Human-Robot Interaction

Engaging human-to-robot attention using conversational gestures and lip-sinchronization

by Luis J. Manso

In Journal of Physical Agents ISSN 1888-0258 .Vol. 6, No. 1, pp 3-10. March 2012.

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is one of the most important subfields of social robotics. In several applications,... more Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is one of the most important subfields of social robotics. In several applications, text-to-speech (TTS) techniques are used by robots to provide feedback to humans. In this respect, a natural synchronization between the synthetic voice and the mouth of the robot could contribute to improve the interaction experience. This paper presents an algorithm for synchronizing Text-To-Speech systems with robotic mouths. The proposed approach estimates the appropriate aperture of the mouth based on the entropy of the synthetic audio stream provided by the TTS system. The paper also describes the cost-efficient robotic head which has been used in the experiments and introduces the use of conversational gestures for engaging Human-Robot Interaction. The system, which has been implemented in C++ and can perform in real-time, is freely available as part of the RoboComp open-source robotics framework. Finally, the paper presents the results of the opinion poll that has been conducted in order to evaluate the interaction experience.

Long-term relationships as a benchmark for robot personhood

by Stephen J. Cowley

This appeared as:
MacDorman, K. F. & Cowley, S. J. (2008). Long-term relationships as a benchmark for robot personhood. To appear in AAAI 2008 Spring Symposium on Emotion, Personality, and Social Behavior. March 26-28, 2008. Stanford, California.

The human body constructs itself into a person by becoming attuned to the affective consequences of its actions in... more The human body constructs itself into a person by becoming attuned to the affective consequences of its actions in social relationships. Norms develop that ground perception and action, providing standards for appraising conduct. The body finds itself motivated to enact itself as a character in the drama of life, carving from its beliefs, intentions, and experiences a unique identity and perspective. If a biological body can construct itself into a person by exploiting social mechanisms, could an electromechanical body, a robot, do the same? To qualify for personhood, a robot body must be able to construct its own identity, to assume different roles, and to discriminate in forming friendships. Though all these conditions could be considered benchmarks of personhood, the most compelling benchmark, for which the above mentioned are prerequisites, is the ability to sustain long-term relationships. Long-term relationships demand that a robot continually recreate itself as it scripts its own future. This benchmark may be contrasted with those of previous research, which tend to define personhood in terms that are trivial, subjective, or based on assumptions about moral universals. Although personhood should not in principle be limited to one species, the most humanlike of robots will be best equipped for reciprocal relationships with human beings.

Extending symbol grounding

by Stephen J. Cowley

this appeared as:
Belpaeme, T & Cowley, S.J. (2007) Extending symbol grounding. Interaction Studies, 8/1: 2-6.

The papers collected in this special issue emerged from an international workshop on symbol grounding organised at the... more The papers collected in this special issue emerged from an international workshop on symbol grounding organised at the University of Plymouth on 3 and 4 July 2006 by the Distributed Language Group. Our goal was to extend the classical view of symbol grounding by recognising that language and cognitive dynamics are mutually constitutive. Specifically, we aimed to do so by bringing researchers who study human signalling together with others who focus on simulating intelligence and language. In the original call for papers, we set out these objectives as follows: "Specifically, we wish to invite contributions viewing language and cognition as linking what goes on in the head with causal processes that are intersubjective, multimodal, affect-laden, and organised by historically rooted customs and artefacts.… The purpose of the workshop is not so much to
present completed work as to find new ways of tackling a complex issue and to launch collaboration among participants to that end.… Since the workshop focuses on how symbol grounding can be reconsidered when language is viewed as a dynamical process rooted in both culture and biology, research
related to robotic or computer modelling of symbol grounding, psychological and linguistic viewpoints on cognitive development and semiotic dynamics are of great interest."

What baboons, babies and Tetris players tell us about interaction: a biosocial view of norm-based social learning

by Stephen J. Cowley

This is a draft of a paper that appeared as:
Cowley, S.J. & MacDorman, K.F. (2006). What baboons, babies and Tetris players tell us about interaction: a biosocial view of norm-based social learning. Connection Science, 18/3, 363-378.

Could androids use movements to build relationships? For people relationships are created with the help of... more Could androids use movements to build relationships? For people relationships are created with the help of behavior-shaping norms, which infants begin to discover and manipulate by the third month. To build relationships, machines can also learn to exploit human reactions in real-time decision making. In the video game Tetris, for example, affect co-opts computer generated patterns to simplify cognitive tasks: norms mediate what Kirsh and Maglio (1994) term epistemic actions, which allow implicit knowledge to shape key pressing in ways that, given past games, are likely to be informative and valuable. Experts act to change their cognitive states by allowing the game’s higher-level states to constrain their lower-level actions. Since this process enables the development of expertise, we might expect it to be widespread. But it seems marginal in hamadryas baboons, although they use affect and complex norms. In humans, by contrast, infants use adults as cognitive resources in developing their epistemic abilities. This has engineering implications for android designers. Because androids can elicit epistemic actions, engineers need to develop an affect-sensitive interface. If successful at this, even rudimentary coaction may prompt people to report experiencing androids as both making choices and violating expectations.

Socially assistive robotics in the treatment of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia

by Patrizia Marti

Towards a cooperative framework for interactive manipulation involving a human and a humanoid

by Philippe Fraisse

Interactive manipulation between a human and a humanoid: When robots control human arm motion

by Philippe Fraisse

A Novel Evaluation Framework for Teleoperation and a Case Study on Natural Human-Arm-Imitation Through Motion Capture

by Nikolaos Mavridis

Co-authored with: Nikolaos Mavridis, Nikolas Giakoumidis and Emerson Lopes Machado, published in Springer "International Journal of Social Robotics", http://www.springerlink.com/content/9253m582144q5435/

Although tele-operation has a long history, when it comes to tuning, comparison, and evaluation of tele-operation... more Although tele-operation has a long history, when it comes to tuning, comparison, and evaluation of tele-operation systems, no standard framework exists which can fulfill desiderata such as: concisely modeling multiple aspects of the system as a whole, i.e. timing, accuracy, and event transitions, while also providing for separation of user-, feedback-, as well as learning-dependent components. On the other hand, real-time remote tele-operation of robotic arms, either industrial or humanoid, is highly suitable for a number of applications, especially in difficult or inaccessible environment, and thus such an evaluation framework would be desirable. Usually, teleoperation is driven by buttons, joysticks, haptic controllers, or slave-arms, providing an interface which can be quite cumbersome and unnatural, especially when operating robots with multiple degrees of freedom. Thus, in thus paper, we present a two-fold contribution: (a) a task-based teleoperation evaluation framework which can achieve the desiderata described above, as well as (b) a system for teleoperation of an industrial arm commanded through human-arm motion capture, which is used as a case study, and also serves to illustrate the effectiveness of the evaluation framework that we are introducing. In our system the desired trajectory of a remote robotic arm is easily and naturally controlled through imitation of simple movements of the operator’s physical arm, obtained through motion capture. Furthermore, an extensive real-world evaluation is provided, based on our proposed probabilistic framework, which contains an inter-subject quantitative study with 23 subjects, a longitudinal study with 6 subjects, as well as opinions and attitudes towards tele-operation study. The results provided illustrate the strengths of the proposed evaluation framework—by enabling the quick production of multiple task-, user-, system-, as well as learning-centric results, as well as the benefits of our natural imitation-based approach towards teleoperation. Furthermore, an interesting ordering of preferences towards different potential application areas of teleoperation is indicated by our data. Finally, after illustrating their effectiveness, we discuss how both our evaluation framework as well as teleoperation system presented are not only applicable in a wide variety of teleoperation domains, but are also directly extensible in many beneficial ways.

Opinions and attitudes toward humanoid robots in the Middle East

by Nikolaos Mavridis

Co-authored with: Nikolaos Mavridis, Marina-Selini Katsaiti, Silvia Naef, Abdullah Falasi, Abdulrahman Nuaimi, Hamdan Araifi & Ahmed Kitbi, published in Springer Journal "AI & Society", http://www.springerlink.com/content/c16684w802318xx8/

Robotics is expected to boom in the near future, moving massively beyond traditional application areas, and extending... more Robotics is expected to boom in the near future, moving massively beyond traditional application areas, and extending to all parts of the globe. Thus, in order to enable effective international customization of robot designs, and in order to facilitate their smoother harmonious introduction to everyday life, it is important to study the opinions and attitudes toward robots in different regions of the world. Although there exists a small body of research covering the US, EU, and Asia, there is almost no research regarding attitudes toward robots in the Middle East, a region with its own marked cultural idiosyncrasies. Therefore, we brought Ibn Sina, an Arabic-language conversational android robot to Dubai’s Gitex, one of the most important exhibitions in the region, and performed a questionnaire-based empirical study with 355 subjects from 38 countries, which had seen the robot interacting, and most of which had also interacted directly with it. Many interesting findings are presented: First, a statistically significant ordering of preferred application areas for robots overall was found, as well as strong effects of the region of origin on the preferred applications. Furthermore, strong religion, age, and education effects were observed. Overall, the results together with a theoretical discussion of possible causes provide interesting insights on cultural acceptance of robots in this richly complex region, which potentially have strong implications to their wider deployment in the future in specific settings.

Instruction Taking in the TeamTalk System

by Matthew Marge

Comparing spoken language route instructions for robots across environment representations

by Matthew Marge

Exploring spoken dialog interaction in human-robot teams

by Matthew Marge

The TeamTalk Corpus: Route Instructions in Open Spaces

by Matthew Marge

Comparing Heads-up, Hands-free Operation of Ground Robots to Teleoperation

by Matthew Marge

Towards Overcoming Miscommunication in Situated Dialogue by Asking Questions

by Matthew Marge

Concept and Design of the Intellwheels Development Platform for Intelligent Wheelchairs

by Marcelo Petry

Many people with severe disabilities find it difficult or even impossible to use traditional powered wheelchairs... more Many people with severe disabilities find it difficult or even impossible to use traditional powered wheelchairs independently by manually controlling these electrical devices. Intelligent wheelchairs are a very good solution to assist severely handicapped people who are unable to operate classical electrical wheelchair by themselves in their daily activities. This paper describes a development platform for intelligent wheelchairs called IntellWheels. The intelligent system developed may be added to commercial powered wheelchairs with minimal modifications in a very straightforward manner. The paper describes the concept and design of the platform, including the hardware and software, multimodal input interface and the intelligent wheelchair prototype developed to validate the approach. Preliminary results concerning automatic movement of the IntellWheels prototype are also described showing the autonomous movement capabilities of the prototype.

User expectations on human-robot co-operation

by Lars Oestreicher

Multimodal Approach to Affective Human-Robot Interaction Design with Children

by Victor Ng-Thow-Hing

Okita, S. Y., Ng-Thow-Hing, V, Sarvadevabhatla, R. K. (2011). Multimodal Approach to Affective Human-Robot Interaction Design with Children.
ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent System
(TiiS). 1,1, Article 5, 1-29.

Two studies examined the different features of humanoid robots and the influence on children’s affective behavior. The... more Two studies examined the different features of humanoid robots and the influence on children’s affective behavior. The first study looked at interaction styles and general features of robots. The second study looked at how the robot’s attention influences children’s behavior and engagement. Through activities familiar to young children (e.g., table setting, story telling), the first study found that cooperative interaction style elicited more oculesic behavior and social engagement. The second study found that quality of attention, type of attention, and length of interaction influences affective behavior and engagement. In the quality of attention, Wizard-of-Oz (woz) elicited the most affective behavior, but automatic attention worked as well as woz when the interaction was short. The type of attention going from nonverbal to verbal attention increased children’s oculesic behavior, utterance, and physiological response. Affective interactions did not seem to depend on a single mechanism, but a well-chosen confluence of technical features.

Did you see it hesitate? – Empirically Grounded Design of Hesitation Trajectories for Collaborative Robots

by AJung Moon

Authors: AJung Moon, Chris A. C. Parker, Elizabeth A. Croft, and H. F. Machiel Van der Loos
Published In: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2011

YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65LyvodtpPE

Unwanted conflicts are inevitable between collaborating agents that share spaces and resources. Motivated by the use... more Unwanted conflicts are inevitable between collaborating agents that share spaces and resources. Motivated by the use of nonverbal communications as a conflict resolution mechanism by humans, this study investigates the communicative capabilities reflected in the trajectory characteristics of hesitation gestures during human-robot collaboration. Hesitation gestures and non-hesitation human arm motions were recorded from a series of reach-and-retract tasks and embodied on a 6-DOF robot arm. A total of 86 survey respondents watched and scored recordings of these motions according to whether they recognized hesitation gestures as exhibited by both the human and the robot. Using the survey’s statistical evidence indicating that hesitation trajectories embodied in an articulated robot arm can be recognized by human observers, we identified trajectory characteristics of hesitation gestures. The contribution of our work is an empirically grounded robot trajectory specification that
provides communicative cues for conflict resolution during
collaborative reaching scenarios.

Teaming with a Robot: Effects on Teamwork Quality and Human-Robot Trust

by Logan Fiorella

Proceedings of I/ITSEC 2010