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Dissertation

Sociable machines: expressive social exchange between humans and robots

TL;DR: In this paper, a humanoid robot, named Kismet, was designed to engage humans in expressive social interaction with a human caregiver, reminiscent of parent-infant exchanges.
Abstract: : Sociable humanoid robots are natural and intuitive for people to communicate with and to teach. The author presents recent advances in building an autonomous humanoid robot, named "Kismet," that can engage humans in expressive social interaction. She outlines a set of design issues and a framework that she has found to be of particular importance for sociable robots. Having a human-in-the-loop places significant social constraints on how the robot aesthetically appears, how its sensors are configured, its quality of movement, and its behavior. Inspired by infant social development, psychology, ethology, and evolutionary perspectives, this work integrates theories and concepts from these diverse viewpoints to enable Kismet to enter into natural and intuitive social interaction with a human caregiver, reminiscent of parent-infant exchanges. Kismet perceives a variety of natural social cues from visual and auditory channels, and delivers social signals to people through gaze direction, facial expressions, body posture, and vocalizations. The author presents the implementation of Kismet's social competencies and evaluates each with respect to the following: (1) the ability of naive subjects to read and interpret the robot's social cues; (2) the robot's ability to perceive and appropriately respond to naturally offered social cues; (3) the robot's ability to elicit interaction scenarios that afford rich learning potential; and (4) how this produces a rich, flexible, dynamic interaction that is physical, affective, and social. Numerous studies with naive human subjects are described that provide the data upon which the author bases her evaluations.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The context for socially interactive robots is discussed, emphasizing the relationship to other research fields and the different forms of “social robots”, and a taxonomy of design methods and system components used to build socially interactive Robots is presented.

2,869 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Brian R. Duffy1
TL;DR: The issues pertinent to the development of a meaningful social interaction between robots and people through employing degrees of anthropomorphism in a robot’s physical design and behaviour are discussed.

1,117 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The literature about human responses to healthcare robots is reviewed and the variables that have been found to influence responses are summarised.
Abstract: The rapidly ageing population is placing increasing strain on healthcare services. Robots have been proposed as a way to assist people to stay healthy and safe in their own homes. However, despite the need for such assistive devices and the success of some healthcare robots, other robots have had a poor response. This article reviews the literature about human responses to healthcare robots and summarises the variables that have been found to influence responses. It may be possible to increase acceptance of healthcare robots by properly assessing the needs of the human user and then matching the robot’s role, appearance and behaviour to these needs. Because robots have limitations in their abilities, another way to increase acceptance may be to modify the expectations of users to better match robots’ abilities. More research needs to investigate potential users’ needs and expectations in specific situations and whether interventions to increase the match between robot and human can increase acceptance.

634 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A broad survey of the various paradigms of cognition, addressing cognitivist (physical symbol systems) approaches, emergent systems approaches, encompassing connectionist, dynamical, and enactive systems, and also efforts to combine the two in hybrid systems.
Abstract: This survey presents an overview of the autonomous development of mental capabilities in computational agents. It does so based on a characterization of cognitive systems as systems which exhibit adaptive, anticipatory, and purposive goal-directed behavior. We present a broad survey of the various paradigms of cognition, addressing cognitivist (physical symbol systems) approaches, emergent systems approaches, encompassing connectionist, dynamical, and enactive systems, and also efforts to combine the two in hybrid systems. We then review several cognitive architectures drawn from these paradigms. In each of these areas, we highlight the implications and attendant problems of adopting a developmental approach, both from phylogenetic and ontogenetic points of view. We conclude with a summary of the key architectural features that systems capable of autonomous development of mental capabilities should exhibit

423 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The current status of human–robot interaction (HRI) is reviewed, and key current research challenges for the human factors community are described.
Abstract: Objective:The current status of human–robot interaction (HRI) is reviewed, and key current research challenges for the human factors community are described.Background: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.Methods:This mini-review describes HRI developments in four application areas and what are the challenges for human factors research.Results: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.Conclusions: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 co...

416 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a visual attention system inspired by the behavior and the neuronal architecture of the early primate visual system is presented, where multiscale image features are combined into a single topographical saliency map.
Abstract: A visual attention system, inspired by the behavior and the neuronal architecture of the early primate visual system, is presented. Multiscale image features are combined into a single topographical saliency map. A dynamical neural network then selects attended locations in order of decreasing saliency. The system breaks down the complex problem of scene understanding by rapidly selecting, in a computationally efficient manner, conspicuous locations to be analyzed in detail.

10,525 citations

Book
01 Jan 1872
TL;DR: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Introduction to the First Edition and Discussion Index, by Phillip Prodger and Paul Ekman.
Abstract: Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Figures Plates Preface to the Anniversary Edition by Paul Ekman Preface to the Third Edition by Paul Ekman Preface to the Second Edition by Francis Darwin Introduction to the Third Edition by Paul Ekman The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Introduction to the First Edition 1. General Principles of Expression 2. General Principles of Expression -- continued 3. General Principles of Expression -- continued 4. Means of Expression in Animals 5. Special Expressions of Animals 6. Special Expressions of Man: Suffering and Weeping 7. Low Spirits, Anxiety, Grief, Dejection, Despair 8. Joy, High Spirits, Love, Tender Feelings, Devotion 9. Reflection - Meditation - Ill-temper - Sulkiness - Determination 10. Hatred and Anger 11. Disdain - Contempt - Disgust - Guilt - Pride, Etc. - Helplessness - Patience - Affirmation and Negation 12. Surprise - Astonishment - Fear - Horror 13. Self-attention - Shame - Shyness - Modesty: Blushing 14. Concluding Remarks and Summary Afterword, by Paul Ekman APPENDIX I: Charles Darwin's Obituary, by T. H. Huxley APPENDIX II: Changes to the Text, by Paul Ekman APPENDIX III: Photography and The Expression of the Emotions, by Phillip Prodger APPENDIX IV: A Note on the Orientation of the Plates, by Phillip Prodger and Paul Ekman APPENDIX V: Concordance of Illustrations, by Phillip Prodger APPENDIX VI: List of Head Words from the Index to the First Edition NOTES NOTES TO THE COMMENTARIES INDEX

9,342 citations

Book
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the person-environment relationship: motivation and coping Cognition and emotion Issues of causality, goal incongruent (negative) emotions Goal congruent (positive) and problematic emotions.
Abstract: Part I: BACKGROUND: About emotion Issues of research, classification and measurements Part II: THE COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL-RELATIONAL THEORY: The person-environment relationship: motivation and coping Cognition and emotion Issues of causality Part III: INDIVIDUAL EMOTIONS: Goal incongruent (negative) emotions Goal congruent (positive) and problematic emotions Part IV: EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Individual development Social influence Part V: PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Emotions and health Implications for research, assessment, treatment and disease prevention References Index.

8,565 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The main aim of this paper is to examine some of the major implications of this interactive, instructional relationship between the developing child and his elders for the study of skill acquisition and problem solving.
Abstract: THIS PAPER is concerned with the nature of the tutorial process; the means whereby an adult or \"expert\" helps somebody who is less adult or less expert. Though its aim is general, it is expressed in terms of a particular task: a tutor seeks to teach children aged 3, 4 and 5 yr to build a particular three-dimensional structure that requires a degree of skill that is initially beyond them. It is the usual type of tutoring situation in which one member \"knows the answer\" and the other does not, rather like a \"practical\" in which only the instructor \"knows how\". The changing interaction of tutor and children provide our data. A great deal of early problem solving by the developing child is of this order. Although from the earliest months of life he is a \"natural\" problem solver in his own right (e.g. Bruner, 1973) it is often the ease that his efforts are assisted and fostered by others who are more skilful than he is (Kaye, 1970). Whether he is learning the procedures that constitute the skills of attending, communicating, manipulating objects, locomoting, or, indeed, a more effective problem solving procedure itself, there are usually others in attendance who help him on his way. Tutorial interactions are, in short, a crucial feature of infancy and childhood. Our species, moreover, appears to be the only one in which any \"intentional\" tutoring goes on (Bruner, 1972; Hinde, 1971). For although it is true that many of the higher primate species learn by observation of their elders (Hamburg, 1968; van Lawick-Goodall, 1968), there is no evidence that those elders do anything to instruct their charges in the performance of the skill in question. What distinguishes man as a species is not only his capacity for learning, but for teaching as well. It is the main aim of this paper to examine some of the major implications of this interactive, instructional relationship between the developing child and his elders for the study of skill acquisition and problem solving. The acquisition of skill in the human child can be fruitfully conceived as a hierarchical program in which component skills are combined into \"higher skills\" by appropriate orchestration to meet new, more complex task requirements (Bruner, 1973). The process is analogous to problem solving in which mastery of \"lower order\" or constituent problems in a sine qua non for success with a larger jjroblcm, each level influencing the other—as with reading where the deciphering of words makes possible the deciphering of sentences, and sentences then aid in the deciphering of particular words (F. Smith, 1971). Given persistent intention in the young learner, given a \"lexicon\" of constituent skills, the crucial task is often one of com-

7,915 citations

Book
01 Jun 1991
TL;DR: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described, building a robust and flexible robot control system that has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms.
Abstract: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described. Layers of control system are built to let the robot operate at increasing levels of competence. Layers are made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels. Each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine. Higher-level layers can subsume the roles of lower levels by suppressing their outputs. However, lower levels continue to function as higher levels are added. The result is a robust and flexible robot control system. The system has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms. Eventually it is intended to control a robot that wanders the office areas of our laboratory, building maps of its surroundings using an onboard arm to perform simple tasks.

7,759 citations