŏharnâme. The present article deals with the making of crucible steel as described in Persian manuscripts and also with a new reproduction process of making crucible steel as conducted by the Finnish smith Niko Hynninen.Los antiguos manuscritos persas, tales como Ta’id Besârat, emplean diversos términos para definir y referirse al acero de crisol o acero de Damasco y a diversos tipos de espada. Sin embargo, existen pocos manuscritos que describan el modo en que se elaboraban los lingotes y hojas de acero de crisol, entre ellos el manuscrito Gŏharnâme. El presente artículo describe el proceso de elaboración del acero de crisol tal y como lo refieren los manuscritos persas, así como una moderna reproducción del mismo realizada por el forjador finlandés Niko Hynninen.
Teaching How to Prepare a Manuscript by Means of Rewriting Published Scientific Papers

Science.gov (United States)

Tomaska, Lubomir

2007-01-01

The objective of the course described here is to train undergraduate students to write a scientific manuscript. The students participate in selection of a current topic in contemporary genetics or molecular biology by choosing the most interesting paper of a given year. After the teacher provides all essential background about the selected subject, he or she selects a recent article from the corresponding field and presents the students with all the necessary information contained in the paper without revealing its title and author. The data presented in the paper are reviewed by the class so that each student understands every experiment and the main points of the work. Simultaneously, the students are informed about the basic rules of writing the individual sections of a scientific paper. They are then asked to write and formally submit a manuscript summarizing the data. Finally, the students act as reviewers of their colleagues' manuscripts and compare their papers with the original published articles. This enables them to identify both the strengths and the weaknesses of their manuscripts and to gain confidence in the writing skills that will be so critical for their future scientific activities. PMID:17110479
Sustaining Emotional Communication when Interacting with an Android Robot

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vlachos, Evgenios

The more human-like a robot appears and acts, the more users will have the belief of communicating with a human partner rather than with an artificial entity. However, current robotic technology displays limitations on the design of the facial interface and on the design of believable Human...... of an android related to its actions, perception and intelligence, or failure to identify which robot type is qualified to perform a specific task, might lead to disruption of HRI. This study is concerned with the problem of sustaining emotional communication when interacting with an android social robot......-ended evaluation method pertaining to the interpretation of Android facial expressions (g) a study on how users’ perception and attitude can change after direct interaction with a robot, (h) a study on how androids can maintain the focus of attention during short-term dyadic interactions, and (i) a state...
Acknowledgement of manuscript reviewers, the underappreciated contributors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abel Lucy

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Contributing reviewers We and the Editorial Board acknowledge and thank all reviewers for their active participation and contribution during 2012. We greatly appreciate their dedication and behind the scenes contribution. It is largely due to their support and expertise that we have been able to publish high-standard manuscripts. We would also like to thank authors for choosing Nutrition & Metabolism and contributing their cherished work.
Towards Versatile Robots Through Open Heterogeneous Modular Robots

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lyder, Andreas

arises, a new robot can be assembled rapidly from the existing modules, in contrast to conventional robots, which require a time consuming and expensive development process. In this thesis we define a modular robot to be a robot consisting of dynamically reconfigurable modules. The goal of this thesis......Robots are important tools in our everyday life. Both in industry and at the consumer level they serve the purpose of increasing our scope and extending our capabilities. Modular robots take the next step, allowing us to easily create and build various robots from a set of modules. If a problem...... is to increase the versatility and practical usability of modular robots by introducing new conceptual designs. Until now modular robots have been based on a pre-specified set of modules, and thus, their functionality is limited. We propose an open heterogeneous design concept, which allows a modular robot...
The psychosocial effects of a companion robot: a randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Hayley; Macdonald, Bruce; Kerse, Ngaire; Broadbent, Elizabeth

2013-09-01

To investigate the psychosocial effects of the companion robot, Paro, in a rest home/hospital setting in comparison to a control group. Randomized controlled trial. Residents were randomized to the robot intervention group or a control group that attended normal activities instead of Paro sessions. Sessions took place twice a week for an hour over 12 weeks. Over the trial period, observations were conducted of residents' social behavior when interacting as a group with the robot. As a comparison, observations were also conducted of all the residents during general activities when the resident dog was or was not present. A residential care facility in Auckland, New Zealand. Forty residents in hospital and rest home care. Residents completed a baseline measure assessing cognitive status, loneliness, depression, and quality of life. At follow-up, residents completed a questionnaire assessing loneliness, depression, and quality of life. During observations, behavior was noted and collated for instances of talking and stroking the dog/robot. In comparison with the control group, residents who interacted with the robot had significant decreases in loneliness over the period of the trial. Both the resident dog and the seal robot made an impact on the social environment in comparison to when neither was present. Residents talked to and touched the robot significantly more than the resident dog. A greater number of residents were involved in discussion about the robot in comparison with the resident dog and conversation about the robot occurred more. Paro is a positive addition to this environment and has benefits for older people in nursing home care. Paro may be able to address some of the unmet needs of older people that a resident animal may not, particularly relating to loneliness. Copyright © 2013 American Medical Directors Association, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Convolutional Neural Network-Based Embarrassing Situation Detection under Camera for Social Robot in Smart Homes.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Guanci; Yang, Jing; Sheng, Weihua; Junior, Francisco Erivaldo Fernandes; Li, Shaobo

2018-05-12

Recent research has shown that the ubiquitous use of cameras and voice monitoring equipment in a home environment can raise privacy concerns and affect human mental health. This can be a major obstacle to the deployment of smart home systems for elderly or disabled care. This study uses a social robot to detect embarrassing situations. Firstly, we designed an improved neural network structure based on the You Only Look Once (YOLO) model to obtain feature information. By focusing on reducing area redundancy and computation time, we proposed a bounding-box merging algorithm based on region proposal networks (B-RPN), to merge the areas that have similar features and determine the borders of the bounding box. Thereafter, we designed a feature extraction algorithm based on our improved YOLO and B-RPN, called F-YOLO, for our training datasets, and then proposed a real-time object detection algorithm based on F-YOLO (RODA-FY). We implemented RODA-FY and compared models on our MAT social robot. Secondly, we considered six types of situations in smart homes, and developed training and validation datasets, containing 2580 and 360 images, respectively. Meanwhile, we designed three types of experiments with four types of test datasets composed of 960 sample images. Thirdly, we analyzed how a different number of training iterations affects our prediction estimation, and then we explored the relationship between recognition accuracy and learning rates. Our results show that our proposed privacy detection system can recognize designed situations in the smart home with an acceptable recognition accuracy of 94.48%. Finally, we compared the results among RODA-FY, Inception V3, and YOLO, which indicate that our proposed RODA-FY outperforms the other comparison models in recognition accuracy.
The early mathematical manuscripts of Leibniz

CERN Document Server

Leibniz, G W

2005-01-01

The manuscripts and correspondence of Leibniz possess a special interest: they are invaluable as aids to the study of their author's part in the invention and development of the infinitesimal calculus. In addition, the main ideas behind Leibniz's philosophical theories lay here, in his mathematical work.This volume consists of two sections. The first part features Leibniz's own accounts of his work, and the second section comprises critical and historical notes and essays. An informative Introduction leads to the ""postscript"" to Leibniz's 1703 letter to James Bernoulli, his ""Historia et Ori
To delegate or not to delegate: Care robots, moral agency and moral responsibility

OpenAIRE

van Wynsberghe, Aimee

2014-01-01

The use of robots in healthcare is on the rise, from robots to assist with lifting, bathing and feeding, to robots used for social companionship. Given that the tradition and professionalization of medicine and nursing has been grounded on the fact that care providers can assume moral responsibility for the outcome of medical interventions, we must ask whether or not a robot can assume moral responsibility for the outcome of its actions. In this paper I discuss the issue of moral agency and m...
Towards playful learning and computational thinking — Developing the educational robot BRICKO

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, B. K. M. K.; Andersen, K. E.; J⊘rgensen, A.

2018-01-01

Educational Robotics has proven a feasible way of supporting and exemplifying Computational Thinking. With this paper, we describe the user-centered iterative and incremental development of a new educational robotic system, BRICKO, to support tangible, social and playful interaction while educating...... children in 1st–3rd grade in Computational Thinking. We develop the system through seven main iterations including a total of 108 participant pupils and their teachers. The methodology is a mixture of observation and interviews using Wizard of OZ testing with the early pilot prototypes as well as usability...... categories of command-bricks. We discuss the methodologies used for assuring a playful and social educational robotic system and conclude that we achieved a useful prototype for supporting education in Computational Thinking....
Research and development of advanced robots for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsukune, Hideo; Hirukawa, Hirohisa; Kitagaki, Kosei; Liu, Yunhui; Onda, Hiromu; Nakamura, Akira

1994-01-01

Social and economic demands have been pressing for automation of inspection tasks, maintenance and repair jobs of nuclear power plants, which are carried out by human workers under circumstances with high radiation level. Since the plants are not always designed for introduction of automatic machinery, sophisticated robots shall play a crucial role to free workers from hostile environments. We have been studying intelligent robot systems and regarded nuclear industries as one of the important application fields where we can validate the feasibility of the methods and systems we have developed. In this paper we firstly discuss on the tasks required in nuclear power plants. Secondly we introduce current status of R and D on special purpose robots, versatile robots and intelligent robots for automatizing the tasks. Then we focus our discussions on three major functions in realizing robotized assembly tasks under such unstructured environments as in nuclear power plants; planning, vision and manipulation. Finally we depict an image of a prototype robot system for nuclear power plants based on the advanced functions. (author) 64 refs
Robot engineering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jung, Seul

2006-02-15

This book deals with robot engineering, giving descriptions of robot's history, current tendency of robot field, work and characteristic of industrial robot, essential merit and vector, application of matrix, analysis of basic vector, expression of Denavit-Hartenberg, robot kinematics such as forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, cases of MATLAB program, and motion kinematics, robot kinetics like moment of inertia, centrifugal force and coriolis power, and Euler-Lagrangian equation course plan, SIMULINK position control of robots.
Robot engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Seul

2006-02-01

This book deals with robot engineering, giving descriptions of robot's history, current tendency of robot field, work and characteristic of industrial robot, essential merit and vector, application of matrix, analysis of basic vector, expression of Denavit-Hartenberg, robot kinematics such as forward kinematics, inverse kinematics, cases of MATLAB program, and motion kinematics, robot kinetics like moment of inertia, centrifugal force and coriolis power, and Euler-Lagrangian equation course plan, SIMULINK position control of robots.
Self-sufficiency of an autonomous reconfigurable modular robotic organism

CERN Document Server

Qadir, Raja Humza

2015-01-01

This book describes how the principle of self-sufficiency can be applied to a reconfigurable modular robotic organism. It shows the design considerations for a novel REPLICATOR robotic platform, both hardware and software, featuring the behavioral characteristics of social insect colonies. Following a comprehensive overview of some of the bio-inspired techniques already available, and of the state-of-the-art in re-configurable modular robotic systems, the book presents a novel power management system with fault-tolerant energy sharing, as well as its implementation in the REPLICATOR robotic modules. In addition, the book discusses, for the first time, the concept of “artificial energy homeostasis” in the context of a modular robotic organism, and shows its verification on a custom-designed simulation framework in different dynamic power distribution and fault tolerance scenarios. This book offers an ideal reference guide for both hardware engineers and software developers involved in the design and implem...
The Remotely Controlled Robot System for Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koh, Kwangill; Lee, Gwangnam; Lim, Kyeyoung

1993-01-01

The problem of radioactivity has been our major concern. So, it makes the needs of remotely controlled robot system necessary for maintenance and repair services. Up to now, several foreign companies have been contracted for the maintenance of the steam generators of nuclear power plants in Korea, to acquire its own capability of maintaining the steam generators of it impossible for Korea to acquire its own capability of maintaining the steam generators. In case of emergency, it is difficult to take appropriate steps on its own. In order to resolve the above problems, it seems inevitable to develop the robot system for the inspection and repair of steam generator. This project intends to acquire domestic capabilities of maintaining steam generators, so that this advanced skills could be applied to the related areas. As a result, it will save immense money in the future. the purposes of development of the remotely controlled robot system are : to perform the desired tasks at the polluted area without requiring entry of personnel. to closely inspect the steam generator U-tubes at high speed. to inspect the steam generator intelligently and efficiently under the extreme circumstances where radioactivity problem is very severe. to use for the repair of steam generator tube. Considering from the social and technical standpoint, we can say that the development of the remotely controlled robot system for nuclear power plants resulted in great achievements. From the social standpoint, it should be recognized that domestic robot for nuclear power plant was successfully developed and operator was protected against radioactivity. Also, we advanced our skills in the area of mechanical and control system design for an articulated robot. Using the robot controller in hierarchical structure, it was possible to control the robot remotely. In addition, resolver feedback typed A C servo drive was proven to be sturdy in hazardous environment. Now we are confident that our robot will
Calibration of Robot Reference Frames for Enhanced Robot Positioning Accuracy

OpenAIRE

Cheng, Frank Shaopeng

2008-01-01

This chapter discussed the importance and methods of conducting robot workcell calibration for enhancing the accuracy of the robot TCP positions in industrial robot applications. It shows that the robot frame transformations define the robot geometric parameters such as joint position variables, link dimensions, and joint offsets in an industrial robot system. The D-H representation allows the robot designer to model the robot motion geometry with the four standard D-H parameters. The robot k...
Children Perseverate to a Human's Actions but Not to a Robot's Actions

Science.gov (United States)

Moriguchi, Yusuke; Kanda, Takayuki; Ishiguro, Hiroshi; Itakura, Shoji

2010-01-01

Previous research has shown that young children commit perseverative errors from their observation of another person's actions. The present study examined how social observation would lead children to perseverative tendencies, using a robot. In Experiment 1, preschoolers watched either a human model or a robot sorting cards according to one…
Like-Me Simulation as an Effective and Cognitively Plausible Basis for Social Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

2009-02-24

havior of teams from observation. In: RoboCup 2002: robot soccer world cup, Fukuoka, Japan 25. Karin-D’Arcy MR, Povinelli DJ (2002) Do chimpanzees...2001) Building a multimodal human-robot interface. IEEE Intel Syst 16:16–20 41. Povinelli DJ, Eddy TJ (1994) The eyes as a window: what young
Manuscript style and packaging | Ibrahim | Nigerian Journal of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

As the writing commences, it is worth thinking about the type of manuscript to write and where the proposed paper is to be published as these affect not only the writing style but also the ease of publication. Ideally, the target publisher should be the one in which similar work has been published. It is also worth considering an ...

In good company? Perception of movement synchrony of a non-anthropomorphic robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Lehmann, Hagen; Saez-Pons, Joan; Syrdal, Dag Sverre; Dautenhahn, Kerstin

2015-01-01

Recent technological developments like cheap sensors and the decreasing costs of computational power have brought the possibility of robotic home companions within reach. In order to be accepted it is vital for these robots to be able to participate meaningfully in social interactions with their users and to make them feel comfortable during these interactions. In this study we investigated how people respond to a situation where a companion robot is watching its user. Specifically, we tested the effect of robotic behaviours that are synchronised with the actions of a human. We evaluated the effects of these behaviours on the robot's likeability and perceived intelligence using an online video survey. The robot used was Care-O-bot3, a non-anthropomorphic robot with a limited range of expressive motions. We found that even minimal, positively synchronised movements during an object-oriented task were interpreted by participants as engagement and created a positive disposition towards the robot. However, even negatively synchronised movements of the robot led to more positive perceptions of the robot, as compared to a robot that does not move at all. The results emphasise a) the powerful role that robot movements in general can have on participants' perception of the robot, and b) that synchronisation of body movements can be a powerful means to enhance the positive attitude towards a non-anthropomorphic robot.
In good company? Perception of movement synchrony of a non-anthropomorphic robot.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hagen Lehmann

Full Text Available Recent technological developments like cheap sensors and the decreasing costs of computational power have brought the possibility of robotic home companions within reach. In order to be accepted it is vital for these robots to be able to participate meaningfully in social interactions with their users and to make them feel comfortable during these interactions. In this study we investigated how people respond to a situation where a companion robot is watching its user. Specifically, we tested the effect of robotic behaviours that are synchronised with the actions of a human. We evaluated the effects of these behaviours on the robot's likeability and perceived intelligence using an online video survey. The robot used was Care-O-bot3, a non-anthropomorphic robot with a limited range of expressive motions. We found that even minimal, positively synchronised movements during an object-oriented task were interpreted by participants as engagement and created a positive disposition towards the robot. However, even negatively synchronised movements of the robot led to more positive perceptions of the robot, as compared to a robot that does not move at all. The results emphasise a the powerful role that robot movements in general can have on participants' perception of the robot, and b that synchronisation of body movements can be a powerful means to enhance the positive attitude towards a non-anthropomorphic robot.
Non-destructive study of iron gall inks in manuscripts

Science.gov (United States)

Duh, Jelena; Krstić, Dragica; Desnica, Vladan; Fazinić, Stjepko

2018-02-01

The aim of this research is to establish an effective procedure of iron gall ink characterization using complementary non-destructive methods. By this, it is possible to better understand correlation of chemical composition of the inks and the state of preservation of iron gall ink manuscripts, as well as the effects of conservation treatment performed upon them. This study was undertaken on a bound 16th century manuscript comprised of different types of paper and ink from the National and University Library in Zagreb. Analytical methods used included Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF). Paper fibers were identified by optical microscopy and the degradation state, as well as ink differentiation, transit metal migrations and detection of stains, with ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) photography. The techniques applied on original writing materials gave important information about paper and ink composition, its preservation state and efficiency of conservation treatment performed upon them.
Sketching CuddleBits : Coupled Prototyping of Body and Behaviour for an Affective Robot Pet

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bucci, Paul; Cang, Xi Laura; Valair, Anasazi; Marino, David; Tseng, Lucia; Jung, Merel Madeleine; Rantala, Jussi; Schneider, Oliver S.; MacLean, Karon E.

2017-01-01

Social robots that physically display emotion invite natural communication with their human interlocutors, enabling ap- plications like robot-assisted therapy where a complex robot’s breathing influences human emotional and physiological state. Using DIY fabrication and assembly, we explore how sim-
Generic robot architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Bruemmer, David J [Idaho Falls, ID; Few, Douglas A [Idaho Falls, ID

2010-09-21

The present invention provides methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses for a generic robot architecture providing a framework that is easily portable to a variety of robot platforms and is configured to provide hardware abstractions, abstractions for generic robot attributes, environment abstractions, and robot behaviors. The generic robot architecture includes a hardware abstraction level and a robot abstraction level. The hardware abstraction level is configured for developing hardware abstractions that define, monitor, and control hardware modules available on a robot platform. The robot abstraction level is configured for defining robot attributes and provides a software framework for building robot behaviors from the robot attributes. Each of the robot attributes includes hardware information from at least one hardware abstraction. In addition, each robot attribute is configured to substantially isolate the robot behaviors from the at least one hardware abstraction.
Molecular Robots Obeying Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaminka, Gal A; Spokoini-Stern, Rachel; Amir, Yaniv; Agmon, Noa; Bachelet, Ido

2017-01-01

Asimov's three laws of robotics, which were shaped in the literary work of Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) and others, define a crucial code of behavior that fictional autonomous robots must obey as a condition for their integration into human society. While, general implementation of these laws in robots is widely considered impractical, limited-scope versions have been demonstrated and have proven useful in spurring scientific debate on aspects of safety and autonomy in robots and intelligent systems. In this work, we use Asimov's laws to examine these notions in molecular robots fabricated from DNA origami. We successfully programmed these robots to obey, by means of interactions between individual robots in a large population, an appropriately scoped variant of Asimov's laws, and even emulate the key scenario from Asimov's story "Runaround," in which a fictional robot gets into trouble despite adhering to the laws. Our findings show that abstract, complex notions can be encoded and implemented at the molecular scale, when we understand robots on this scale on the basis of their interactions.
[Astrologic and medical manuscript of the 18th Century].

Science.gov (United States)

Kugener, Henri

2010-01-01

We present a manuscript from the 18th century, an extract taken from the "Great and the Little Albert" attributed to Albertus Magnus. The linguistic variety in the paper is typical for a text composed in Luxembourg. Added to this text are two incantations and a short cartomancy paper.
Colias: An Autonomous Micro Robot for Swarm Robotic Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farshad Arvin

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Robotic swarms that take inspiration from nature are becoming a fascinating topic for multi-robot researchers. The aim is to control a large number of simple robots in order to solve common complex tasks. Due to the hardware complexities and cost of robot platforms, current research in swarm robotics is mostly performed by simulation software. The simulation of large numbers of these robots in robotic swarm applications is extremely complex and often inaccurate due to the poor modelling of external conditions. In this paper, we present the design of a low-cost, open-platform, autonomous micro-robot (Colias for robotic swarm applications. Colias employs a circular platform with a diameter of 4 cm. It has a maximum speed of 35 cm/s which enables it to be used in swarm scenarios very quickly over large arenas. Long-range infrared modules with an adjustable output power allow the robot to communicate with its direct neighbours at a range of 0.5 cm to 2 m. Colias has been designed as a complete platform with supporting software development tools for robotics education and research. It has been tested in both individual and swarm scenarios, and the observed results demonstrate its feasibility for use as a micro-sized mobile robot and as a low-cost platform for robot swarm applications.
You Look Human, But Act Like a Machine: Agent Appearance and Behavior Modulate Different Aspects of Human–Robot Interaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdulaziz Abubshait

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Gaze following occurs automatically in social interactions, but the degree to which gaze is followed depends on whether an agent is perceived to have a mind, making its behavior socially more relevant for the interaction. Mind perception also modulates the attitudes we have toward others, and determines the degree of empathy, prosociality, and morality invested in social interactions. Seeing mind in others is not exclusive to human agents, but mind can also be ascribed to non-human agents like robots, as long as their appearance and/or behavior allows them to be perceived as intentional beings. Previous studies have shown that human appearance and reliable behavior induce mind perception to robot agents, and positively affect attitudes and performance in human–robot interaction. What has not been investigated so far is whether different triggers of mind perception have an independent or interactive effect on attitudes and performance in human–robot interaction. We examine this question by manipulating agent appearance (human vs. robot and behavior (reliable vs. random within the same paradigm and examine how congruent (human/reliable vs. robot/random versus incongruent (human/random vs. robot/reliable combinations of these triggers affect performance (i.e., gaze following and attitudes (i.e., agent ratings in human–robot interaction. The results show that both appearance and behavior affect human–robot interaction but that the two triggers seem to operate in isolation, with appearance more strongly impacting attitudes, and behavior more strongly affecting performance. The implications of these findings for human–robot interaction are discussed.
You Look Human, But Act Like a Machine: Agent Appearance and Behavior Modulate Different Aspects of Human-Robot Interaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Abubshait, Abdulaziz; Wiese, Eva

2017-01-01

Gaze following occurs automatically in social interactions, but the degree to which gaze is followed depends on whether an agent is perceived to have a mind, making its behavior socially more relevant for the interaction. Mind perception also modulates the attitudes we have toward others, and determines the degree of empathy, prosociality, and morality invested in social interactions. Seeing mind in others is not exclusive to human agents, but mind can also be ascribed to non-human agents like robots, as long as their appearance and/or behavior allows them to be perceived as intentional beings. Previous studies have shown that human appearance and reliable behavior induce mind perception to robot agents, and positively affect attitudes and performance in human-robot interaction. What has not been investigated so far is whether different triggers of mind perception have an independent or interactive effect on attitudes and performance in human-robot interaction. We examine this question by manipulating agent appearance (human vs. robot) and behavior (reliable vs. random) within the same paradigm and examine how congruent (human/reliable vs. robot/random) versus incongruent (human/random vs. robot/reliable) combinations of these triggers affect performance (i.e., gaze following) and attitudes (i.e., agent ratings) in human-robot interaction. The results show that both appearance and behavior affect human-robot interaction but that the two triggers seem to operate in isolation, with appearance more strongly impacting attitudes, and behavior more strongly affecting performance. The implications of these findings for human-robot interaction are discussed.
Acceptance of an assistive robot in older adults: a mixed-method study of human-robot interaction over a 1-month period in the Living Lab setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Ya-Huei; Wrobel, Jérémy; Cornuet, Mélanie; Kerhervé, Hélène; Damnée, Souad; Rigaud, Anne-Sophie

2014-01-01

There is growing interest in investigating acceptance of robots, which are increasingly being proposed as one form of assistive technology to support older adults, maintain their independence, and enhance their well-being. In the present study, we aimed to observe robot-acceptance in older adults, particularly subsequent to a 1-month direct experience with a robot. Six older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and five cognitively intact healthy (CIH) older adults were recruited. Participants interacted with an assistive robot in the Living Lab once a week for 4 weeks. After being shown how to use the robot, participants performed tasks to simulate robot use in everyday life. Mixed methods, comprising a robot-acceptance questionnaire, semistructured interviews, usability-performance measures, and a focus group, were used. Both CIH and MCI subjects were able to learn how to use the robot. However, MCI subjects needed more time to perform tasks after a 1-week period of not using the robot. Both groups rated similarly on the robot-acceptance questionnaire. They showed low intention to use the robot, as well as negative attitudes toward and negative images of this device. They did not perceive it as useful in their daily life. However, they found it easy to use, amusing, and not threatening. In addition, social influence was perceived as powerful on robot adoption. Direct experience with the robot did not change the way the participants rated robots in their acceptance questionnaire. We identified several barriers to robot-acceptance, including older adults' uneasiness with technology, feeling of stigmatization, and ethical/societal issues associated with robot use. It is important to destigmatize images of assistive robots to facilitate their acceptance. Universal design aiming to increase the market for and production of products that are usable by everyone (to the greatest extent possible) might help to destigmatize assistive devices.
Can Social Learning Increase Learning Speed, Performance or Both?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heinerman, J.V.; Stork, J.; Rebolledo Coy, M.A.; Hubert, J.G.; Eiben, A.E.; Bartz-Beielstein, Thomas; Haasdijk, Evert

2017-01-01

Social learning enables multiple robots to share learned experiences while completing a task. The literature offers contradicting examples of its benefits; robots trained with social learning reach a higher performance, an increased learning speed, or both, compared to their individual learning
Manuscript Architect: a Web application for scientific writing in virtual interdisciplinary groups

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Menezes Andreia P

2005-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Although scientific writing plays a central role in the communication of clinical research findings and consumes a significant amount of time from clinical researchers, few Web applications have been designed to systematically improve the writing process. This application had as its main objective the separation of the multiple tasks associated with scientific writing into smaller components. It was also aimed at providing a mechanism where sections of the manuscript (text blocks could be assigned to different specialists. Manuscript Architect was built using Java language in conjunction with the classic lifecycle development method. The interface was designed for simplicity and economy of movements. Manuscripts are divided into multiple text blocks that can be assigned to different co-authors by the first author. Each text block contains notes to guide co-authors regarding the central focus of each text block, previous examples, and an additional field for translation when the initial text is written in a language different from the one used by the target journal. Usability was evaluated using formal usability tests and field observations. Results The application presented excellent usability and integration with the regular writing habits of experienced researchers. Workshops were developed to train novice researchers, presenting an accelerated learning curve. The application has been used in over 20 different scientific articles and grant proposals. Conclusion The current version of Manuscript Architect has proven to be very useful in the writing of multiple scientific texts, suggesting that virtual writing by interdisciplinary groups is an effective manner of scientific writing when interdisciplinary work is required.
Understanding the Uncanny: Both Atypical Features and Category Ambiguity Provoke Aversion toward Humanlike Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan K. Strait

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Robots intended for social contexts are often designed with explicit humanlike attributes in order to facilitate their reception by (and communication with people. However, observation of an “uncanny valley”—a phenomenon in which highly humanlike entities provoke aversion in human observers—has lead some to caution against this practice. Both of these contrasting perspectives on the anthropomorphic design of social robots find some support in empirical investigations to date. Yet, owing to outstanding empirical limitations and theoretical disputes, the uncanny valley and its implications for human-robot interaction remains poorly understood. We thus explored the relationship between human similarity and people's aversion toward humanlike robots via manipulation of the agents' appearances. To that end, we employed a picture-viewing task (Nagents = 60 to conduct an experimental test (Nparticipants = 72 of the uncanny valley's existence and the visual features that cause certain humanlike robots to be unnerving. Across the levels of human similarity, we further manipulated agent appearance on two dimensions, typicality (prototypic, atypical, and ambiguous and agent identity (robot, person, and measured participants' aversion using both subjective and behavioral indices. Our findings were as follows: (1 Further substantiating its existence, the data show a clear and consistent uncanny valley in the current design space of humanoid robots. (2 Both category ambiguity, and more so, atypicalities provoke aversive responding, thus shedding light on the visual factors that drive people's discomfort. (3 Use of the Negative Attitudes toward Robots Scale did not reveal any significant relationships between people's pre-existing attitudes toward humanlike robots and their aversive responding—suggesting positive exposure and/or additional experience with robots is unlikely to affect the occurrence of an uncanny valley effect in humanoid robotics
Understanding the Uncanny: Both Atypical Features and Category Ambiguity Provoke Aversion toward Humanlike Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Strait, Megan K; Floerke, Victoria A; Ju, Wendy; Maddox, Keith; Remedios, Jessica D; Jung, Malte F; Urry, Heather L

2017-01-01

Robots intended for social contexts are often designed with explicit humanlike attributes in order to facilitate their reception by (and communication with) people. However, observation of an "uncanny valley"-a phenomenon in which highly humanlike entities provoke aversion in human observers-has lead some to caution against this practice. Both of these contrasting perspectives on the anthropomorphic design of social robots find some support in empirical investigations to date. Yet, owing to outstanding empirical limitations and theoretical disputes, the uncanny valley and its implications for human-robot interaction remains poorly understood. We thus explored the relationship between human similarity and people's aversion toward humanlike robots via manipulation of the agents' appearances. To that end, we employed a picture-viewing task ( N agents = 60) to conduct an experimental test ( N participants = 72) of the uncanny valley's existence and the visual features that cause certain humanlike robots to be unnerving. Across the levels of human similarity, we further manipulated agent appearance on two dimensions, typicality (prototypic, atypical, and ambiguous) and agent identity (robot, person), and measured participants' aversion using both subjective and behavioral indices. Our findings were as follows: (1) Further substantiating its existence, the data show a clear and consistent uncanny valley in the current design space of humanoid robots. (2) Both category ambiguity, and more so, atypicalities provoke aversive responding, thus shedding light on the visual factors that drive people's discomfort. (3) Use of the Negative Attitudes toward Robots Scale did not reveal any significant relationships between people's pre-existing attitudes toward humanlike robots and their aversive responding-suggesting positive exposure and/or additional experience with robots is unlikely to affect the occurrence of an uncanny valley effect in humanoid robotics. This work furthers
Authorial or Scribal? : spelling variation in the Hengwrt and Ellesmere manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Caon, Luigina Marina Domenica

2009-01-01

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales has come down to us in about 80 fifteenth-century manuscripts, none of which is in his own hand. What is conventionally referred to as ‘Chaucer’s language’ is the language found in two early texts of The Canterbury Tales, the Hengwrt and the Ellesmere manuscripts. Despite
An affordable compact humanoid robot for Autism Spectrum Disorder interventions in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Dickstein-Fischer, Laurie; Alexander, Elizabeth; Yan, Xiaoan; Su, Hao; Harrington, Kevin; Fischer, Gregory S

2011-01-01

Autism Spectrum Disorder impacts an ever-increasing number of children. The disorder is marked by social functioning that is characterized by impairment in the use of nonverbal behaviors, failure to develop appropriate peer relationships and lack of social and emotional exchanges. Providing early intervention through the modality of play therapy has been effective in improving behavioral and social outcomes for children with autism. Interacting with humanoid robots that provide simple emotional response and interaction has been shown to improve the communication skills of autistic children. In particular, early intervention and continuous care provide significantly better outcomes. Currently, there are no robots capable of meeting these requirements that are both low-cost and available to families of autistic children for in-home use. This paper proposes the piloting the use of robotics as an improved diagnostic and early intervention tool for autistic children that is affordable, non-threatening, durable, and capable of interacting with an autistic child. This robot has the ability to track the child with its 3 degree of freedom (DOF) eyes and 3-DOF head, open and close its 1-DOF beak and 1-DOF each eyelids, raise its 1-DOF each wings, play sound, and record sound. These attributes will give it the ability to be used for the diagnosis and treatment of autism. As part of this project, the robot and the electronic and control software have been developed, and integrating semi-autonomous interaction, teleoperation from a remote healthcare provider and initiating trials with children in a local clinic are in progress.
Micro intelligence robot

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeon, Yon Ho

1991-07-01

This book gives descriptions of micro robot about conception of robots and micro robot, match rules of conference of micro robots, search methods of mazes, and future and prospect of robots. It also explains making and design of 8 beat robot like making technique, software, sensor board circuit, and stepping motor catalog, speedy 3, Mr. Black and Mr. White, making and design of 16 beat robot, such as micro robot artist, Jerry 2 and magic art of shortening distances algorithm of robot simulation.
From Intuitive Programming of Robotic Systems to Business Sustainability of Manufacturing SMEs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bogdan Mocan

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Economic growth and sustainable development are issues which are becoming more and more important for nowadays companies. Sustainable development strives for moderate and responsible use within the economic and production activity the limited resources of our planet. Eco-innovations, eco-efficiency and corporate social responsibility practices define much of the current industrial sustainability agenda. While important, they are insufficient in themselves to deliver the holistic changes necessary to achieve long-term social and environmental sustainability. This paper proposed a framework for designing multimodal human-robot interfaces and a demonstrator that facilitate a sustainable use of robotic systems with positive effects on SMEs business sustainability. The proposed approach is intended to bring important contributions to the development of human robot interaction in order to facilitate intuitive programming and to enable easily adapting to changes in robot tasks and applications without the need of using skilled personnel. Our research emphasize the idea that new technologies in product and process create and enable new business strategies; and we demonstrate that changing the paradigm in programming industrial robotic systems it is possible by a “business case for sustainability” to have a sustainable development of the business, in special in case of SMEs.
Robotizing workforce in future built environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maas, G.J.; Gassel, van F.J.M.; Lee, Junbok; Han, Chang-Soo

2011-01-01

The aim of this paper is to define challenges for Automation and Robotics in construction (A+R) to enhance client and social value. Construction contributes to a positive living environment for society and is the largest sector of Europe’s economy with a size of around 2,500 billion Euros. Ten

Modelling of industrial robot in LabView Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Banas, W.; Cwikła, G.; Foit, K.; Gwiazda, A.; Monica, Z.; Sekala, A.

2017-08-01

Currently can find many models of industrial systems including robots. These models differ from each other not only by the accuracy representation parameters, but the representation range. For example, CAD models describe the geometry of the robot and some even designate a mass parameters as mass, center of gravity, moment of inertia, etc. These models are used in the design of robotic lines and sockets. Also systems for off-line programming use these models and many of them can be exported to CAD. It is important to note that models for off-line programming describe not only the geometry but contain the information necessary to create a program for the robot. Exports from CAD to off-line programming system requires additional information. These models are used for static determination of reachability points, and testing collision. It’s enough to generate a program for the robot, and even check the interaction of elements of the production line, or robotic cell. Mathematical models allow robots to study the properties of kinematic and dynamic of robot movement. In these models the geometry is not so important, so are used only selected parameters such as the length of the robot arm, the center of gravity, moment of inertia. These parameters are introduced into the equations of motion of the robot and motion parameters are determined.
Hidden library : Visualizing fragments of medieval manuscripts in early-modern bookbindings with mobile macro-XRF scanner

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duivenvoorden, Jorien R.; Käyhkö, Anna; Kwakkel, Erik; Dik, J.

2017-01-01

This experiment demonstrates the large potential of macro-XRF imaging for the visualization of fragments of medieval manuscripts hidden in early-modern bookbindings. The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century made manuscripts obsolete and bookbinders started recycling their
Submission of scientifically sound and ethical manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals - a reviewer's personal perspective on bioanalytical publications.

Science.gov (United States)

Weng, Naidong

2012-11-01

In the pharmaceutical industry, bioanalysis is very dynamic and is probably one of the few fields of research covering the entire drug discovery, development and post-marketing process. Important decisions on drug safety can partially rely on bioanalytical data, which therefore can be subject to regulatory scrutiny. Bioanalytical scientists have historically contributed significant numbers of scientific manuscripts in many peer-reviewed analytical journals. All of these journals provide some high-level instructions, but they also leave sufficient flexibility for reviewers to perform independent critique and offer recommendations for each submitted manuscript. Reviewers play a pivotal role in the process of bioanalytical publication to ensure the publication of high-quality manuscripts in a timely fashion. Their efforts usually lead to improved manuscripts. However, it has to be a joint effort among authors, reviewers and editors to promote scientifically sound and ethically fair bioanalytical publications. Most of the submitted manuscripts were well written with only minor or moderate revisions required for further improvement. Nevertheless, there were small numbers of submitted manuscripts that did not meet the requirements for publications because of scientific or ethical deficiencies, which are discussed in this Letter to the Editor. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Here comes the bad news: Doctor robot taking over

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoorn, J.F.; Winter, S.D.

2017-01-01

To test in how far the Media Equation and Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) validly explain user responses to social robots, we manipulated how a bad health message was framed and the language that was used. In the wake of Experiment 2 of Burgers et al. (Patient Educ Couns 89(2):267–273, 2012.
Biomass feeds vegetarian robot; Biomassa voedt vegetarische robot

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van den Brandt, M. [Office for Science and Technology, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Washington (United States)

2009-09-15

This brief article addresses the EATR robot (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot) that was developed by Cyclone Power and uses biomass as primary source of energy for propulsion. [Dutch] Een kort artikel over de door Cyclone Power ontwikkelde EATR-robot (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot) die voor de voortdrijving biomassa gebruikt als primaire energiebron.
Soft Robotics Week

CERN Document Server

Rossiter, Jonathan; Iida, Fumiya; Cianchetti, Matteo; Margheri, Laura

2017-01-01

This book offers a comprehensive, timely snapshot of current research, technologies and applications of soft robotics. The different chapters, written by international experts across multiple fields of soft robotics, cover innovative systems and technologies for soft robot legged locomotion, soft robot manipulation, underwater soft robotics, biomimetic soft robotic platforms, plant-inspired soft robots, flying soft robots, soft robotics in surgery, as well as methods for their modeling and control. Based on the results of the second edition of the Soft Robotics Week, held on April 25 – 30, 2016, in Livorno, Italy, the book reports on the major research lines and novel technologies presented and discussed during the event.
Towards Versatile Robots Through Open Heterogeneous Modular Robots

OpenAIRE

Lyder, Andreas

2010-01-01

Robots are important tools in our everyday life. Both in industry and at the consumer level they serve the purpose of increasing our scope and extending our capabilities. Modular robots take the next step, allowing us to easily create and build various robots from a set of modules. If a problem arises, a new robot can be assembled rapidly from the existing modules, in contrast to conventional robots, which require a time consuming and expensive development process. In this thesis we define a ...
A Long Time Ago in a Library Far, Far Away ... The Adventures of the Gladiatoria Manuscript from New Haven

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hagedorn Dierk

2015-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper I will describe the adventurous history of an important late medieval German fechtbuch—a fighting manual—that belongs to a number of manuscripts known as the Gladiatoria group. In the beginning, the extent and the characteristics of this group of codices are explained; later on I will deal with one specific specimen that formerly belonged to a library in Germany—the Herzogliche Bibliothek in Gotha—from where it vanished during or after World War II. Until quite recently this manuscript was believed to be lost. I was able to identify a Gladiatoria manuscript from the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, as that missing manuscript. The article presents a detailed description of the manuscript; it follows the path of the many places the codex passed through from the days of its creation until the present time; it offers a thorough line of argument that proves on one hand that the manuscript from New Haven is in fact identical to the one that disappeared from Gotha, and that verifies on the other hand an assumption by the renowned researcher Hans-Peter Hils that it is identical to yet another believed-to-be-lost manuscript that was sold by auction in Heidelberg in the 1950s and 1960s as single leaves; and finally it makes an attempt to reconstruct the original structure of the manuscript after it had been pulled apart.
Robotic architectures

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mtshali, M

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In the development of mobile robotic systems, a robotic architecture plays a crucial role in interconnecting all the sub-systems and controlling the system. The design of robotic architectures for mobile autonomous robots is a challenging...
Timbuktu manuscript expressing the mystical thoughts of Yusuf-Ibn ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The context addresses a reciprocal relationship between God and humanity and how humanity can experience the highest form of happiness in this world and the hereafter. Therefore this manuscript is not only a mystical text but also contributes to Islamic ethics. In the exegesis of the translated work, Qur'anic verses were ...
Learning with Charlie: A robot buddy for children with diabetes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blanson Henkemans, O.A.; Pal, S.M. van der; Werner, I.; Looije, R.; Neericnx, M.A.

2017-01-01

Children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) have a need for social, cognitive and affective support for self-management. The PAL project develops a social robot and its avatar. The aim is to assist the child, health care professional and parents to jointly perform diabetes management. Diabetes
Soft Robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Whitesides, George M

2018-04-09

This description of "soft robotics" is not intended to be a conventional review, in the sense of a comprehensive technical summary of a developing field. Rather, its objective is to describe soft robotics as a new field-one that offers opportunities to chemists and materials scientists who like to make "things" and to work with macroscopic objects that move and exert force. It will give one (personal) view of what soft actuators and robots are, and how this class of soft devices fits into the more highly developed field of conventional "hard" robotics. It will also suggest how and why soft robotics is more than simply a minor technical "tweak" on hard robotics and propose a unique role for chemistry, and materials science, in this field. Soft robotics is, at its core, intellectually and technologically different from hard robotics, both because it has different objectives and uses and because it relies on the properties of materials to assume many of the roles played by sensors, actuators, and controllers in hard robotics. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
“What Doraemon, the Earless Blue Robot Cat from the 22nd Century, Can Teach Us About How Japan’s Elderly and Their Human Caregivers Might Live with Emotional Care Robots.”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert C. Marshall

2016-12-01

Full Text Available While immense literatures examine aging and robots in Japan separately, reality has not yet reached the point where robotic care for the elderly can be examined comprehensively. Disciplining imagination with method, structural analysis of the popular Japanese children’s animation series Doraemon, in which a slightly defective blue robot cat sent from the 22nd century becomes the helper and companion to a similarly slightly defective ten-year-old boy, lets us peer into one possible future of this nexus. If Japan’s robotics engineers would consider Doraemon as a plausible model for a socially assistive robot (SAR, their result might replace today’s fraught, infantilizing relationships with youthful, elder-focused care relationships.
Human likeness: cognitive and affective factors affecting adoption of robot-assisted learning systems

Science.gov (United States)

Yoo, Hosun; Kwon, Ohbyung; Lee, Namyeon

2016-07-01

With advances in robot technology, interest in robotic e-learning systems has increased. In some laboratories, experiments are being conducted with humanoid robots as artificial tutors because of their likeness to humans, the rich possibilities of using this type of media, and the multimodal interaction capabilities of these robots. The robot-assisted learning system, a special type of e-learning system, aims to increase the learner's concentration, pleasure, and learning performance dramatically. However, very few empirical studies have examined the effect on learning performance of incorporating humanoid robot technology into e-learning systems or people's willingness to accept or adopt robot-assisted learning systems. In particular, human likeness, the essential characteristic of humanoid robots as compared with conventional e-learning systems, has not been discussed in a theoretical context. Hence, the purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical model to explain the process of adoption of robot-assisted learning systems. In the proposed model, human likeness is conceptualized as a combination of media richness, multimodal interaction capabilities, and para-social relationships; these factors are considered as possible determinants of the degree to which human cognition and affection are related to the adoption of robot-assisted learning systems.
Reversal Learning Task in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Robot-Based Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Costescu, Cristina A.; Vanderborght, Bram; David, Daniel O.

2015-01-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in highly perseverative and inflexible behaviours. Technological tools, such as robots, received increased attention as social reinforces and/or assisting tools for improving the performance of children with ASD. The aim of our study is to investigate the role of the robotic toy Keepon in a…
Educational robotics as an Innovative teaching practice using technology: minimization of risks

Science.gov (United States)

Kvesko, S. B.; Kvesko, N. G.; Korniyenko, A. A.; Kabanova, N. N.

2018-05-01

This research is focused on studying educational robotics, specifically robots which provide functions of educational activity. We have considered the questions of intelligent agents’ behavior and have studied their educational opportunities. Educational robotics is a powerful tool of developing person’s skills and abilities in various fields of technical creativity and professional activity. The evolutionary development of robotics is connected with development of artificial intelligence, where emotions play a great role in operations. Nowadays the main thing is to form the ability and skills of optimum interaction with social environment when a person, based on gained knowledge, is capable to put goals of the activity in strict accordance with laws and society conditions and using current technology.
A National Survey Examining Manuscript Dissertation Formats Among Nursing PhD Programs in the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Graves, Janessa M; Postma, Julie; Katz, Janet R; Kehoe, Leanne; Swalling, Eileen; Barbosa-Leiker, Celestina

2018-03-08

Among research-focused nursing doctoral (PhD) programs in the United States, the traditional dissertation format has recently given way to a series of publication-ready manuscripts, often bookended by introduction and conclusion chapters. To help programs make decisions about the use of these formats, this study undertook a national survey of programs offering PhDs in nursing. The purpose of this study was to explore the advantages and disadvantages of the traditional format versus manuscript option for dissertations among nursing PhD programs in the United States. Cross-sectional census survey of U.S. nursing PhD programs. A web-based survey was administered to all U.S. nursing PhD programs. Respondents indicated formats offered, factors contributing to decisions of which formats to offer, and lessons learned. Descriptive statistics and inductive content analyses were used for analysis. Of 121 eligible institutions, 79 provided eligible responses (66.7%). The majority (59%) offered both formats; 11% offered the manuscript option only, and 24% offered the traditional format only. Faculty support (or lack thereof) contributed to adoption (or not) of the manuscript option. Respondents' approaches to the manuscript option (e.g., number of papers) and advice are summarized. Manuscript option dissertations are commonly offered and provide benefits to students and faculty; however, thoughtful implementation is critical. Programs need to agree upon clear expectations and have graduate school support (e.g., formatting). Faculty need mentorship in advising manuscript option students who choose to use this format, and the time and support. Finally, students need additional writing skills that could be provided through coursework or via individual work with mentors. As nursing education continues to expand further into doctoral research, programs must examine dissertation formats in order to both prepare future nurse scholars and disseminate nursing research that is critical
Virtual spring damper method for nonholonomic robotic swarm self-organization and leader following

Science.gov (United States)

Wiech, Jakub; Eremeyev, Victor A.; Giorgio, Ivan

2018-04-01

In this paper, we demonstrate a method for self-organization and leader following of nonholonomic robotic swarm based on spring damper mesh. By self-organization of swarm robots we mean the emergence of order in a swarm as the result of interactions among the single robots. In other words the self-organization of swarm robots mimics some natural behavior of social animals like ants among others. The dynamics of two-wheel robot is derived, and a relation between virtual forces and robot control inputs is defined in order to establish stable swarm formation. Two cases of swarm control are analyzed. In the first case the swarm cohesion is achieved by virtual spring damper mesh connecting nearest neighboring robots without designated leader. In the second case we introduce a swarm leader interacting with nearest and second neighbors allowing the swarm to follow the leader. The paper ends with numeric simulation for performance evaluation of the proposed control method.
A Remote Social Robot to Motivate and Support Diabetic Children in Keeping a Diary

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Drift, E.J.G. van der; Looije, R.; Blanson Henkemans, O.A.; Neerincx, M.A.

2014-01-01

Children with diabetes can benefit from keeping a diary, but seldom keep one. Within the European ALIZ-E project a robot companion is being developed that, among other things, will be able to support and motivate diabetic children to keep a diary. This paper discusses the study of a robot supporting
A remote social robot to motivate and support diabetic children in keeping a diary

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Der Drift, Esther J G; Beun, Robbert Jan; Looije, Rosemarijn; Henkemans, Oliver A Blanson; Neerincx, Mark A.

2014-01-01

Children with diabetes can benefit from keeping a diary, but seldom keep one. Within the European ALIZ-E project a robot companion is being developed that, among other things, will be able to support and motivate diabetic children to keep a diary. This paper discusses the study of a robot supporting

Evolutionary robotics

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

In evolutionary robotics, a suitable robot control system is developed automatically through evolution due to the interactions between the robot and its environment. It is a complicated task, as the robot and the environment constitute a highly dynamical system. Several methods have been tried by various investigators to ...
An introduction to the edition of two Lemaître’s original manuscripts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maere Catherine de

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to explain the contributions of G. Lemaître to Spinor Theory. At the end of the paper, we edited also, for the first time two short manuscripts: Spineurs et Quanta and Les spineurs et la physique quantique, written by Lemaître in December 1955 and in January 1956. This edition is a way of honouring Professor Michael Heller because he was the first, with Professor Odon Godart, who discovered, classified and published unedited manuscripts of G. Lemaître.
Interactive Exploration Robots: Human-Robotic Collaboration and Interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Terry

2017-01-01

For decades, NASA has employed different operational approaches for human and robotic missions. Human spaceflight missions to the Moon and in low Earth orbit have relied upon near-continuous communication with minimal time delays. During these missions, astronauts and mission control communicate interactively to perform tasks and resolve problems in real-time. In contrast, deep-space robotic missions are designed for operations in the presence of significant communication delay - from tens of minutes to hours. Consequently, robotic missions typically employ meticulously scripted and validated command sequences that are intermittently uplinked to the robot for independent execution over long periods. Over the next few years, however, we will see increasing use of robots that blend these two operational approaches. These interactive exploration robots will be remotely operated by humans on Earth or from a spacecraft. These robots will be used to support astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), to conduct new missions to the Moon, and potentially to enable remote exploration of planetary surfaces in real-time. In this talk, I will discuss the technical challenges associated with building and operating robots in this manner, along with lessons learned from research conducted with the ISS and in the field.
Using Language Games as a Way to Investigate Interactional Engagement in Human-Robot Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, L. C.

2016-01-01

how students' engagement with a social robot can be systematically investigated and evaluated. For this purpose, I present a small user study in which a robot plays a word formation game with a human, in which engagement is determined by means of an analysis of the 'language games' played...
Audio-Visual Perception System for a Humanoid Robotic Head

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raquel Viciana-Abad

2014-05-01

Full Text Available One of the main issues within the field of social robotics is to endow robots with the ability to direct attention to people with whom they are interacting. Different approaches follow bio-inspired mechanisms, merging audio and visual cues to localize a person using multiple sensors. However, most of these fusion mechanisms have been used in fixed systems, such as those used in video-conference rooms, and thus, they may incur difficulties when constrained to the sensors with which a robot can be equipped. Besides, within the scope of interactive autonomous robots, there is a lack in terms of evaluating the benefits of audio-visual attention mechanisms, compared to only audio or visual approaches, in real scenarios. Most of the tests conducted have been within controlled environments, at short distances and/or with off-line performance measurements. With the goal of demonstrating the benefit of fusing sensory information with a Bayes inference for interactive robotics, this paper presents a system for localizing a person by processing visual and audio data. Moreover, the performance of this system is evaluated and compared via considering the technical limitations of unimodal systems. The experiments show the promise of the proposed approach for the proactive detection and tracking of speakers in a human-robot interactive framework.
Zebrafish response to robotic fish: preference experiments on isolated individuals and small shoals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Polverino, G; Abaid, N; Kopman, V; Porfiri, M; Macrì, S

2012-01-01

Recently developed bioinspired robots imitate their live counterparts in both aspect and functionality. Nevertheless, whether these devices can be integrated within the ecological niche inspiring their design is seldom tested experimentally. An elemental research question concerns the feasibility of modulating spontaneous behaviour of animal systems through bioinspired robotics. The following study explores the possibility of engineering a robotic fish capable of influencing the behaviour of live zebrafish (Danio rerio) in a dichotomous preference test. While we observe that the preference for the robotic fish never exceeds the preference for a conspecific, our data show that the robot is successful in attracting both isolated individuals and small shoals and that such capability is influenced by its bioinspired features. In particular, we find that the robot's undulations enhance its degree of attractiveness, despite the noise inherent in the actuation system. This is the first experimental evidence that live zebrafish behaviour can be influenced by engineered robots. Such robotic platforms may constitute a valuable tool to investigate the bases of social behaviour and uncover the fundamental determinants of animal functions and dysfunctions. (paper)
Acceptance of an assistive robot in older adults: a mixed-method study of human–robot interaction over a 1-month period in the Living Lab setting

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Ya-Huei; Wrobel, Jérémy; Cornuet, Mélanie; Kerhervé, Hélène; Damnée, Souad; Rigaud, Anne-Sophie

2014-01-01

Background There is growing interest in investigating acceptance of robots, which are increasingly being proposed as one form of assistive technology to support older adults, maintain their independence, and enhance their well-being. In the present study, we aimed to observe robot-acceptance in older adults, particularly subsequent to a 1-month direct experience with a robot. Subjects and methods Six older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and five cognitively intact healthy (CIH) older adults were recruited. Participants interacted with an assistive robot in the Living Lab once a week for 4 weeks. After being shown how to use the robot, participants performed tasks to simulate robot use in everyday life. Mixed methods, comprising a robot-acceptance questionnaire, semistructured interviews, usability-performance measures, and a focus group, were used. Results Both CIH and MCI subjects were able to learn how to use the robot. However, MCI subjects needed more time to perform tasks after a 1-week period of not using the robot. Both groups rated similarly on the robot-acceptance questionnaire. They showed low intention to use the robot, as well as negative attitudes toward and negative images of this device. They did not perceive it as useful in their daily life. However, they found it easy to use, amusing, and not threatening. In addition, social influence was perceived as powerful on robot adoption. Direct experience with the robot did not change the way the participants rated robots in their acceptance questionnaire. We identified several barriers to robot-acceptance, including older adults’ uneasiness with technology, feeling of stigmatization, and ethical/societal issues associated with robot use. Conclusion It is important to destigmatize images of assistive robots to facilitate their acceptance. Universal design aiming to increase the market for and production of products that are usable by everyone (to the greatest extent possible) might help to
Support by Participatory Sense-Making in Robot Therapy for Children with Autism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weda, J.J.; Schadenberg, Bob Rinse; van Dijk, Jelle

2017-01-01

People with Autism Spectrum Condition have issues navigating social situations. Typically, in therapy, robots teach people with ASC desirable social interaction according to traditional models which focus on the cognitive, rather than emotions or intuitions. Participatory sense- making could provide
Iconic Gestures for Robot Avatars, Recognition and Integration with Speech

Science.gov (United States)

Bremner, Paul; Leonards, Ute

2016-01-01

Co-verbal gestures are an important part of human communication, improving its efficiency and efficacy for information conveyance. One possible means by which such multi-modal communication might be realized remotely is through the use of a tele-operated humanoid robot avatar. Such avatars have been previously shown to enhance social presence and operator salience. We present a motion tracking based tele-operation system for the NAO robot platform that allows direct transmission of speech and gestures produced by the operator. To assess the capabilities of this system for transmitting multi-modal communication, we have conducted a user study that investigated if robot-produced iconic gestures are comprehensible, and are integrated with speech. Robot performed gesture outcomes were compared directly to those for gestures produced by a human actor, using a within participant experimental design. We show that iconic gestures produced by a tele-operated robot are understood by participants when presented alone, almost as well as when produced by a human. More importantly, we show that gestures are integrated with speech when presented as part of a multi-modal communication equally well for human and robot performances. PMID:26925010
Iconic Gestures for Robot Avatars, Recognition and Integration with Speech

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Adam Bremner

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Co-verbal gestures are an important part of human communication, improving its efficiency and efficacy for information conveyance. One possible means by which such multi-modal communication might be realised remotely is through the use of a tele-operated humanoid robot avatar. Such avatars have been previously shown to enhance social presence and operator salience. We present a motion tracking based tele-operation system for the NAO robot platform that allows direct transmission of speech and gestures produced by the operator. To assess the capabilities of this system for transmitting multi-modal communication, we have conducted a user study that investigated if robot-produced iconic gestures are comprehensible, and are integrated with speech. Robot performed gesture outcomes were compared directly to those for gestures produced by a human actor, using a within participant experimental design. We show that iconic gestures produced by a tele-operated robot are understood by participants when presented alone, almost as well as when produced by a human. More importantly, we show that gestures are integrated with speech when presented as part of a multi-modal communication equally well for human and robot performances.
ROBOT LITERACY AN APPROACH FOR SHARING SOCIETY WITH INTELLIGENT ROBOTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hidetsugu Suto

2013-12-01

Full Text Available A novel concept of media education called “robot literacy” is proposed. Here, robot literacy refers to the means of forming an appropriate relationship with intelligent robots. It can be considered a kind of media literacy. People who were born after the Internet age can be considered “digital natives” who have new morals and values and behave differently than previous generations in Internet societies. This can cause various problems among different generations. Thus, the necessity of media literacy education is increasing. Internet technologies, as well as robotics technologies are growing rapidly, and people who are born after the “home robot age,” whom the author calls “robot natives,” will be expected to have a certain degree of “robot literacy.” In this paper, the concept of robot literacy is defined and an approach to robot literacy education is discussed.
Robotic buildings(s)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bier, H.H.

2014-01-01

Technological and conceptual advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and material science have enabled robotic building to be in the last decade prototypically implemented. In this context, robotic building implies both physically built robotic environments and robotically
Proxemics models for human-aware navigation in robotics: Grounding interaction and personal space models in experimental data from psychology

OpenAIRE

Barnaud , Marie-Lou; Morgado , Nicolas; Palluel-Germain , Richard; Diard , Julien; Spalanzani , Anne

2014-01-01

International audience; In order to navigate in a social environment, a robot must be aware of social spaces, which include proximity and interaction-based constraints. Previous models of interaction and personal spaces have been inspired by studies in social psychology but not systematically grounded and validated with respect to experimental data. We propose to implement personal and interaction space models in order to replicate a classical psychology experiment. Our robotic simulations ca...
Cloud Robotics Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Busra Koken

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Cloud robotics is a rapidly evolving field that allows robots to offload computation-intensive and storage-intensive jobs into the cloud. Robots are limited in terms of computational capacity, memory and storage. Cloud provides unlimited computation power, memory, storage and especially collaboration opportunity. Cloud-enabled robots are divided into two categories as standalone and networked robots. This article surveys cloud robotic platforms, standalone and networked robotic works such as grasping, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM and monitoring.
Distributed Robotics Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Henrik Hautop; Pagliarini, Luigi

2011-01-01

Distributed robotics takes many forms, for instance, multirobots, modular robots, and self-reconfigurable robots. The understanding and development of such advanced robotic systems demand extensive knowledge in engineering and computer science. In this paper, we describe the concept of a distribu......Distributed robotics takes many forms, for instance, multirobots, modular robots, and self-reconfigurable robots. The understanding and development of such advanced robotic systems demand extensive knowledge in engineering and computer science. In this paper, we describe the concept...... to be changed, related to multirobot control and human-robot interaction control from virtual to physical representation. The proposed system is valuable for bringing a vast number of issues into education – such as parallel programming, distribution, communication protocols, master dependency, connectivity...
Robot Mechanisms

CERN Document Server

Lenarcic, Jadran; Stanišić, Michael M

2013-01-01

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the area of robot mechanisms, primarily considering industrial manipulators and humanoid arms. The book is intended for both teaching and self-study. Emphasis is given to the fundamentals of kinematic analysis and the design of robot mechanisms. The coverage of topics is untypical. The focus is on robot kinematics. The book creates a balance between theoretical and practical aspects in the development and application of robot mechanisms, and includes the latest achievements and trends in robot science and technology.
Robots de servicio

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael Aracil

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Resumen: El término Robots de Servicio apareció a finales de los años 80 como una necesidad de desarrollar máquinas y sistemas capaces de trabajar en entornos diferentes a los fabriles. Los Robots de Servicio tenían que poder trabajar en entornos noestructurados, en condiciones ambientales cambiantes y con una estrecha interacción con los humanos. En 1995 fue creado por la IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, el Technical Committee on Service Robots, y este comité definió en el año 2000 las áreas de aplicación de los Robots de Servicios, que se pueden dividir en dos grandes grupos: 1 sectores productivos no manufactureros tales como edificación, agricultura, naval, minería, medicina, etc. y 2 sectores de servicios propiamente dichos: asistencia personal, limpieza, vigilancia, educación, entretenimiento, etc. En este trabajo se hace una breve revisión de los principales conceptos y aplicaciones de los robots de servicio. Palabras clave: Robots de servicio, robots autónomos, robots de exteriores, robots de educación y entretenimiento, robots caminantes y escaladores, robots humanoides
Filigree Robotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tamke, Martin; Evers, Henrik Leander; Clausen Nørgaard, Esben

2016-01-01

Filigree Robotics experiments with the combination of traditional ceramic craft with robotic fabrication in order to generate a new narrative of fine three-dimensional ceramic ornament for architecture.......Filigree Robotics experiments with the combination of traditional ceramic craft with robotic fabrication in order to generate a new narrative of fine three-dimensional ceramic ornament for architecture....
Hydraulic bilateral construction robot; Yuatsushiki bilateral kensetsu robot

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maehata, K.; Mori, N. [Kayaba Industry Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan)

1999-05-15

Concerning a hydraulic bilateral construction robot, its system constitution, structures and functions of important components, and the results of some tests are explained, and the researches conducted at Gifu University are described. The construction robot in this report is a servo controlled system of a version developed from the mini-shovel now available in the market. It is equipped, in addition to an electrohydraulic servo control system, with various sensors for detecting the robot attitude, vibration, and load state, and with a camera for visualizing the surrounding landscape. It is also provided with a bilateral joy stick which is a remote control actuator capable of working sensation feedback and with a rocking unit that creates robot movements of rolling, pitching, and heaving. The construction robot discussed here, with output increased and response faster thanks to the employment of a hydraulic driving system for the aim of building a robot system superior in performance to the conventional model designed primarily for heavy duty, proves after tests to be a highly sophisticated remotely controlled robot control system. (NEDO)
Robotics education

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benton, O.

1984-01-01

Robotics education courses are rapidly spreading throughout the nation's colleges and universities. Engineering schools are offering robotics courses as part of their mechanical or manufacturing engineering degree program. Two year colleges are developing an Associate Degree in robotics. In addition to regular courses, colleges are offering seminars in robotics and related fields. These seminars draw excellent participation at costs running up to $200 per day for each participant. The last one drew 275 people from Texas to Virginia. Seminars are also offered by trade associations, private consulting firms, and robot vendors. IBM, for example, has the Robotic Assembly Institute in Boca Raton and charges about $1,000 per week for course. This is basically for owners of IBM robots. Education (and training) can be as short as one day or as long as two years. Here is the educational pattern that is developing now

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