Showing papers on "Social robot published in 2012"

(S)he's Got the Look: Gender Stereotyping of Robots1

Abstract: Previous research on gender effects in robots has largely ignored the role of facial cues. We fill this gap in the literature by experimentally investigating the effects of facial gender cues on stereotypical trait and application ascriptions to robots. As predicted, the short-haired male robot was perceived as more agentic than was the long-haired female robot, whereas the female robot was perceived as more communal than was the male counterpart. Analogously, stereotypically male tasks were perceived more suitable for the male robot, relative to the female robot, and vice versa. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that gender stereotypes, which typically bias social perceptions of humans, are even applied to robots. Implications for design-related decisions are discussed. jasp_937 2213..2230 Imagine the following scenario that takes place several decades in the future: By then, both authors of this work might be senior citizens, and the same might hold true for our readers. In spite of grieving lost youth, however, imagine that each senior citizen of this future society would be equipped with a personal robot assistant that would take care of everyday life chores, such as personal care, household maintenance, and other conveniences for you. Your personal robot assistant would facilitate everyday life by being able to support you in any possible way. What could your robot assistant look like, and why did designers opt for this particular appearance? Would your companion’s look affect your perceptions of its “personality” and capabilities? The present research focuses on exactly these questions, as we address the issues of design choices in robots and their consequences for the perception of those robots. It is clear that, to date, the scenario outlined here has not yet been fully realized. Nevertheless, taking into account the interdisciplinary effort of international scientists in social robotics, engineering, computer sciences, psychology, and related fields, such a vision will sooner or later become

Anthropomorphism and human likeness in the design of robots and human-robot interaction

Abstract: In this literature review we explain anthropomorphism and its role in the design of socially interactive robots and human-robot interaction. We illustrate the social phenomenon of anthropomorphism which describes people's tendency to attribute lifelike qualities to objects and other non lifelike artifacts. We present theoretical backgrounds from social sciences, and integrate related work from robotics research, including results from experiments with social robots. We present different approaches for anthropomorphic and humanlike form in a robot's design related to its physical shape, its behavior, and its interaction with humans. This review provides a comprehensive understanding of anthropomorphism in robotics, collects and reports relevant references, and gives an outlook on anthropomorphic human-robot interaction.

Designing persuasive robots: how robots might persuade people using vocal and nonverbal cues

Abstract: Social robots have to potential to serve as personal, organizational, and public assistants as, for instance, diet coaches, teacher's aides, and emergency respondents. The success of these robots - whether in motivating users to adhere to a diet regimen or in encouraging them to follow evacuation procedures in the case of a fire - will rely largely on their ability to persuade people. Research in a range of areas from political communication to education suggest that the nonverbal behaviors of a human speaker play a key role in the persuasiveness of the speaker's message and the listeners' compliance with it. In this paper, we explore how a robot might effectively use these behaviors, particularly vocal and bodily cues, to persuade users. In an experiment with 32 participants, we evaluate how manipulations in a robot's use of nonverbal cues affected participants' perceptions of the robot's persuasiveness and their compliance with the robot's suggestions across four conditions: (1) no vocal or bodily cues, (2) vocal cues only, (3) bodily cues only, and (4) vocal and bodily cues. The results showed that participants complied with the robot's suggestions significantly more when it used nonverbal cues than they did when it did not use these cues and that bodily cues were more effective in persuading participants than vocal cues were. Our model of persuasive nonverbal cues and experimental results have direct implications for the design of persuasive behaviors for humanlike robots.

Social categorization of social robots: anthropomorphism as a function of robot group membership.

Abstract: 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.

The Role of Affective Touch in Human-Robot Interaction: Human Intent and Expectations in Touching the Haptic Creature

Abstract: Affective touch is a crucial element of early human development, social bonding, and emotional support. Technically and socially difficult to study, it has received little research attention. Our approach employs animal models instantiated by the Haptic Creature, a touch-centric social robot. In this paper, we examine how humans communicate emotional state through touch to the Haptic Creature and their expectations of its reactions. A user study is presented where participants selected and performed gestures they would likely use when conveying nine different emotions to the Haptic Creature. We report a touch dictionary compiled for our research; the gestures participants chose from it; and video analysis of their enactment. Our principal findings regard patterns of gesture use for emotional expression; physical properties of the likely gestures; expectations for the Haptic Creature’s response to mirror the emotion communicated; and analysis of the human’s higher intent in communication. From the latter finding, we present five tentative categories of “intent” that overlap emotion states: protective, comforting, restful, affectionate, and playful. These results can help inform the future design of social robots by illuminating details of one direction in affective touch interactions.

'If you sound like me, you must be more human': on the interplay of robot and user features on human-robot acceptance and anthropomorphism

Abstract: In an experiment we manipulated a robot's voice in two ways: First, we varied robot gender; second, we equipped the robot with a human-like or a robot-like synthesized voice. Moreover, we took into account user gender and tested effects of these factors on human-robot acceptance, psychological closeness and psychological anthropomorphism. When participants formed an impression of a same-gender robot, the robot was perceived more positively. Participants also felt more psychological closeness to the same-gender robot. Similarly, the same-gender robot was anthropomorphized more strongly, but only when it utilized a human-like voice. Results indicate that a projection mechanism could underlie these effects.

Using the social robot probo as a social story telling agent for children with ASD

Abstract: This paper aims to study the role of the social robot Probo in providing assistance to a therapist for robot assisted therapy (RAT) with autistic children. Children with autism have difficulties with social interaction and several studies indicate that they show preference toward interaction with objects, such as computers and robots, rather than with humans. In 1991, Carol Gray developed Social Stories, an intervention tool aimed to increase children’s social skills. Social stories are short scenarios written or tailored for autistic individuals to help them understand and behave appropriately in social situations. This study shows that, in specific situations, the social performance of autistic children improves when using the robot Probo, as a medium for social story telling, than when a human reader tells the stories. The robot tells Social Stories to teach ASD children how to react in situations like saying “hello”, saying “thank you” and “sharing toys”. The robot has the capability of expressing emotions and attention via its facial expressions and its gaze. The paper discusses the use of Probo as an added-value therapeutic tool for social story telling and presents the first experimental results. Keywords: social robot; ASD children; social story; robot assisted therapy

Generation and Evaluation of Communicative Robot Gesture

Abstract: How is communicative gesture behavior in robots perceived by humans? Although gesture is crucial in social interaction, this research question is still largely unexplored in the field of social robotics. Thus, the main objective of the present work is to investigate how gestural machine behaviors can be used to design more natural communication in social robots. The chosen approach is twofold. Firstly, the technical challenges encountered when implementing a speech-gesture generation model on a robotic platform are tackled. We present a framework that enables the humanoid robot to flexibly produce synthetic speech and co-verbal hand and arm gestures at run-time, while not being limited to a predefined repertoire of motor actions. Secondly, the achieved flexibility in robot gesture is exploited in controlled experiments. To gain a deeper understanding of how communicative robot gesture might impact and shape human perception and evaluation of human-robot interaction, we conducted a between-subjects experimental study using the humanoid robot in a joint task scenario. We manipulated the non-verbal behaviors of the robot in three experimental conditions, so that it would refer to objects by utilizing either (1) unimodal (i.e., speech only) utterances, (2) congruent multimodal (i.e., semantically matching speech and gesture) or (3) incongruent multimodal (i.e., semantically non-matching speech and gesture) utterances. Our findings reveal that the robot is evaluated more positively when non-verbal behaviors such as hand and arm gestures are displayed along with speech, even if they do not semantically match the spoken utterance.

The technical trend of the exoskeleton robot system for human power assistance

Abstract: The exoskeleton robot system is a brand new type of human-robot cooperation system. It fully combines human intelligence and robot power so that robot intelligence and human operator’s power are both enhanced. Therefore, it achieves a high-level performance that neither robots nor humans could achieve separately. This paper describes the basic exoskeleton concepts from biological systems to human-robot intelligent systems. It is followed by an overview of the development history of exoskeleton systems and their two main applications: human power assistance and human power augmentation. Besides the key technologies in exoskeleton systems, the research is presented from several viewpoints of the biomechanical design, system structure modeling, human-robot interaction, and control strategy.

Emulating self-reconfigurable robots - design of the SMORES system

Abstract: Self-reconfigurable robots are capable of changing their shape to suit a task. The design of one system called SMORES (Self-assembling MOdular Robot for Extreme Shape-shifting) is introduced. This system is capable of rearranging its modules in all three classes of reconfiguration; lattice style, chain style and mobile reconfiguration. This system is capable of emulating many of the other existing systems and promises to be a step towards a universal modular robot.

Personalization in HRI: a longitudinal field experiment

Abstract: Creating and sustaining rapport between robots and people is critical for successful robotic services. As a first step towards this goal, we explored a personalization strategy with a snack delivery robot. We designed a social robotic snack delivery service, and, for half of the participants, personalized the service based on participants' service usage and interactions with the robot. The service ran for each participant for two months. We evaluated this strategy during a 4-month field experiment. The results show that, as compared with the social service alone, adding personalized service improved rapport, cooperation, and engagement with the robot during service encounters.

A Human-Aware Manipulation Planner

Abstract: With recent advances in safe and compliant hardware and control, robots are close to finding their places in our homes. As the safety barrier between humans and robots is beginning to fade, the necessity to design pertinent robot behavior in human environments is becoming a crucial step. In order to obtain a safe, comfortable, and socially acceptable interaction, the robot should be engineered from top to bottom by considering the presence of the human. In this paper, we present a manipulation planning framework and its implementation human-aware manipulation planner. This planner generates paths not only safe but comfortable and “socially acceptable” as well by reasoning explicitly on human's kinematics, vision field, posture, and preferences. The planner, which is applied into “robot handing over an object” scenarios, breaks the human centric interaction that depends mostly on human effort and allows the robot to take initiative by computing automatically where the interaction takes place, thus decreasing the cognitive weight of interaction on human side.

Socialbots: voices from the fronts

Abstract: The Social Mediator forum was created to bridge the gaps between the theory and practice of social media research and development. The articles are intended to promote greater awareness of new insights and experiences in the rapidly evolving domain of social media, some of which may influence perspectives and approaches in the more established areas of human-computer interaction. Each article in the forum is made up of several short contributions from people representing different perspectives on a particular topic. Previous installments of this forum have woven together diverse perspectives on the ways that social media is transforming relationships among different stakeholders in the realms of healthcare and government. The current article highlights some of the ways social robots (socialbots)---programs that operate autonomously on social networking sites---are transforming relationships within those sites, and how these transformations may more broadly influence relationships among people and organizations in the future. A recent article in Communications of the ACM called "The Social Life of Robots" reported that "researchers have started to explore the possibilities of 'social' machines capable of working together with minimal human supervision" [1]. That article illuminates recent developments involving interactions between humans and robots in the physical world; this article focuses on the interactions between humans and robots in the virtual world. Our authors are exploring and expanding the frontiers of designing, deploying, and analyzing the behavior and impact of robots operating in online social networks, and they have invited a number of other frontierspeople to share some of their insights, experiences, and future expectations for social robotics.

When humanoid robots become human-like interaction partners: corepresentation of robotic actions.

Abstract: In human-human interactions, corepresenting a partner's actions is crucial to successfully adjust and coordinate actions with others. Current research suggests that action corepresentation is restricted to interactions between human agents facilitating social interaction with conspecifics. In this study, we investigated whether action corepresentation, as measured by the social Simon effect (SSE), is present when we share a task with a real humanoid robot. Further, we tested whether the believed humanness of the robot's functional principle modulates the extent to which robotic actions are corepresented. We described the robot to participants either as functioning in a biologically inspired human-like way or in a purely deterministic machine-like manner. The SSE was present in the human-like but not in the machine-like robot condition. These findings suggest that humans corepresent the actions of nonbiological robotic agents when they start to attribute human-like cognitive processes to the robot. Our findings provide novel evidence for top-down modulation effects on action corepresentation in human-robot interaction situations.

Physical Human-Robot Interaction: Mutual Learning and Adaptation

Abstract: Close physical interaction between robots and humans is a particularly challenging aspect of robot development. For successful interaction and cooperation, the robot must have the ability to adapt its behavior to the human counterpart. Based on our earlier work, we present and evaluate a computationally efficient machine learning algorithm that is well suited for such close-contact interaction scenarios. We show that this algorithm helps to improve the quality of the interaction between a robot and a human caregiver. To this end, we present two human-in-the-loop learning scenarios that are inspired by human parenting behavior, namely, an assisted standing-up task and an assisted walking task.

Modelling empathic behaviour in a robotic game companion for children: an ethnographic study in real-world settings

Abstract: The idea of autonomous social robots capable of assisting us in our daily lives is becoming more real every day However, there are still many open issues regarding the social capabilities that those robots should have in order to make daily interactions with humans more natural For example, the role of affective interactions is still unclear This paper presents an ethnographic study conducted in an elementary school where 40 children interacted with a social robot capable of recognising and responding empathically to some of the children's affective states The findings suggest that the robot's empathic behaviour affected positively how children perceived the robot However, the empathic behaviours should be selected carefully, under the risk of having the opposite effect The target application scenario and the particular preferences of children seem to influence the “degree of empathy” that social robots should be endowed with

Reactive Whole-Body Control: Dynamic Mobile Manipulation Using a Large Number of Actuated Degrees of Freedom

Abstract: As a result of intensive research over the last few decades, several robotic systems are approaching a level of maturity that allows robust task execution and safe interaction with humans and the environment. Particularly when considering the aging of the population, service and household robotics is expected to play an important role in future domestic environments. To provide the ability to accomplish a huge range of tasks with different requirements, it appears to be inevitable to equip the robot with a large number of degrees of freedom (DoF). Just imagine an ostensibly simple service task like filling a glass with water and placing it on a table. A variety of constraints has to be dealt with simultaneously: No liquid should be slopped, collisions with the environment must be avoided, and possible interactions with humans residing in the workspace of the robot have to be handled properly.

Social facilitation with social robots

Abstract: Regarding the future usage of social robots in workplace scenarios, we addressed the question of potential mere robotic presence effects on human performance. Applying the experimental social facilitation paradigm in social robotics, we compared task performance of 106 participants on easy and complex cognitive and motoric tasks across three presence groups (alone vs. human present vs. robot present). Results revealed significant evidence for the predicted social facilitation effects for both human and robotic presence compared to an alone condition. Implications of these findings are discussed with regard to the consideration of the interaction of robotic presence and task difficulty in modeling robotic assistance systems.

Interactive robot trajectory planning and simulation using Augmented Reality

Abstract: Human-robot interaction in industrial robotics has largely been confined to finding better ways to reconfigure or program the robots. In this paper, an Augmented Reality based (RPAR-II) system is proposed to facilitate robot programming and trajectory planning considering the dynamic constraints of the robots. Through the various simulation capabilities provided in the proposed AR environment, the users are able to preview the simulated motion, perceive any possible overshoot, and resolve discrepancies between the planned and simulated paths prior to the execution of a task. By performing the simulation, the performance of the trajectory planning and the fitness of the selection of the robot controller model/parameters in the robot programming process can be visually evaluated. Practical issues concerning the system implementation are also discussed.

Two people walk into a bar: dynamic multi-party social interaction with a robot agent

Abstract: We introduce a humanoid robot bartender that is capable of dealing with multiple customers in a dynamic, multi-party social setting. The robot system incorporates state-of-the-art components for computer vision, linguistic processing, state management, high-level reasoning, and robot control. In a user evaluation, 31 participants interacted with the bartender in a range of social situations. Most customers successfully obtained a drink from the bartender in all scenarios, and the factors that had the greatest impact on subjective satisfaction were task success and dialogue efficiency.

The design of the iCub humanoid robot

Abstract: This article describes the hardware design of the iCub humanoid robot. The iCub is an open-source humanoid robotic platform designed explicitly to support research in embodied cognition. This paper covers the mechanical and electronic design of the first release of the robot. A series upgrades developed for the second version of the robot (iCub2), which are aimed at the improvement of the mechanical and sensing performance, are also described.

Ripple effects of an embedded social agent: a field study of a social robot in the workplace

Abstract: Prior research has investigated the effect of interactive social agents presented on computer screens or embodied in robots. Much of this research has been pursued in labs and brief field studies. Comparatively little is known about social agents embedded in the workplace, where employees have repeated interactions with the agent, alone and with others. We designed a social robot snack delivery service for a workplace, and evaluated the service over four months allowing each employee to use it for two months. We report on how employees responded to the robot and the service over repeated encounters. Employees attached different social roles to the robot beyond a delivery person as they incorporated the robot's visit into their workplace routines. Beyond one-on-one interaction, the robot created a ripple effect in the workplace, triggering new behaviors among employees, including politeness, protection of the robot, mimicry, social comparison, and even jealousy. We discuss the implications of these ripple effects for designing services incorporating social agents.

Human-Robot Interaction in Social Robotics

Abstract: HumanRobot Interaction in Social Robotics explores important issues in designing a robot system that works with people in everyday environments. Edited by leading figures in the field of social robotics, it draws on contributions by researchers working on the Robovie project at the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, a world leader in humanoid interactive robotics. The book brings together, in one volume, technical and empirical research that was previously scattered throughout the literature. Taking a networked robot approach, the book examines how robots work in cooperation with ubiquitous sensors and people over telecommunication networks. It considers the use of social robots in daily life, grounding the work in field studies conducted at a school, train station, shopping mall, and science museum. Critical in the development of network robots, these usability studies allow researchers to discover real issues that need to be solved and to understand what kinds of services are possible. The book tackles key areas where development is needed, namely, in sensor networks for tracking humans and robots, humanoids that can work in everyday environments, and functions for interacting with people. It introduces a sensor network developed by the authors and discusses innovations in the Robovie humanoid, including several interactive behaviors and design policies. Exploring how humans interact with robots in daily life settings, this book offers valuable insight into how robots may be used in the future. The combination of engineering, empirical, and field studies provides readers with rich information to guide in developing practical interactive robots.

Shared robot knowledge base for use with cloud computing system

Abstract: The present application discloses shared robot knowledge bases for use with cloud computing systems. In one embodiment, the cloud computing system collects data from a robot about an object the robot has encountered in its environment, and stores the received data in the shared robot knowledge base. In another embodiment, the cloud computing system sends instructions for interacting with an object to a robot, receives feedback from the robot based on its interaction with the object, and updates data in the shared robot knowledge base based on the feedback. In yet another embodiment, the cloud computing system sends instructions to a robot for executing an application based on information stored in the shared robot knowledge base. In the disclosed embodiments, information in the shared robot knowledge bases is updated based on robot experiences so that any particular robot may benefit from prior experiences of other robots.

A review of research in multi-robot systems

Abstract: Formally, a collection of two or more autonomous mobile robots working together are termed as teams or societies of mobile robots. In multi robot systems simple robots are allowed to coordinate with each other to achieve some well defined goals. In these kinds of systems robots are far less capable as an entity, but the real power lies in cooperation of multiple robots. The simplicity of multi-robots have produced a potentially wide set of applications such as military missions (battlefield surveillance), searching for survivors in disaster hit areas, parallel and simultaneous transportation of vehicles, and delivery of payloads. Although the research on multi-robot systems has attracted considerable attention worldwide in the past decade, the research in this area is still in its infancy. This paper surveys various interaction techniques in multi robot systems which are important with respect to goal attainment and task completion.

Sharing effort in planning human-robot handover tasks

Abstract: For a versatile human-assisting mobile-manipulating robot such as the PR2, handing over objects to humans in possibly cluttered workspaces is a key capability. In this paper we investigate the motion planning of handovers while accounting for the human mobility. We treat the human motion as part of the planning problem thus enabling to find broader type of handing strategies. We formalize the problem and propose an algorithmic solution taking into account the HRI constraints induced by the human receiver presence. Simulation results with the PR2 robot illustrate the efficacy of the approach.

Children learning with a social robot

Abstract: We used a social robot as a teaching assistant in a class for children's collaborative learning. In the class, a group of 6th graders learned together using Lego Mindstorms. The class consisted of seven lessons with Robovie, a social robot, followed by one lesson to test their individual achievement. Robovie managed the class and explained how to use Lego Mindstorms. In addition to such basic management behaviors for the class, we prepared social behaviors for building relationships with the children and encouraging them. The result shows that the social behavior encouraged children to work more in the first two lessons, but did not affect them in later lessons. On the other hand, social behavior contributed to building relationships and attaining better social acceptance.

Cooperative social robots to accompany groups of people

Abstract: This study proposes a new model for guiding people in urban settings using multiple robots that work cooperatively. More specifically, this investigation describes the circumstances in which people might stray from the formation when following different robots' instructions. To this end, we introduce a 'prediction and anticipation model' that predicts the position of the group using a particle filter, while determining the optimal robot behavior to help people stay in the group in areas where they may become distracted. As a result, this article presents a novel approach to locally optimizing the work performed by robots and people using the minimum robots' work criterion and determining human-friendly types of movements. The guidance missions were carried out in urban areas that included multiple conflict areas and obstacles. This study also provides an analysis of robots' behavioral reactions to people by simulating different situations in the locations that were used for the investigation. The method was tested through simulations that took into account the difficulties and technological constraints derived from real-life situations. Despite these problematic issues, we were able to demonstrate the robots' effect on people in real-life situations in terms of pushing and dragging forces.

The Inherent Dangers of Unidirectional Emotional Bonds between Humans and Social Robots

Abstract: This chapter contains sections titled: 13.1 Social Robots Are Different, 13.2 Autonomy + Mobility = Perceived Agency?, 13.3 Evidence from HRI Studies, 13.4 The Personification of Robots, 13.5 Robot Dogs Are Pets, Too, 13.6 Even the Roomba Does the Trick, 13.7 Not Even Experienced Roboticists Are Always Spared, 13.8 The Dangers Ahead, 13.9 The False Pretense: Robots Are Agents, 13.10 The Potential for Abuse, 13.11 We Need to Act, Now!, References

On the Utilization of Social Animals as a Model for Social Robotics

Abstract: Social robotics is becoming a driving field in building artificial agents. The possibility to construct agents that can engage in meaningful social interaction with humans presents new challenges for the engineers. In general social robotics has been inspired dominantly by human psychology and aimed for building human-like robots. Only a small subcategory of “companion robots” (also referred to as robotic pets) was build to mimic animals. In the opinion essay we argue that all social robots should be seen as companions and more conceptual emphasis should be put on the inter-specific interaction between humans and social robots. This view is underlined by the means of an ethological analysis, and critical evaluation of present day companion robots. We suggest that human-animal interaction provides a rich source of knowledge for designing social robots that are able to interact with humans under a wide range of conditions.