Cognitive developmental robotics (CDR) aims to provide new understanding of how human's higher cognitive functions develop by means of a synthetic approach that developmentally constructs cognitive functions. The core idea of CDR is ldquophysical embodimentrdquo that enables information structuring through interactions with the environment, including other agents. The idea is shaped based on the hypothesized development model of human cognitive functions from body representation to social behavior. Along with the model, studies of CDR and related works are introduced, and discussion on the model and future issues are argued.

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Cognitive Developmental Robotics: A Survey

A robot's head is important both for directional sensors and, in human-directed robotics, as the single most visible interaction interface. However, designing a robot's head faces contradicting requirements when integrating powerful sensing with social expression. Furher, reactions of the general public show that current head designs often cause negative user reactions and distract from the functional capabilities.

The bielefeld anthropomorphic robot head “Flobi”

This paper presents a new research platform, CB2, a child robot with biomimetic body for cognitive developmental robotics developed by the Socially-Synergistic Intelligence (Hereafter, Socio-SI) group of JST ERATO Asada Project The Socio-SI group has focused on the design principles of communicative and intelligent machines and human social development through building a humanoid robot that has physical and perceptual structures close to us, that enables safe and close interactions with humans For this purpose, CB2 was designed, especially in order to establish and maintain a long-term social interaction between human and robot The most significant features of CB2 are a whole-body soft skin (silicon surface with many tactile sensors underneath) and flexible joints (51 pneumatic actuators) The fundamental capabilities and the preliminary experiments are shown, and the future work is discussed

/pdf/cb2-a-child-robot-with-biomimetic-body-for-cognitive-1n5zu3ced0.pdf

CB2: A child robot with biomimetic body for cognitive developmental robotics

We present a systematic survey of computational research in humanrobotinteraction HRI over the past decade. Computational HRI isthe subset of the field that is specifically concerned with the algorithms,techniques, models, and frameworks necessary to build roboticsystems that engage in social interactions with humans. Within thefield of robotics, HRI poses distinct computational challenges in eachof the traditional core research areas: perception, manipulation, planning,task execution, navigation, and learning. These challenges areaddressed by the research literature surveyed here. We surveyed twelvepublication venues and include work that tackles computational HRIchallenges, categorized into eight topics: a perceiving humans andtheir activities; b generating and understanding verbal expression;c generating and understanding non-verbal behaviors; d modeling,expressing, and understanding emotional states; e recognizing andconveying intentional action; f collaborating with humans; g navigatingwith and around humans; and h learning from humans in asocial manner. For each topic, we suggest promising future researchareas.

/pdf/computational-human-robot-interaction-o0hioqmv6x.pdf

Computational Human-Robot Interaction

https://rene.kizilcec.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/li2015social.pdf

Social robots and virtual agents as lecturers for video instruction

This paper presents the humanoid robot BARTHOC who has been developed to study human-robot interaction (HRI). The main focus of BARTHOC's design was to realize the expression and behavior of the robot to be as human-like as possible. This allows to apply the platform to manifold research and demonstration areas. With his human-like look and mimic possibilities, he differs from other platforms like ASIMO or QRIO, and enables experiments even close to Mori's 'uncanny valley'. The paper describes details of the mechanical and electrical design of BARTHOC together with its PC control interface. Through its humanoid appearance, it can imitate human behavior with its soft- and hardware. Currently, several components for HRI on a mobile robot platform are being ported to BARTHOC. Starting with these components, the robot's human-like appearance enables us to study embodied interaction and to explore theories of human intelligence.

Humanoid robot platform suitable for studying embodied interaction

This paper presents the humanoid robot BARTHOC and the smaller, but system-equal twin, BARTHOC Junior. Both robots have been developed to study human–robot interaction. The main focus of BARTHOC's design was to realize the expression and behavior of the robot to be as human-like as possible. This allows us to apply the platform to manifold research and demonstration areas. With its human-like look and mimic possibilities it differs from other platforms like ASIMO or QRIO and enables experiments even close to Mori's 'uncanny valley'. The paper describes details of the mechanical and electrical design of BARTHOC together with its PC control interface and an overview of the interaction architecture. Its humanoid appearance allows limited imitation of human behavior. The basic interaction software running on BARTHOC has been completely ported from a mobile robot except for some functionalities that could not be used due to hardware differences such as the lack of mobility. Based on these components, the robot...

http://aiweb.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/files/papers/Hackel2006-DAS.pdf

Designing a sociable humanoid robot for interdisciplinary research

This paper presents the design, implementation and application of a humanoid interaction robot (H10). In interdisciplinary cooperation H10 was developed as a case study to operate at points of sale, information desks and demonstrations. If the user given speech input matches an entry of the adaptive database, H10 will react with a suitable answer. Synchronously to the speech generation, face animation and pre-defined gestures of hands and arms are triggered by the core of the system. The principles of the speech, gesture and physical interaction interface as well as some fundamental mechanic and electronic details are described.

A humanoid interaction robot for information, negotiation and entertainment use

The working distance is an essential parameter of the laser metal deposition (LMD) process which has to be kept at a constant level for successful applications. Especially when applying LMD in additive manufacturing (AM) to generate large-scale components, distance control is crucial as these parts can take multiple hours to complete. If over time the working distance runs out of the processing limits, the process efficiency will decrease, and this can lead to a process break down destroying the component build. The development approach is to integrate an enhanced distance measurement system based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) into a commercial LMD powder processing head. By deflecting an elliptic measuring track around the processing area, the OCT system can detect the working distance as well as topological information (2D + d) compared to a standard 1D distance measurement (1D + d). By continuously collecting data when moving the processing head, a 3D-scan of the surface can be recorded online. This technology is beneficial for AM as well as LMD repair applications as the system allows the scanning of unknown surfaces prior to LMD processing. In a next development step, the position data of the laser-cell (robot or CNC-Machine) is linked to the 2D + d data gaining full 3D information with high spatial and temporal resolution in real-time. Based on these monitoring capabilities, a closed loop control can be set up by implementing stabilization methods. By adapting LMD process parameters like the powder feed rate or the processing speed, a work distance and LMD track height control can be achieved.

Matthias Hackel

Papers

The bielefeld anthropomorphic robot head “Flobi”

Humanoid robot platform suitable for studying embodied interaction

Designing a sociable humanoid robot for interdisciplinary research

A humanoid interaction robot for information, negotiation and entertainment use

Approach for advanced working distance monitoring and control capability in laser metal deposition processing for additive manufacturing