Pub Date : 2023-11-02DOI: 10.1007/s12369-023-01037-6
Mads Bering Christiansen, Ahmad Rafsanjani, Jonas Jørgensen
Abstract The flexible bodies of soft robots provide exciting new possibilities for interaction with humans. In this paper, we propose a novel design paradigm, Soft Biomorphism, for soft robots centered on the idea of amplifying their inherent biomorphic aesthetic qualities and activating these as affordances for human interaction. Following this approach, we developed a set of biomorphic soft robotic prototypes and conducted two studies to understand the effects of biomorphic design aesthetics on people’s impressions of these prototypes. Based on qualitative data collected through five workshop sessions, the first exploratory study (n = 10) sought to investigate the envisioned uses and types of interactions that prototypes elicited within the context of personal robots. We found that various uses were considered and that most participants associated the biomorphic aesthetic design with soft robots contributing to emotional and physical well-being. Building on these results, we conducted a second study (n = 32) to investigate if soft robots with enhanced biomorphic qualities are perceived as more appealing and appropriate for physical human–robot interaction aimed at supporting well-being. We did not find any statistically significant preference for biomorphic soft robots. However, we found statistically significant differences in appeal ratings post-interaction for some prototypes, suggesting that physical interaction with soft robots can impact the perceived appeal. Based on our findings, we highlight key issues to bear in mind when considering biomorphic aesthetics in soft personal robot designs and provide tentative design recommendations to combine biomorphic and geometric elements and align visual appearance, tactility, and movement in future robot designs.
{"title":"“It Brings the Good Vibes”: Exploring Biomorphic Aesthetics in the Design of Soft Personal Robots","authors":"Mads Bering Christiansen, Ahmad Rafsanjani, Jonas Jørgensen","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01037-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01037-6","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The flexible bodies of soft robots provide exciting new possibilities for interaction with humans. In this paper, we propose a novel design paradigm, Soft Biomorphism, for soft robots centered on the idea of amplifying their inherent biomorphic aesthetic qualities and activating these as affordances for human interaction. Following this approach, we developed a set of biomorphic soft robotic prototypes and conducted two studies to understand the effects of biomorphic design aesthetics on people’s impressions of these prototypes. Based on qualitative data collected through five workshop sessions, the first exploratory study (n = 10) sought to investigate the envisioned uses and types of interactions that prototypes elicited within the context of personal robots. We found that various uses were considered and that most participants associated the biomorphic aesthetic design with soft robots contributing to emotional and physical well-being. Building on these results, we conducted a second study (n = 32) to investigate if soft robots with enhanced biomorphic qualities are perceived as more appealing and appropriate for physical human–robot interaction aimed at supporting well-being. We did not find any statistically significant preference for biomorphic soft robots. However, we found statistically significant differences in appeal ratings post-interaction for some prototypes, suggesting that physical interaction with soft robots can impact the perceived appeal. Based on our findings, we highlight key issues to bear in mind when considering biomorphic aesthetics in soft personal robot designs and provide tentative design recommendations to combine biomorphic and geometric elements and align visual appearance, tactility, and movement in future robot designs.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"8 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135934013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1007/s12369-023-01069-y
Luca Pozzi, Silvia Guerini, Stefano Arrigoni, Alessandra Pedrocchi, Marta Gandolla
Abstract Access to regular sports competitions is often precluded for disabled people. Chess, which has been recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, is a rare exception. Nevertheless, to compete in official tournaments, people suffering from a high level of motor impairment must rely on the assistance of a person to move their pieces on the chessboard, under their indications. This can result in a reduction of the feeling of independence and self-esteem. In this work, a service robot is employed as an assistant for competitive chess players, moving pieces on a standard chessboard for competitions, and adhering to the rules of the international chess federation (e.g. not relying on a custom sensorized chess-set). The robot is controlled through an intuitive graphical user interface. The user interface can be navigated with easy-to-use devices, such as a mouse, a touchpad, or a commodity joystick for motion-impaired people (Ottobock calibratable Mini joystick). An effective framework for the opponent’s move identification from RGB-D images is proposed and used to keep track of the live game situation. The application is implemented in ROS on a PAL Robotics TIAGo robot, a service robot with a 7 degrees-of-freedom arm, an extensible torso, and a re-orientable RGB-D camera. The robustness of the application is tested by reproducing six famous chess games several times on a standard wooden competition chessboard, making TIAGo play on behalf of the player with white or black pieces, alternatively. The application is properly working without the need of operator intervention in the $$91.6%$$ 91.6% of the performed moves. The proposed approach successfully opens the door to independent competitive chess playing for motor disabled people in official tournaments.
残疾人经常无法参加正规的体育比赛。国际象棋在1999年被国际奥林匹克委员会(ioc)认可为体育项目，这是一个罕见的例外。然而，要参加正式的比赛，患有严重运动障碍的人必须依靠别人的帮助，在他们的指示下移动棋盘上的棋子。这可能会导致独立性和自尊感的减少。在这项工作中，使用服务机器人作为国际象棋选手的助手，在标准棋盘上移动棋子进行比赛，并遵守国际象棋联合会的规则(例如不依赖于定制的传感器棋盘)。机器人通过直观的图形用户界面进行控制。用户界面可以通过易于使用的设备进行导航，例如鼠标，触摸板或用于运动障碍人士的商品操纵杆(Ottobock可校准的迷你操纵杆)。提出了一种从RGB-D图像中识别对手移动的有效框架，并将其用于跟踪实时比赛情况。该应用程序在PAL机器人公司的TIAGo机器人上以ROS实现，TIAGo机器人是一种服务机器人，具有7个自由度的手臂，可扩展的躯干和可重新定向的RGB-D相机。应用程序的健壮性是通过在标准的木制比赛棋盘上多次重现六种著名的国际象棋游戏来测试的，让TIAGo代表玩家使用白色或黑色棋子，交替进行。应用程序正常工作，无需操作员干预$$91.6%$$ 91.6 % of the performed moves. The proposed approach successfully opens the door to independent competitive chess playing for motor disabled people in official tournaments.
{"title":"A Robotic Assistant for Disabled Chess Players in Competitive Games","authors":"Luca Pozzi, Silvia Guerini, Stefano Arrigoni, Alessandra Pedrocchi, Marta Gandolla","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01069-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01069-y","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Access to regular sports competitions is often precluded for disabled people. Chess, which has been recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, is a rare exception. Nevertheless, to compete in official tournaments, people suffering from a high level of motor impairment must rely on the assistance of a person to move their pieces on the chessboard, under their indications. This can result in a reduction of the feeling of independence and self-esteem. In this work, a service robot is employed as an assistant for competitive chess players, moving pieces on a standard chessboard for competitions, and adhering to the rules of the international chess federation (e.g. not relying on a custom sensorized chess-set). The robot is controlled through an intuitive graphical user interface. The user interface can be navigated with easy-to-use devices, such as a mouse, a touchpad, or a commodity joystick for motion-impaired people (Ottobock calibratable Mini joystick). An effective framework for the opponent’s move identification from RGB-D images is proposed and used to keep track of the live game situation. The application is implemented in ROS on a PAL Robotics TIAGo robot, a service robot with a 7 degrees-of-freedom arm, an extensible torso, and a re-orientable RGB-D camera. The robustness of the application is tested by reproducing six famous chess games several times on a standard wooden competition chessboard, making TIAGo play on behalf of the player with white or black pieces, alternatively. The application is properly working without the need of operator intervention in the $$91.6%$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>91.6</mml:mn> <mml:mo>%</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> of the performed moves. The proposed approach successfully opens the door to independent competitive chess playing for motor disabled people in official tournaments.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"174 8","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135325779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Affect recognition, or the ability to detect and interpret emotional states, has the potential to be a valuable tool in the field of healthcare. In particular, it can be useful in gamified therapy, which involves using gaming techniques to motivate and keep the engagement of patients in therapeutic activities. This study aims to examine the accuracy of machine learning models using thermal imaging and action unit data for affect classification in a gamified robot therapy scenario. A self-report survey and three machine learning models were used to assess emotions including frustration, boredom, and enjoyment in participants during different phases of the game. The results showed that the multimodal approach with the combination of thermal imaging and action units with LSTM model had the highest accuracy of 77% for emotion classification over a 7-s sliding window, while thermal imaging had the lowest standard deviation among participants. The results suggest that thermal imaging and action units can be effective in detecting affective states and might have the potential to be used in healthcare applications, such as gamified therapy, as a promising non-intrusive method for recognizing internal states.
{"title":"Multi-modal Affect Detection Using Thermal and Optical Imaging in a Gamified Robotic Exercise","authors":"Youssef Mohamed, Arzu Güneysu, Séverin Lemaignan, Iolanda Leite","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01066-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01066-1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Affect recognition, or the ability to detect and interpret emotional states, has the potential to be a valuable tool in the field of healthcare. In particular, it can be useful in gamified therapy, which involves using gaming techniques to motivate and keep the engagement of patients in therapeutic activities. This study aims to examine the accuracy of machine learning models using thermal imaging and action unit data for affect classification in a gamified robot therapy scenario. A self-report survey and three machine learning models were used to assess emotions including frustration, boredom, and enjoyment in participants during different phases of the game. The results showed that the multimodal approach with the combination of thermal imaging and action units with LSTM model had the highest accuracy of 77% for emotion classification over a 7-s sliding window, while thermal imaging had the lowest standard deviation among participants. The results suggest that thermal imaging and action units can be effective in detecting affective states and might have the potential to be used in healthcare applications, such as gamified therapy, as a promising non-intrusive method for recognizing internal states.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"204 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135870395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-30DOI: 10.1007/s12369-023-01067-0
Marc Dalmasso, J. E. Domínguez-Vidal, Iván J. Torres-Rodríguez, Pablo Jiménez, Anaís Garrell, Alberto Sanfeliu
Abstract Recent research in Human Robot Collaboration (HRC) has spread and specialised in many sub-fields. Many show considerable advances, but the human–robot collaborative navigation (HRCN) field seems to be stuck focusing on implicit collaboration settings, on hypothetical or simulated task allocation problems, on shared autonomy or on having the human as a manager. This work takes a step forward by presenting an end-to-end system capable of handling real-world human–robot collaborative navigation tasks. This system makes use of the Social Reward Sources model (SRS), a knowledge representation to simultaneously tackle task allocation and path planning, proposes a multi-agent Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) planner for human–robot teams, presents the collaborative search as a testbed for HRCN and studies the usage of smartphones for communication in this setting. The detailed experiments prove the viability of the approach, explore collaboration roles adopted by the human–robot team and test the acceptability and utility of different communication interface designs.
{"title":"Shared Task Representation for Human–Robot Collaborative Navigation: The Collaborative Search Case","authors":"Marc Dalmasso, J. E. Domínguez-Vidal, Iván J. Torres-Rodríguez, Pablo Jiménez, Anaís Garrell, Alberto Sanfeliu","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01067-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01067-0","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Recent research in Human Robot Collaboration (HRC) has spread and specialised in many sub-fields. Many show considerable advances, but the human–robot collaborative navigation (HRCN) field seems to be stuck focusing on implicit collaboration settings, on hypothetical or simulated task allocation problems, on shared autonomy or on having the human as a manager. This work takes a step forward by presenting an end-to-end system capable of handling real-world human–robot collaborative navigation tasks. This system makes use of the Social Reward Sources model (SRS), a knowledge representation to simultaneously tackle task allocation and path planning, proposes a multi-agent Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) planner for human–robot teams, presents the collaborative search as a testbed for HRCN and studies the usage of smartphones for communication in this setting. The detailed experiments prove the viability of the approach, explore collaboration roles adopted by the human–robot team and test the acceptability and utility of different communication interface designs.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"140 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136104314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.1007/s12369-023-01042-9
Stefan Larsson, Mia Liinason, Laetitia Tanqueray, Ginevra Castellano
Abstract While recent progress has been made in several fields of data-intense AI-research, many applications have been shown to be prone to unintendedly reproduce social biases, sexism and stereotyping, including but not exclusive to gender. As more of these design-based, algorithmic or machine learning methodologies, here called adaptive technologies , become embedded in robotics, we see a need for a developed understanding of what role social norms play in social robotics, particularly with regards to fairness. To this end, we (i) we propose a framework for a socio-legal robotics , primarily drawn from Sociology of Law and Gender Studies. This is then (ii) related to already established notions of acceptability and personalisation in social robotics, here with a particular focus on (iii) the interplay between adaptive technologies and social norms. In theorising this interplay for social robotics, we look not only to current statuses of social robots, but draw from identified AI-methods that can be seen to influence robotics in the near future. This theoretical framework, we argue, can help us point to concerns of relevance for questions of fairness in human–robot interaction.
{"title":"Towards a Socio-Legal Robotics: A Theoretical Framework on Norms and Adaptive Technologies","authors":"Stefan Larsson, Mia Liinason, Laetitia Tanqueray, Ginevra Castellano","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01042-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01042-9","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While recent progress has been made in several fields of data-intense AI-research, many applications have been shown to be prone to unintendedly reproduce social biases, sexism and stereotyping, including but not exclusive to gender. As more of these design-based, algorithmic or machine learning methodologies, here called adaptive technologies , become embedded in robotics, we see a need for a developed understanding of what role social norms play in social robotics, particularly with regards to fairness. To this end, we (i) we propose a framework for a socio-legal robotics , primarily drawn from Sociology of Law and Gender Studies. This is then (ii) related to already established notions of acceptability and personalisation in social robotics, here with a particular focus on (iii) the interplay between adaptive technologies and social norms. In theorising this interplay for social robotics, we look not only to current statuses of social robots, but draw from identified AI-methods that can be seen to influence robotics in the near future. This theoretical framework, we argue, can help us point to concerns of relevance for questions of fairness in human–robot interaction.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"87 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135570118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-13DOI: 10.1007/s12369-023-01049-2
Marianna Capasso
Abstract Social robotic platforms are increasingly entering into human social practices, but to date the question of control and direction of innovation processes surrounding social robotics is still highly debated. In this paper I seek to make a two-fold contribution. Firstly, I critically discuss the “Collingridge Dilemma”, also known as the “dilemma of control” in Science and Technologies Studies, and contemporary efforts to address such a dilemma. I demonstrate how such efforts have neglected some wider implications of the dilemma, whose relevance is instead crucial for addressing ethical implications in social robotics. Secondly, to help improve the understanding of control in social robotics, I investigate two guiding principles that have been identified in responsible innovation literature, e.g., inclusion and responsiveness, and I identify potential methods and paradigms to put them into practice. The general aim of this paper is thus to bridge the gap between the theoretical assumptions of responsible innovation and its realisation in practice, as well as to explicitly integrate social robotics with an ethical dimension that can improve the inclusiveness, transdisciplinarity, and social sustainability of this emerging field.
{"title":"Responsible Social Robotics and the Dilemma of Control","authors":"Marianna Capasso","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01049-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01049-2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Social robotic platforms are increasingly entering into human social practices, but to date the question of control and direction of innovation processes surrounding social robotics is still highly debated. In this paper I seek to make a two-fold contribution. Firstly, I critically discuss the “Collingridge Dilemma”, also known as the “dilemma of control” in Science and Technologies Studies, and contemporary efforts to address such a dilemma. I demonstrate how such efforts have neglected some wider implications of the dilemma, whose relevance is instead crucial for addressing ethical implications in social robotics. Secondly, to help improve the understanding of control in social robotics, I investigate two guiding principles that have been identified in responsible innovation literature, e.g., inclusion and responsiveness, and I identify potential methods and paradigms to put them into practice. The general aim of this paper is thus to bridge the gap between the theoretical assumptions of responsible innovation and its realisation in practice, as well as to explicitly integrate social robotics with an ethical dimension that can improve the inclusiveness, transdisciplinarity, and social sustainability of this emerging field.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135858476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-12DOI: 10.1007/s12369-023-01054-5
Nicole L. Robinson, Jennifer Connolly, Gavin Suddrey, David J. Kavanagh
Abstract Mental health and psychological distress are rising in adults, showing the importance of wellbeing promotion, support, and technique practice that is effective and accessible. Interactive social robots have been tested to deliver health programs but have not been explored to deliver wellbeing technique training in detail. A pilot randomised controlled trial was conducted to explore the feasibility of an autonomous humanoid social robot to deliver a brief mindful breathing technique to promote information around wellbeing. It contained two conditions: brief technique training (‘Technique’) and control designed to represent a simple wait-list activity to represent a relationship-building discussion (‘Simple Rapport’). This trial also explored willingness to discuss health-related topics with a robot. Recruitment uptake rate through convenience sampling was high (53%). A total of 230 participants took part (mean age = 29 years) with 71% being higher education students. There were moderate ratings of technique enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and likelihood to repeat the technique again. Interaction effects were found across measures with scores varying across gender and distress levels. Males with high distress and females with low distress who received the simple rapport activity reported greater comfort to discuss non-health topics than males with low distress and females with high distress. This trial marks a notable step towards the design and deployment of an autonomous wellbeing intervention to investigate the impact of a brief robot-delivered mindfulness training program for a sub-clinical population.
{"title":"A Brief Wellbeing Training Session Delivered by a Humanoid Social Robot: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial","authors":"Nicole L. Robinson, Jennifer Connolly, Gavin Suddrey, David J. Kavanagh","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01054-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01054-5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Mental health and psychological distress are rising in adults, showing the importance of wellbeing promotion, support, and technique practice that is effective and accessible. Interactive social robots have been tested to deliver health programs but have not been explored to deliver wellbeing technique training in detail. A pilot randomised controlled trial was conducted to explore the feasibility of an autonomous humanoid social robot to deliver a brief mindful breathing technique to promote information around wellbeing. It contained two conditions: brief technique training (‘Technique’) and control designed to represent a simple wait-list activity to represent a relationship-building discussion (‘Simple Rapport’). This trial also explored willingness to discuss health-related topics with a robot. Recruitment uptake rate through convenience sampling was high (53%). A total of 230 participants took part (mean age = 29 years) with 71% being higher education students. There were moderate ratings of technique enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and likelihood to repeat the technique again. Interaction effects were found across measures with scores varying across gender and distress levels. Males with high distress and females with low distress who received the simple rapport activity reported greater comfort to discuss non-health topics than males with low distress and females with high distress. This trial marks a notable step towards the design and deployment of an autonomous wellbeing intervention to investigate the impact of a brief robot-delivered mindfulness training program for a sub-clinical population.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135968953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Gestures, a form of body language, significantly influence how users perceive humanoid robots. Recent data-driven methods for co-speech gestures have successfully enhanced the naturalness of the generated gestures. Moreover, compared to rule-based systems, these methods are more generalizable for unseen speech input. However, many of these methods cannot directly influence people’s perceptions of robots. The primary challenge lies in the intricacy of constructing a dataset with varied impression labels to develop a conditional generation model. In our prior work ([22]) Controlling the impression of robots via gan-based gesture generation. In:Proceedings of the international conference on intelligent robots and systems. IEEE, pp 9288-9295), we introduced a heuristic approach for automatic labeling, training a deep learning model to control robot impressions. We demonstrated the model’s effectiveness on both a virtual agent and a humanoid robot. In this study, we refined the motion retargeting algorithm for the humanoid robot and conducted a user study using four questions representing different aspects of extroversion. Our results show an improved capability in controlling the perceived degree of extroversion in the humanoid robot compared to previous methods. Furthermore, we discovered that different aspects of extroversion interact uniquely with motion statistics
{"title":"Extrovert or Introvert? GAN-Based Humanoid Upper-Body Gesture Generation for Different Impressions","authors":"Bowen Wu, Chaoran Liu, Carlos Toshinori Ishi, Jiaqi Shi, Hiroshi Ishiguro","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01051-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01051-8","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Gestures, a form of body language, significantly influence how users perceive humanoid robots. Recent data-driven methods for co-speech gestures have successfully enhanced the naturalness of the generated gestures. Moreover, compared to rule-based systems, these methods are more generalizable for unseen speech input. However, many of these methods cannot directly influence people’s perceptions of robots. The primary challenge lies in the intricacy of constructing a dataset with varied impression labels to develop a conditional generation model. In our prior work ([22]) Controlling the impression of robots via gan-based gesture generation. In:Proceedings of the international conference on intelligent robots and systems. IEEE, pp 9288-9295), we introduced a heuristic approach for automatic labeling, training a deep learning model to control robot impressions. We demonstrated the model’s effectiveness on both a virtual agent and a humanoid robot. In this study, we refined the motion retargeting algorithm for the humanoid robot and conducted a user study using four questions representing different aspects of extroversion. Our results show an improved capability in controlling the perceived degree of extroversion in the humanoid robot compared to previous methods. Furthermore, we discovered that different aspects of extroversion interact uniquely with motion statistics","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"152 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136210690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-05DOI: 10.1007/s12369-023-01050-9
Christian Lenz, Max Schwarz, Andre Rochow, Bastian Pätzold, Raphael Memmesheimer, Michael Schreiber, Sven Behnke
Abstract Robotic avatar systems can enable immersive telepresence with locomotion, manipulation, and communication capabilities. We present such an avatar system, based on the key components of immersive 3D visualization and transparent force-feedback telemanipulation. Our avatar robot features an anthropomorphic upper body with dexterous hands. The remote human operator drives the arms and fingers through an exoskeleton-based operator station, which provides force feedback both at the wrist and for each finger. The robot torso is mounted on a holonomic base, providing omnidirectional locomotion on flat floors, controlled using a 3D rudder device. Finally, the robot features a 6D movable head with stereo cameras, which stream images to a VR display worn by the operator. Movement latency is hidden using spherical rendering. The head also carries a telepresence screen displaying an animated image of the operator’s face, enabling direct interaction with remote persons. Our system won the $10 M ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition, which challenged teams to develop intuitive and immersive avatar systems that could be operated by briefly trained judges. We analyze our successful participation in the semifinals and finals and provide insight into our operator training and lessons learned. In addition, we evaluate our system in a user study that demonstrates its intuitive and easy usability.
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Pub Date : 2023-10-05DOI: 10.1007/s12369-023-01030-z
Megumi Takada, Junko Ichino, Kaname Hayashi
{"title":"A Study of Objective Evaluation Indicator Based on Robot Activity Logs for Owner Attachment to Companion Robot","authors":"Megumi Takada, Junko Ichino, Kaname Hayashi","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01030-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01030-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"442 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135481064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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