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Miguel Ángel Salichs - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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End-user programming of a Social Robot by dialog
Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2011Co-Authors: Javier F. Gorostiza, Miguel Ángel SalichsAbstract:One of the main challenges faced by Social Robots is how to provide intuitive, natural and enjoyable usability for the end-user. In our ordinary environment, Social Robots could be important tools for education and entertainment (edutainment) in a variety of ways. This paper presents a Natural Programming System (NPS) that is geared to non-expert users. The main goal of such a system is to provide an enjoyable interactive platform for the users to build different programs within their Social Robot platform. The end-user can build a complex net of actions and conditions (a sequence) in a Social Robot via mixed-initiative dialogs and multimodal interaction. The system has been implemented and tested in Maggie, a real Social Robot with multiple skills, conceived as a general HRI researching platform. The Robot's internal features (skills) have been implemented to be verbally accessible to the end-user, who can combine them into others that are more complex following a bottom-up model. The built sequence is internally implemented as a Sequence Function Chart (SFC), which allows parallel execution, modularity and re-use. A multimodal Dialog Manager System (DMS) takes charge of keeping the coherence of the interaction. This work is thought for bringing Social Robots closer to non-expert users, who can play the game of ''teaching how to do things'' with the Robot.
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Integration of a low-cost RGB-D sensor in a Social Robot for gesture recognition
2011 6th ACM IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 2011Co-Authors: Arnaud Ramey, Victor Gonzalez-pacheco, Miguel Ángel SalichsAbstract:An objective of natural Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is to enable humans to communicate with Robots in the same manner humans do between themselves. This includes the use of natural gestures to support and expand the information that is exchanged in the spoken language. To achieve that, Robots need robust gesture recognition systems to detect the non-verbal information that is sent to them by the human gestures. Traditional gesture recognition systems highly depend on the light conditions and often require a training process before they can be used. We have integrated a low-cost commercial RGB-D (Red Green Blue - Depth) sensor in a Social Robot to allow it to recognise dynamic gestures by tracking a skeleton model of the subject and coding the temporal signature of the gestures in a FSM (Finite State Machine). The vision system is independent of low light conditions and does not require a training process.
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End-user programming of a Social Robot by dialog
Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2011Co-Authors: Javier F. Gorostiza, Miguel Ángel SalichsAbstract:One of the main challenges faced by Social Robots is how to provide intuitive, natural and enjoyable usability for the end-user. In our ordinary environment, Social Robots could be important tools for education and entertainment (edutainment) in a variety of ways. This paper presents a Natural Programming System (NPS) that is geared to non-expert users. The main goal of such a system is to provide an enjoyable interactive platform for the users to build different programs within their Social Robot platform. The end-user can build a complex net of actions and conditions (a sequence) in a Social Robot via mixed-initiative dialogs and multimodal interaction. The system has been implemented and tested in Maggie, a real Social Robot with multiple skills, conceived as a general HRI researching platform. The Robot's internal features (skills) have been implemented to be verbally accessible to the end-user, who can combine them into others that are more complex following a bottom-up model. The built sequence is internally implemented as a Sequence Function Chart (SFC), which allows parallel execution, modularity and re-use. A multimodal Dialog Manager System (DMS) takes charge of keeping the coherence of the interaction. This work is thought for bringing Social Robots closer to non-expert users, who can play the game of "teaching how to do things" with the Robot. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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A biologically inspired architecture for an autonomous and Social Robot
IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, 2011Co-Authors: Álvaro Castro-gonzález, Ramón Barber, Miguel Ángel SalichsAbstract:Lately, lots of effort has been put into the construction of Robots able to live among humans. This fact has favored the development of personal or Social Robots, which are expected to behave in a natural way. This implies that these Robots could meet certain requirements, for example, to be able to decide their own actions (autonomy), to be able to make deliberative plans (reasoning), or to be able to have an emotional behavior in order to facilitate human-Robot interaction. In this paper, the authors present a bioinspired control architecture for an autonomous and Social Robot, which tries to accomplish some of these features. In order to develop this new architecture, authors have used as a base a prior hybrid control architecture (AD) that is also biologically inspired. Nevertheless, in the later, the task to be accomplished at each moment is determined by a fix sequence processed by the Main Sequencer. Therefore, the main sequencer of the architecture coordinates the previously programmed sequence of skills that must be executed. In the new architecture, the main sequencer is substituted by a decision making system based on drives, motivations, emotions, and self-learning, which decides the proper action at every moment according to Robot's state. Consequently, the Robot improves its autonomy since the added decision making system will determine the goal and consequently the skills to be executed. A basic version of this new architecture has been implemented on a real Robotic platform. Some experiments are shown at the end of the paper.
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Integration of a voice recognition system in a Social Robot
Cybernetics and Systems, 2011Co-Authors: Fernando Alonso-martín, Miguel Ángel SalichsAbstract:Human–Robot interaction (HRI) 1 is one of the main fields in the study and research of Robotics. Within this field, dialogue systems and interaction by voice play an important role. When speaking about human–Robot natural dialogue we assume that the Robot has the capability to accurately recognize what the human wants to transmit verbally and even its semantic meaning, but this is not always achieved. In this article we describe the steps and requirements that we went through in order to endow the personal Social Robot Maggie, developed at the University Carlos III of Madrid, with the capability of understanding the natural language spoken by any human. We have analyzed the different possibilities offered by current software/hardware alternatives by testing them in real environments. We have obtained accurate data related to the speech recognition capabilities in different environments, using the most modern audio acquisition systems and analyzing not so typical parameters such as user age, gender, intonation, volume, and language. Finally, we propose a new model to classify recognition results as accepted or rejected, based on a second automatic speech recognition (ASR) opinion. This new approach takes into account the precalculated success rate in noise intervals for each recognition framework, decreasing the rate of false positives and false negatives. 1HRI can be defined as the study of humans, Robots, and the ways in which they influence each other.
Andreas H. Marpaung - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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A Social informatics approach to human-Robot interaction with a service Social Robot
Systems Man and Cybernetics Part C IEEE Transactions on, 2004Co-Authors: Christine Laetitia Lisetti, K Alvarez, Sarah M Brown, Andreas H. MarpaungAbstract:This paper discusses many relevant topics to the use of emotions in a service Social Robot named Cherry. On page 195, Lisetti writes, "As Robots begin to enter our everyday life, an important human-Robot interaction issue becomes that of Social relations. Because emotions have a crucial evolutionary functional aspect in Social intelligence, without which complex intelligent systems with limited resources cannot function efficiently [13], [14] or maintain a satisfactory relationship with their environment [15], we focus our current contribution to the study of emotional Social intelligence for Robots." Lisetti defines Social expertise in terms of (1) internal motivational goal-based abilities and (2) external communicative behavior. She discusses the importance of the use of emotions in human decision-making and in human-human communication. She stresses the importance of the use of emotions in enhancing both Robot autonomy and also human Robot interaction. She investigates three important areas: (1) Human Social intelligence, (2) Robot Social intelligence, and (3) human-Robot Social relationship. Some important questions she considers and should be considered in the bodemotes research. Can "no personality" in an intelligent agent be perceived by humans as a cold, insensitive, indifferent agent? Another important question to consider is: Is it important to change the perceptions made by humans so that agents can be viewed as personable, helpful, even compassionate? This paper has a very well written review of related research. It is nicely categorized and thorough in its coverage, but very succinct. On page 197, Lisetti discusses the importance of emotions and writes, "Emotions are carriers of important messages which enable an organism to maintain a satisfactory relationship with its environment." She also writes, "Emotions greatly influence decision making (although sometimes dysfunctionally), more often than not for improved efficiency and flexibility toward a complex changing environment." In this implementation, the Multilevel Process Theory of Emotions was used because it considers emotions as complex behavioral reactions to external events and internal thoughts and beliefs constructed from the activity of a hierarchical multicomponent processing system which parallels Robot architecture. She makes an excellent comparison of the two structures with diagrams on page 198. The comparison is described between the Multilevel Process Theory of Emotions versus the Hybrid Reactive/Deliberative Architecture. On page 197 she discusses the 3 levels: sensory-motor, schematic, and conceptual. On the sensory-motor level, it is activated automatically without deliberate planning by a variety of external stimuli and internal changes. At this level information consists of valence and intensity of emotions. The schematic level integrates sensory-motor processes with prototypes or scripts of emotional situations having concrete schematic representations. The conceptual level is deliberative and involves reasoning over the past, projecting into the future, and comparing emotional schemata in order to avoid unsuccessful emotional situations. She creates a taxonomy of affect, mood, and emotion called computational Affective Knowledge Representation (AKR), which is discussed in more detail in a related paper called "Personality, Affect and Emotion Taxonomy for Socially Intelligent Agents". Each emotion is a collection of emotion components which includes valence and intensity of emotion. It also includes an action tendency and function associated with each particular emotion. The emotions included were: fear, desire, anger, disgust, anxiety, and contentment. Fear has a function to protect and an action tendency to avoid. Desire's function is to permit consummatory activity and the action tendency is approach. Anger has a function to regain control and an action tendency of agnostic. Disgust has a function also to protect with an action tendency to reject. In the case of anxiety, its function is caution and its action tendency is prepare. Finally, contentment has a function of recuperation and the action tendency is inactivity. To make an agent believable, it is important to have consistency in motivational states, emotions, and behaviors. Cherry has well defined tasks she performs. Her environment is fairly stable with only limited changes occurring. To express emotions, Cherry is an avatar that appears on a laptop screen on a mobile Robot platform. Communication with the user is done through this avatar. The ideas for the generation of emotions and the models used for emotions are well formed but the application is very different than the bodemotes application and will need to be investigated to see if the model could be adapted to this application. The search and rescue Robot has no face and the physical appearance cannot be dramatically altered. The environment that the Robot will function in will always be unpredictable and different and possibly quickly changing. The USAR Robots may not be able to have direct contact with the victim it is interacting with and emotions cannot be displayed using a face. The ideas in this paper are definitely worthy of noting and consideration, but cannot be directly applied. As mentioned in this paper, it is important to associate external behaviors with the Robot's inner emotional state. Another important feature of this research, which I feel will be important with this research is that incremental development and testing were done. Studies with samples of students, staff, and faculty were conducted periodically through the development process and influenced the direction of the development. I feel that is an important approach to be used in the bodemotes research. Especially starting with conducting initial movement studies and then studies as the process progresses to assure we remain on track with the research. She uses prequestionnaires and post-questionnaires given after a demonstration of the Robot and the user has an opportunity to interact with the Robot. I think that should be implemented in the experimental design. On page 207, Lisetti states, "In Robots, similar intuitive "body" languages such as camera tilt, navigation speed, etc. can be used to exteriorize internal states to the user in a manner in which the user naturally understand." This is important since this is the main way the USAR Robots will have to express emotional displays.
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A Social Informatics Approach to Human – Robot Interaction With a Service Social Robot
IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part C (Applications and Reviews), 2004Co-Authors: Christine Laetitia Lisetti, K Alvarez, Sarah M Brown, Andreas H. MarpaungAbstract:The development of an autonomous Social Robot, Cherry, is occurring in tandem with studies gaining potential user preferences, likes, dislikes, and perceptions of her features. Thus far, results have indicated that individuals 1) believe that service Robots with emotion and personality capabilities would make them more acceptable in everyday roles in human life, 2) prefer that Robots communicate via both human-like facial expressions, voice, and text-based media, 3) become more positive about the idea of service and Social Robots after exposure to the technology, and 4) find the appearance and facial features of Cherry pleasing. The results of these studies provide the basis for future research efforts, which are discussed.
Tineke Klamer - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Sharing a life with Harvey: Exploring the acceptance of and relationship-building with a Social Robot
Computers in Human Behavior, 2015Co-Authors: Maartje Margaretha Allegonda Graaf, Somaya Ben Allouch, Tineke KlamerAbstract:Social Robots will become ubiquitous in our everyday environments. These Robots could potentially extend life expectancy, and improve the health and quality of life of an aging population. A long-term explorative study has been conducted by installing a Social Robot for health promotion in elderly people's own homes. Content analysis of interviews provided an in-depth understanding of the factors that influence the acceptance of and relationship-building with Social Robots in domestic environments. The permanent presence of a Robot in users' own homes yields the vital challenges Social Robots encounter to be successfully accepted by their users. These vital acceptance challenges are unlikely to be revealed in one-day laboratory human-Robot interaction studies or even in multiple observations of short interactions between humans and Robots.
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Adventures of harvey - Use, acceptance of and relationship building with a Social Robot in a domestic environment
Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering LNICST, 2011Co-Authors: Tineke Klamer, Somaya Ben Allouch, Dirk HeylenAbstract: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. © ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2011.
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“Adventures of Harvey”–Use, Acceptance of and Relationship Building with a Social Robot in a Domestic Environment
Human-Robot Personal Relationships, 2011Co-Authors: Tineke Klamer, Somaya Ben Allouch, Dirk HeylenAbstract: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.
Christine Laetitia Lisetti - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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A Social informatics approach to human-Robot interaction with a service Social Robot
Systems Man and Cybernetics Part C IEEE Transactions on, 2004Co-Authors: Christine Laetitia Lisetti, K Alvarez, Sarah M Brown, Andreas H. MarpaungAbstract:This paper discusses many relevant topics to the use of emotions in a service Social Robot named Cherry. On page 195, Lisetti writes, "As Robots begin to enter our everyday life, an important human-Robot interaction issue becomes that of Social relations. Because emotions have a crucial evolutionary functional aspect in Social intelligence, without which complex intelligent systems with limited resources cannot function efficiently [13], [14] or maintain a satisfactory relationship with their environment [15], we focus our current contribution to the study of emotional Social intelligence for Robots." Lisetti defines Social expertise in terms of (1) internal motivational goal-based abilities and (2) external communicative behavior. She discusses the importance of the use of emotions in human decision-making and in human-human communication. She stresses the importance of the use of emotions in enhancing both Robot autonomy and also human Robot interaction. She investigates three important areas: (1) Human Social intelligence, (2) Robot Social intelligence, and (3) human-Robot Social relationship. Some important questions she considers and should be considered in the bodemotes research. Can "no personality" in an intelligent agent be perceived by humans as a cold, insensitive, indifferent agent? Another important question to consider is: Is it important to change the perceptions made by humans so that agents can be viewed as personable, helpful, even compassionate? This paper has a very well written review of related research. It is nicely categorized and thorough in its coverage, but very succinct. On page 197, Lisetti discusses the importance of emotions and writes, "Emotions are carriers of important messages which enable an organism to maintain a satisfactory relationship with its environment." She also writes, "Emotions greatly influence decision making (although sometimes dysfunctionally), more often than not for improved efficiency and flexibility toward a complex changing environment." In this implementation, the Multilevel Process Theory of Emotions was used because it considers emotions as complex behavioral reactions to external events and internal thoughts and beliefs constructed from the activity of a hierarchical multicomponent processing system which parallels Robot architecture. She makes an excellent comparison of the two structures with diagrams on page 198. The comparison is described between the Multilevel Process Theory of Emotions versus the Hybrid Reactive/Deliberative Architecture. On page 197 she discusses the 3 levels: sensory-motor, schematic, and conceptual. On the sensory-motor level, it is activated automatically without deliberate planning by a variety of external stimuli and internal changes. At this level information consists of valence and intensity of emotions. The schematic level integrates sensory-motor processes with prototypes or scripts of emotional situations having concrete schematic representations. The conceptual level is deliberative and involves reasoning over the past, projecting into the future, and comparing emotional schemata in order to avoid unsuccessful emotional situations. She creates a taxonomy of affect, mood, and emotion called computational Affective Knowledge Representation (AKR), which is discussed in more detail in a related paper called "Personality, Affect and Emotion Taxonomy for Socially Intelligent Agents". Each emotion is a collection of emotion components which includes valence and intensity of emotion. It also includes an action tendency and function associated with each particular emotion. The emotions included were: fear, desire, anger, disgust, anxiety, and contentment. Fear has a function to protect and an action tendency to avoid. Desire's function is to permit consummatory activity and the action tendency is approach. Anger has a function to regain control and an action tendency of agnostic. Disgust has a function also to protect with an action tendency to reject. In the case of anxiety, its function is caution and its action tendency is prepare. Finally, contentment has a function of recuperation and the action tendency is inactivity. To make an agent believable, it is important to have consistency in motivational states, emotions, and behaviors. Cherry has well defined tasks she performs. Her environment is fairly stable with only limited changes occurring. To express emotions, Cherry is an avatar that appears on a laptop screen on a mobile Robot platform. Communication with the user is done through this avatar. The ideas for the generation of emotions and the models used for emotions are well formed but the application is very different than the bodemotes application and will need to be investigated to see if the model could be adapted to this application. The search and rescue Robot has no face and the physical appearance cannot be dramatically altered. The environment that the Robot will function in will always be unpredictable and different and possibly quickly changing. The USAR Robots may not be able to have direct contact with the victim it is interacting with and emotions cannot be displayed using a face. The ideas in this paper are definitely worthy of noting and consideration, but cannot be directly applied. As mentioned in this paper, it is important to associate external behaviors with the Robot's inner emotional state. Another important feature of this research, which I feel will be important with this research is that incremental development and testing were done. Studies with samples of students, staff, and faculty were conducted periodically through the development process and influenced the direction of the development. I feel that is an important approach to be used in the bodemotes research. Especially starting with conducting initial movement studies and then studies as the process progresses to assure we remain on track with the research. She uses prequestionnaires and post-questionnaires given after a demonstration of the Robot and the user has an opportunity to interact with the Robot. I think that should be implemented in the experimental design. On page 207, Lisetti states, "In Robots, similar intuitive "body" languages such as camera tilt, navigation speed, etc. can be used to exteriorize internal states to the user in a manner in which the user naturally understand." This is important since this is the main way the USAR Robots will have to express emotional displays.
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A Social Informatics Approach to Human – Robot Interaction With a Service Social Robot
IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part C (Applications and Reviews), 2004Co-Authors: Christine Laetitia Lisetti, K Alvarez, Sarah M Brown, Andreas H. MarpaungAbstract:The development of an autonomous Social Robot, Cherry, is occurring in tandem with studies gaining potential user preferences, likes, dislikes, and perceptions of her features. Thus far, results have indicated that individuals 1) believe that service Robots with emotion and personality capabilities would make them more acceptable in everyday roles in human life, 2) prefer that Robots communicate via both human-like facial expressions, voice, and text-based media, 3) become more positive about the idea of service and Social Robots after exposure to the technology, and 4) find the appearance and facial features of Cherry pleasing. The results of these studies provide the basis for future research efforts, which are discussed.
Maartje Margaretha Allegonda Graaf - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Why Would I Use This in My Home? A Model of Domestic Social Robot Acceptance
Human-Computer Interaction, 2017Co-Authors: Maartje Margaretha Allegonda Graaf, Somaya Ben Allouch, Jan A.g.m. Van DijkAbstract:AbstractMany independent studies in Social Robotics and human-Robot interaction have gained knowledge on various factors that affect people’s perceptions of and behaviors towards Robots. However, only a very few of those studies aimed to develop models of Social Robot acceptance integrating a wider range of such factors. With the rise of Robotic technologies for everyday environments, such more comprehensive research on relevant acceptance factors is increasingly necessary. This paper presents a conceptual model of Social Robot acceptance with a strong theoretical base which has been tested among the general Dutch population (n = 1168) using structural equation modeling. The results show a strong role of normative believes that both directly and indirectly affect the anticipated acceptance of Social Robots for domestic purposes. Moreover, the data show that, at least at this stage of diffusion within society, people seem somewhat reluctant to accept Social behaviors from Robots. The current findings of ou...
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Sharing a life with Harvey: Exploring the acceptance of and relationship-building with a Social Robot
Computers in Human Behavior, 2015Co-Authors: Maartje Margaretha Allegonda Graaf, Somaya Ben Allouch, Tineke KlamerAbstract:Social Robots will become ubiquitous in our everyday environments. These Robots could potentially extend life expectancy, and improve the health and quality of life of an aging population. A long-term explorative study has been conducted by installing a Social Robot for health promotion in elderly people's own homes. Content analysis of interviews provided an in-depth understanding of the factors that influence the acceptance of and relationship-building with Social Robots in domestic environments. The permanent presence of a Robot in users' own homes yields the vital challenges Social Robots encounter to be successfully accepted by their users. These vital acceptance challenges are unlikely to be revealed in one-day laboratory human-Robot interaction studies or even in multiple observations of short interactions between humans and Robots.
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Exploring influencing variables for the acceptance of Social Robots
Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2013Co-Authors: Maartje Margaretha Allegonda Graaf, Somaya Ben AllouchAbstract:In order to introduce Social Robots successfully, we must first understand the underlying reasons whereupon potential users accept these Robots to reside within their own homes. An extensive literature review has been conducted and provides an overview of variables influencing the acceptance of Social Robots categorized by utilitarian variables, hedonic variables, user characteristics, Social normative beliefs and control beliefs. In a user study, in which 60 participants interacted with a Social Robot, both the Robot itself and the interaction experience the users had with the Robot were evaluated. The results indicate that especially the variables of usefulness, adaptability, enjoyment, sociability, companionship and perceived behavioral control are important evaluating the user acceptance of Social Robots. Hence, the present study contributes to human-Robot interaction research by designating the variables that lead to Social Robot acceptance. Subsequently, this study may serve as a onset in developing an integral model which takes into consideration the relevant determinants of Social Robot acceptance. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.