Alle Publikationen
2018
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(2018): Virtual organizational design laboratory. Agent-based modeling of the co-evolution of social service delivery networks with population dynamics. In: Expert Systems with Applications 98, S. 189-204. DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2018.01.018
Abstract: This paper extends the concept of biological co-evolution to explain the performance and survival of one type of service organizations. It proposes that service delivery network design would benefit from complex adaptive systems (CAS) modeling approaches to recreate organizational phenomena driven by the interaction of the organization with its operating environment. This approach, paired with experimental design methods can serve as a virtual laboratory. We take the case of social service delivery (SSD) organizations that are structured as nonprofit organizations providing humanitarian assistance and relief services. These organizations often serve different geographical regions, thus, racial composition, migration patterns, and wealth of the populations served are factors that vary between locations. SSDs operate through service nodes (i.e., field offices, chapters, branches) in a network configuration. Therefore, the managerial decision of where to locate the field offices is an important one. An agent-based model to recreate agents' interactions as proxies of those exchanges occurring in real SSD settings is used. A series of validation experiments instill confidence that our model can be used as a virtual research laboratory. This paper contributes to the field of organizational design by testing a model able to recreate different policies that combined with different operating conditions impact the network over time and space. In addition, it provides experimental insights on what type of network configuration might provide a higher number of services delivered over time across the service network. The results can inform those defining the service system architecture looking to achieve SSD's goals considering the demographics of the markets served.
2017
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(2017): Teaching Robot’s Proactive Behavior Using Human Assistance. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 9 (2), S. 231-249. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-016-0389-0
Abstract: In recent years, there has been a growing interest in enabling autonomous social robots to interact with people. However, many questions remain unresolved regarding the social capabilities robots should have in order to perform this interaction in an ever more natural manner. In this paper, we tackle this problem through a comprehensive study of various topics involved in the interaction between a mobile robot and untrained human volunteers for a variety of tasks. In particular, this work presents a framework that enables the robot to proactively approach people and establish friendly interaction. To this end, we provided the robot with several perception and action skills, such as that of detecting people, planning an approach and communicating the intention to initiate a conversation while expressing an emotional status. We also introduce an interactive learning system that uses the person's volunteered assistance to incrementally improve the robot's perception skills. As a proof of concept, we focus on the particular task of online face learning and recognition. We conducted real-life experiments with our Tibi robot to validate the framework during the interaction process. Within this study, several surveys and user studies have been realized to reveal the social acceptability of the robot within the context of different tasks.
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(2017): Engineering the emergence of norms. A review. In: The Knowledge Engineering Review 32. DOI: 10.1017/S0269888917000169
Abstract: Complex systems often exhibit emergent behaviour, unexpected macro-level behaviour caused by the interaction of micro-level components. In multiagent systems, these micro-level components may be autonomous agents and the emergent behaviour may be expressed as norms-patterns of behaviour that arise among the agents in response to their environment and each other. These emergent norms may be beneficial (e.g. by encouraging cooperative behaviour), or detrimental, but in either case it is useful to recognize these norms as they emerge and either encourage or discourage their establishment. We term this process engineering the emergence of norms and have identified three steps: the identification of a possible norm, evaluation of its benefit and its encouragement (or discouragement). This paper is an attempt to provide a survey of existing research related to these steps. We also provide an analysis of the approaches based upon their suitability for a variety of normative systems: we examine the requirements for agents to have autonomy over their choice of norms, the degree of observability required in the system, and the norm enforcement methods. The paper concludes with an discussion of open issues.
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(2017): The Influence of Politeness Behavior on User Compliance with Social Robots in a Healthcare Service Setting. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 9 (5), S. 727-743. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-017-0420-0
Abstract: Particularly in the healthcare service domain, social robots are expected to be good assistants, advisers, or practitioners. To increase the effectiveness of healthcare services provided by social robots, patients must comply with their requests. Research is plentiful on what makes patients comply with healthcare advice. In this paper, which is based on Bulgurcu's study of rationality-based beliefs, command-compliance theory, and social exchange theory, we propose a research model of compliance during interaction with social robots, examining beliefs about and overall assessments of the consequences of complying with robot requests and extending the findings of previous studies to the setting of healthcare services. We specifically investigate the perceived level of politeness in robots' speech and gestures as a determinant of compliance intention. Using a social robot, NAO, as a provider of healthcare services, we conducted an experiment. The results suggest that the aforementioned theories are useful in understanding user behaviors toward social robots in a healthcare service setting. Interestingly, and unlike in other settings, the perceived level of politeness of a social robot in a healthcare service setting negatively affects the perceived benefit of compliance, and, hence, intention to comply. A lower politeness level is closer to a command or strong recommendation than a suggestion or causal recommendation, which is common in shopping, tourism, or convention settings. The findings of this study imply that polite behavior from a social robot is an important factor in the compliance of healthcare service users. Direct speech with polite gestures is the most effective way to increase patient compliance in with healthcare advice provided by social robots in healthcare settings. However, higher levels of politeness do not always increase patients' intention to comply.
Keywords: Assistenztechnik, Befehle/eindringliche Empfehlung als Marker für Unhöflichkeit, Compliance, Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, human-robot interaction, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Interaktionspartner, Medizin, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), polite social interaction, Politeness, Politeness Theory, Realtechnik, Robotics, Serviceroboter, Social exchange theory, Social robot, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Robotik, Technik, Technikbezug -
(2017): A framework for designing socially assistive robot interactions. In: COGNITIVE SYSTEMS RESEARCH 43, S. 301-312. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2016.09.008
Abstract: Robots are increasingly tested in different socially assistive scenarios. Future applications range from dieting, coaching, tutoring to autism therapy. In such applications the success of the system is commonly evaluated by the ability to encourage the user to keep up with a task. Hence, one important requirement for supportive systems is to have an interactional motivational model that formalizes the way how users can be assisted. In this paper we describe our framework for coordinating motivational interaction scenarios with socially assistive robots (SAR) in the context of sport assistance. We exemplify three different sport scenarios where we have used the same motivational interaction model. Furthermore, we show how this model can be used to systematically test the different aspects of motivation in the context of SAR in sport domains. Therefore, we have conducted an experiment to evaluate the importance of acknowledgement from SAR for human interaction partners. The results show that users exercise longer if acknowledgment is included into the motivational model. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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(2017): Toward Socially Aware Robot Navigation in Dynamic and Crowded Environments. A Proactive Social Motion Model. In: IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 14 (4), S. 1743-1760. DOI: 10.1109/TASE.2017.2731371
Abstract: Safe and social navigation is the key to deploying a mobile service robot in a human-centered environment. Widespread acceptability of mobile service robots in daily life is hindered by robot's inability to navigate in crowded and dynamic human environments in a socially acceptable way that would guarantee human safety and comfort. In this paper, we propose an effective proactive social motion model (PSMM) that enables a mobile service robot to navigate safely and socially in crowded and dynamic environments. The proposed method considers not only human states (position, orientation, motion, field of view, and hand poses) relative to the robot but also social interactive information about human-object and human group interactions. This allows development of the PSMM that consists of elements of an extended social force model and a hybrid reciprocal velocity obstacle technique. The PSMM is then combined with a path planning technique to generate a motion planning system that drives a mobile robot in a socially acceptable manner and produces respectful and polite behaviors akin to human movements. Note to Practitioners-In this paper, we validated the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed proactive social motion model (PSMM) through both simulation and real-world experiments under the newly proposed human comfortable safety indices. To do that, we first implemented the entire navigation system using the open-source robot operating system. We then installed it in a simulated robot model and conducted experiments in a simulated shopping mall-like environment to verify its effectiveness. We also installed the proposed algorithm on our mobile robot platform and conducted experiments in our office-like laboratory environment. Our results show that the developed socially aware navigation framework allows a mobile robot to navigate safely, socially, and proactively while guaranteeing human safety and comfort in crowded and dynamic environments. In this paper, we examined the proposed PSMM with a set of predefined parameters selected based on our empirical experiences about the robot mechanism and selected social environment. However, in fact a mobile robot might need to adapt to various contextual and cultural situations in different social environments. Thus, it should be equipped with an online adaptive interactive learning mechanism allowing the robot to learn to auto-adjust their parameters according to such embedded environments. Using machine learning techniques, e.g., inverse reinforcement learning [1] to optimize the parameter set for the PSMM could be a promising research direction to improve adaptability of mobile service robots in different social environments. In the future, we will evaluate the proposed framework based on a wider variety of scenarios, particularly those with different social interaction situations and dynamic environments. Furthermore, various kinds of social cues and signals introduced in [2] and [3] will be applied to extend the proposed framework in more complicated social situations and contexts. Last but not least, we will investigate different machine learning techniques and incorporate them in the PSMM in order to allow the robot to automatically adapt to diverse social environments.
Keywords: Disziplin, Favoriten, Human comfortable safety, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), mobile service robots, Modelle/Theorien, proactive social motion model (PSMM), Realtechnik, Robotics, Serviceroboter, social field and polite, social robots, socially aware robot navigation, Soziale Robotik, Technik -
(2017): Design and Evaluation of a Unique Social Perception System for Human–Robot Interaction. In: IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 9 (4), S. 341-355. DOI: 10.1109/TCDS.2016.2598423
Abstract: Robot's perception is essential for performing high-level tasks such as understanding, learning, and in general, human-robot interaction (HRI). For this reason, different perception systems have been proposed for different robotic platforms in order to detect high-level features such as facial expressions and body gestures. However, due to the variety of robotics software architectures and hardware platforms, these highly customized solutions are hardly interchangeable and adaptable to different HRI contexts. In addition, most of the developed systems have one issue in common: they detect features without awareness of the real-world contexts (e.g., detection of environmental sound assuming that it belongs to a person who is speaking, or treating a face printed on a sheet of paper as belonging to a real subject). This paper presents a novel social perception system (SPS) that has been designed to address the previous issues. SPS is an out-ofthe- box system that can be integrated into different robotic platforms irrespective of hardware and software specifications. SPS detects, tracks, and delivers in real-time to robots, a wide range of human-and environment-relevant features with the awareness of their real-world contexts. We tested SPS in a typical scenario of HRI for the following purposes: to demonstrate the system capability in detecting several high-level perceptual features as well as to test the system capability to be integrated into different robotics platforms. Results show the promising capability of the system in perceiving real world in different social robotics platforms, as tested in two humanoid robots, i.e., FACE and ZENO.
Keywords: Design, Disziplin, Fähigkeit, das Gesicht eines Menschen von einem Poster im Hintergrund zu unterscheiden, Fähigkeit, Hintergrundgeräusche von einer Stimme zu unterscheiden, Fähigkeit, menschliche Anwesenheit zu erkennen, Fähigkeit, Relevantes von Irrelevantem zu unterscheiden, Favoriten, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Intelligenz, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Realtechnik, Social Perception System (SPS), Sozial Intelligente Agenten, Soziale Robotik, Soziosensitive Systeme, Technik, Technische Modelle/Frameworks/Algorithmen 2016
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(2016): Norm-based mechanism design. In: Artificial Intelligence 239, S. 97-142. DOI: 10.1016/j.artint.2016.07.001
Abstract: The increasing presence of autonomous (software) systems in open environments in general, and the complex interactions taking place among them in particular, require flexible control and coordination mechanisms to guarantee desirable overall system level properties without limiting the autonomy of the involved systems. In artificial intelligence, and in particular in the multi-agent systems research field, social laws, norms, and sanctions have been widely proposed as flexible means for coordinating the behaviour of autonomous agents in multi-agent settings. Recently, many languages have been proposed to specify and implement norm-based environments where the behaviour of autonomous agents is monitored, evaluated based on norms, and possibly sanctioned if norms are violated. In this paper, we first introduce a formal setting of multi-agent environments based on concurrent game structures which abstracts from concrete specification languages. We extend this formal setting with norms and sanctions, and show how concepts from mechanism design can be used to formally analyse and verify whether a specific behaviour can be enforced (or implemented) if agents follow their subjective preferences. We relate concepts from mechanism design to our setting, where agents' preferences are modelled by linear time temporal logic (LTL) formulae. This proposal bridges the gap between norms and mechanism design allowing us to formally study and analyse the effect of norms and sanctions on the behaviour of rational agents. The proposed machinery can be used to check whether specific norms and sanctions have the designer's expected effect on the rational agents' behaviour or if a set of norms and sanctions that realise the effect exists at all. We investigate the computational complexity of our framework, focusing on its implementation in Nash equilibria and we show that it is located at the second and third level of the polynomial hierarchy. Despite this high complexity, on the positive side, these results are in line with existing complexity results of related problems. Finally, we propose a concrete executable specification language that can be used to implement multi agent environments. We show that the proposed specification language generates specific concurrent game structures and that the abstract multi-agent environment setting can be applied to study and analyse the behaviour of multi-agent programs with and without norms.
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(2016): Making New “New AI” Friends. Designing a Social Robot for Diabetic Children from an Embodied AI Perspective. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 8 (4), S. 523-537. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-016-0364-9
Abstract: Robin is a cognitively and motivationally autonomous affective robot toddler with "robot diabetes" that we have developed to support perceived self-efficacy and emotional wellbeing in children with diabetes. Robin provides children with positive mastery experiences of diabetes management in a playful but realistic and natural interaction context. Underlying the design of Robin is an "Embodied" (formerly also known as "New") Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach to robotics. In this paper we discuss the rationale behind the design of Robin to meet the needs of our intended end users (both children and medical staff), and how "New AI" provides a suitable approach to developing a friendly companion that fulfills the therapeutic and affective requirements of our end users beyond other approaches commonly used in assistive robotics and child-robot interaction. Finally, we discuss how our approach permitted our robot to interact with and provide suitable experiences of diabetes management to children with very different social interaction styles.
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(2016): Telepresence Mechatronic Robot (TEBoT). Towards the design and control of socially interactive bio-inspired system. In: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems 31 (5), S. 2597-2610. DOI: 10.3233/JIFS-169100
Abstract: Socially interactive systems are embodied agents that engage in social interactions with humans. From a design perspective, these systems are built by considering a biologically inspired design (Bio-inspired) that can mimic and simulate human-like communication cues and gestures. The design of a bio-inspired system usually consists of (i) studying biological characteristics, (ii) designing a similar biological robot, and (iii) motion planning, that can mimic the biological counterpart. In this article, we present a design, development, control-strategy and verification of our socially interactive bio-inspired robot, namely - Telepresence Mechatronic Robot (TEBoT). The key contribution of our work is an embodiment of a real human-neck movements by, i) designing a mechatronic platform based on the dynamics of a real human neck and ii) capturing the real head movements through our novel single-camera based vision algorithm. Our socially interactive bio-inspired system is based on an intuitive integration-design strategy that combines computer vision based geometric head pose estimation algorithm, model based design (MBD) approach and real-time motion planning techniques. We have conducted an extensive testing to demonstrate effectiveness and robustness of our proposed system.
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(2016): Socializing robots. Constructing robotic sociality in the design and use of the assistive robot PARO. In: AI & Society 31 (4), S. 537-551. DOI: 10.1007/s00146-015-0636-1
Abstract: The goal of introducing robots into everyday use has led to their reconceptualization as social technologies, for which interacting with people is a fundamental and necessary function. Robot sociality in this context is generally defined as a set of individual properties of the artifact, such as a human-like appearance or the ability to read social cues. In this paper, we propose an alternative view of robot sociality as an emergent relational property of the interactions between the robot and its social context, actively constructed by designers, users, and other actors affected by robots. We illustrate this perspective through the example of the robot PARO, a commercial social robot commonly used in eldercare, which we analyzed in a series of observational studies of the social processes of its design in the laboratory and its use in an eldercare facility. Our analysis shows how the robot as a social technology is constructed through the actions and sense making of various actors and the situated dynamics of interaction in particular institutional contexts. We first describe the social factors and rationale that influenced PARO's design in the laboratory, and then discuss how the robot is scaffolded by users in a nursing home in the midwestern United States. Our studies go beyond the typical focus on one-on-one interaction between people and robots as the unit of analysis of human-robot interaction, to incorporate the broader social context as a necessary component of the successful design and implementation of social robots in society.
Keywords: Design, Disziplin, Favoriten, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Interaktionspartner, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Realtechnik, robot sociality depending on the robots social context, Serviceroboter, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Robotik, Technik, Wahrnehmung des Roboters im gesamten sozialen Umfeld -
(2016): Design and Evaluation of a Touch-Centered Calming Interaction with a Social Robot. In: IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing 7 (2), S. 108-121. DOI: 10.1109/TAFFC.2015.2457893
Abstract: With advances in sensor and actuator design, intelligent computing techniques and personal care robotics, today's robots hold promise as fully interactive, therapeutic human companions. To achieve this ambitious goal, key interaction components must be identified and then systematically designed and evaluated. Based on successes of human-animal therapy, we propose affective touch as one such component. Delivering this adjunct in a controllable robot form allows us to examine its efficacy for therapeutic applications such as anxiety management. With an approach grounded in social cognitive theories for human-animal relations, we deployed a social robot, the Haptic Creature, in an interaction designed to be calming: participants held the robot on their laps and stroked it as it was breathing. As a result, their heart and respiration rates significantly decreased relative to stroking a non-breathing robot. They also reported themselves as calmer and happier.
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(2016): Service robots. System design for tracking people through data fusion and initiating interaction with the human group by inferring social situations. In: Robotics and Autonomous Systems 83, S. 188-202. DOI: 10.1016/j.robot.2016.05.004
Abstract: In a situation where a robot initiates conversation with a group of people, questions such as "where is the people group?" and "whether the robot should approach them?" should be addressed. This paper develops a new system that enables a robot to determine whether or not it should approach the aforementioned human group and interact with them after identifying what the current social situation is. The system is mainly to fuse depth-related data to track the positions of a group of people, extract social cues of those people by using depth-related data and a decision network (DN) model, and the main challenge lies in understanding the social cues of the group and the current underlying social situation concerning the relation between the robot and the group. The social cues are based on Proxemics and F-formations, whereas the social situations are categorized as individual-to-individual, individual-to-robot, robot-to-individual, group-to-robot, robot-to-group, confidential discussion and group discussion. Our system proceeds as follows : once a group of people are detected and the social cues of that target group of people are extracted, the corresponding social situation is appropriately inferred, and in turn the robot decides whether it should initiate conversation with the group based on rules to be specified later. The conducted experimental results demonstrate the properness of the system design and the efficacy of the proposed method in recognizing the social cues among individuals of the group as well as the nature of the social situations concerning the group and the robot.
Keywords: Design, Disziplin, Favoriten, F-Formationen, HMI depending on social cues, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Proxemik, Realtechnik, Serviceroboter, Sozial Intelligente Agenten, Soziale Robotik, Status / biologische Marker, Technik 2015
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(2015): Deconstructing Ethnography. Towards a Social Methodology for Ubiquitous Computing and Interactive Systems Design. Cham: Springer (Human-Computer Interaction Series). Online verfügbar unter http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=1081941
DOI: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=1081941 Abstract: In Deconstructing Ethnography the authors show how ‘new’ calls are returning systems design to ‘old’ and problematic ways of understanding the social. They argue that systems design can be appropriately grounded in the social through the ordinary methods that members use to order their actions and interactions. This work is written for post-graduate students and researchers alike, as well as design practitioners who have an interest in bringing the social to bear on design in a systematic rather than a piecemeal way. This is not a ‘how to’ book, but instead elaborates the foundations upon which the social can be systematically built into the design of ubiquitous and interactive systems
Keywords: Application software, Computer Science, Design, Design Thinking, Design(theorie), Design-Prozess, Disziplin, Ethnomethodologie, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Intellektualtechnik, Koordination, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Realtechnik, social sciences, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziologie, Soziosensitive Systeme, Technik, User interfaces (Computer systems), Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten, Wissenschaftskritik -
(2015): Design Patterns to Enhance Accessibility and Use of Social Applications for Older Adults. In: Comunicar 23 (45), S. 85-94. DOI: 10.3916/C45-2015-09
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present a non-exhaustive set of 36 design patterns for interactive social applications used by older adults. This proposal represents a reliable starting point for designers/developers to easily incorporate usability in interfaces for said technology promoting technology acceptance, use and adoption among older adults. The proposed patterns were based on previous efforts commonly presented as a design criteria and guidelines to describe usability issues in this kind of interfaces, reinforcing those alternatives by specifying related usability issues and providing solutions in a pattern-fashion useful for designers/developers. Pertinence of the patterns was analyzed through a usability study implementing "heuristic evaluation" technique (frequently used in Human-Computer Interaction to obtain users' perception on a particular design). The study was conducted from two perspectives: the vantage point from experts, and the perception of a social group of older adults. The analysis revealed the proposed patterns are conducive to create well-designed interfaces able to provide a better user experience, encouraging a positive impact in the quality of life in older adults.
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(2015): Designing Robot Embodiments for Social Interaction. Affordances Topple Realism and Aesthetics. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 7 (5), S. 697-708. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-015-0301-3
Abstract: In the near future, human-like social robots will become indispensable for providing support in various social tasks, in particular for healthcare (e.g., assistance, coaching). The perception of realism, in particular human-like features, can help facilitate mediated social interaction. The current study investigated the effects of form realism on engagement with and use intentions of social robot embodiments. We have defined (perceived) form realism as the result of the appraisal of features that are perceived as realistic contrasted with those appraised as unrealistic. To test the effects of form realism, we applied the model of interactively perceiving and experiencing fictional characters (I-PEFiC). I-PEFiC explains how users respond to interactive, fictional, humanoid characters, on social robots. In a within-subjects design, participants (N = 29; M-age = 28.8 years, age range 18-56 years) interacted with three different robots built from LEGO Mindstorms, which differed in their degree of designed form realism. Each robot presented itself as a physiotherapy assistant and requested the participant to do several exercises. Results of a structured questionnaire indicated that form realism only played a modest role in the perception of electro-mechanical robots. Instead, the perception of affordances appeared to be crucial for determining engagement and intentions to use social robots.
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(2015): Digital design and social interfaces. A study of the Twitter interface. In: REVISTA MEDIACAO 17 (21)
Abstract: The objective of this study was to identify and characterize a specific type of digital interface, i.e., social interfaces. To this end, we started from a theoretical framework that seeks to place social interfaces as a digital interface subtype, characterized by its proximity to concepts like computer-mediated interaction, Internet-based social networking sites, and social networking sites. After defining and identifying the types and elements of social interfaces, a qualitative exploratory study of transformations over the Twitter social networking site over time was carried out. The results show changes over time in the tool's interface, seeking to meet the different needs of the user's social interaction when using Twitter.
2014
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(2014): Social behaviours in dog-owner interactions can serve as a model for designing social robots. In: Interaction Studies 15 (2), S. 143-172. DOI: 10.1075/is.15.2.01far
Abstract: It is essential for social robots to fit in the human society. In order to facilitate this process we propose to use the family dog's social behaviour shown towards humans as an inspiration. In this study we explored dogs' low level social monitoring in dog-human interactions and extracted individually consistent and context dependent behaviours in simple everyday social scenarios. We found that proximity seeking and tail wagging were most individually distinctive in dogs, while activity, orientation towards the owner, and exploration were dependent on the context and/or the activity of the owner. The functional analogues of these dog behaviours can be implemented in social robots of different embodiments in order to make them acceptable and more believable for humans. The paper presents an ethological perspective on designing robot behaviors for successful social interactions with humans. In particular, the types of behaviors that occur in interactions between dogs and their owners are analyzed to provide insights into how robot behaviors should be created. It is essential for social robots to fit in the human society. In order to facilitate this process we propose to use the family dog's social behaviour shown towards humans as an inspiration. In this study we explored dogs' low level social monitoring in dog-human interactions and extracted individually consistent and context dependent behaviours in simple everyday social scenarios. We found that proximity seeking and tail wagging were most individually distinctive in dogs, while activity, orientation towards the owner, and exploration were dependent on the context and/or the activity of the owner. The functional analogues of these dog behaviours can be implemented in social robots of different embodiments in order to make them acceptable and more believable for humans.
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(2014): A review of norms and normative multiagent systems. In: TheScientificWorldJournal. DOI: 10.1155/2014/684587
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25110739 Abstract: Norms and normative multiagent systems have become the subjects of interest for many researchers. Such interest is caused by the need for agents to exploit the norms in enhancing their performance in a community. The term norm is used to characterize the behaviours of community members. The concept of normative multiagent systems is used to facilitate collaboration and coordination among social groups of agents. Many researches have been conducted on norms that investigate the fundamental concepts, definitions, classification, and types of norms and normative multiagent systems including normative architectures and normative processes. However, very few researches have been found to comprehensively study and analyze the literature in advancing the current state of norms and normative multiagent systems. Consequently, this paper attempts to present the current state of research on norms and normative multiagent systems and propose a norm's life cycle model based on the review of the literature. Subsequently, this paper highlights the significant areas for future work.
Keywords: Design, Disziplin, Favoriten, Humans, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Künstliche Intelligenz, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Models, Theoretical, Multi-Agenten-Systeme, norm-based meachanism design, Normen, Normenwandel, Realtechnik, Social Norms, Soziale Angemessenheit, Technik -
(2014): Designing and Evaluating a Social Gaze-Control System for a Humanoid Robot. In: IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems 44 (2), S. 157-168. DOI: 10.1109/THMS.2014.2303083
Abstract: This paper describes a context-dependent social gaze-control system implemented as part of a humanoid social robot. The system enables the robot to direct its gaze at multiple humans who are interacting with each other and with the robot. The attention mechanism of the gaze-control system is based on features that have been proven to guide human attention: nonverbal and verbal cues, proxemics, the visual field of view, and the habituation effect. Our gaze-control system uses Kinect skeleton tracking together with speech recognition and SHORE-based facial expression recognition to implement the same features. As part of a pilot evaluation, we collected the gaze behavior of 11 participants in an eye-tracking study. We showed participants videos of two-person interactions and tracked their gaze behavior. A comparison of the human gaze behavior with the behavior of our gaze-control system running on the same videos shows that it replicated human gaze behavior 89% of the time.
2013
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(2013): Do You Mind if I Plug-in My Car?. How etiquette shapes PEV drivers’ vehicle charging behavior. In: Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 54, S. 155-163. DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2013.07.016
Abstract: Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) engage drivers in an essential new behavior plugging the car into the electrical grid to charge the vehicles' batteries. Broadly, it has been assumed that (1) away-from-home charging is necessary to grow the PEV market and (2) if away-from-home charging infrastructure is in place and PEV drivers know of it, they will perceive opportunities to charge. The experiences of early PEV drivers cause us to rethink at least the second of these assumptions. Drivers report a lack of what they call "etiquette," i.e., rules to guide their behavior and their expectations of how they and other PEV drivers ought to behave in these new social interactions. PEV drivers want widely shared, understood, and practiced guidelines to feel comfortable and confident in charging their vehicles away from home. This study uses inductive thematic analysis of transcripts of interviews of 28 PEV driving households conducted in San Diego County, California in spring, 2012. Themes about etiquette emerged within two types of away from home charging. First, public chargers (available to any PEV driver) were the sites of situations in which drivers' perceived a lack of rules or conflicts between different systems of rules; both were described as inhibiting use of public chargers. Second, workplace charging (typically available only to employees of the entity where the charger is located) adds an additional layer of rules and possibly resources that may either inhibit or encourage PEV charging by employees. As PEV markets and charger networks grow, charging will be shaped by additional systems of rules and regulations, e.g., those governing financial transactions. Our results suggest that absent efforts to help PEV drivers develop, learn, and practice the new rules, they may create as much uncertainty as guidance. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Disziplin, Einfluss auf Handlungen, Elektroauto, Elektromobilität, Etikette, etiquette guide, Für spezifische Situationen festgelegte Verhaltensregeln, Grad der Verbreitetheit und Umsetzung von Verhaltensregeln innerhalb einer Akteursgruppe, GUIDELINES, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Mensch-Technische Systeme, Reflexionen über MTR, Situationsbedingter Kontext, Soziale Angemessenheit, Technikakzeptanzforschung, Technikfolgenabschätzung, technische Infrastruktur, Vereinbarkeit bzw. Kollision verschiedener Regelsysteme, Verhalten -
(2013): Design of social agents. In: Neurocomputing 114, S. 92-97. DOI: 10.1016/j.neucom.2012.06.046
Abstract: Social behavior, as compared to the egoistic behavior, is known to be more beneficial to groups of subjects and even to individual members of a group. For this reason, social norms naturally emerge as a product of evolution in human and animal populations. The benefit of the social behavior makes it also an interesting subject in the field of artificial agents. Social interactions implemented in computer agents can improve their personal and group performance. In this study we formulate design principles of social agents and use them to create social computer agents. To construct social agents we take two approaches. First, we construct a social computer agent based on our understanding of social behavior. Second, we use an evolutionary approach to create a social agent. The social agents are shown to outperform agents that do not utilize social behavior.
Keywords: Constructing social computer based on social behaviour, Design, Disziplin, Ethologie (Verhaltensforschung), Favoriten, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Kooperation, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Realtechnik, Sozial Intelligente Agenten, Soziale Robotik, Technik, Volltreffer, Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten -
(2013): Automated Proxemic Feature Extraction and Behavior Recognition. Applications in Human-Robot Interaction. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 5 (3), S. 367-378. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-013-0189-8
Abstract: Abstract In this work, we discuss a set of feature representations for analyzing human spatial behavior (proxemics) motivated by metrics used in the social sciences. Specifically, we consider individual, physical, and psychophysical factors that contribute to social spacing. We demonstrate the feasibility of autonomous real-time annotation of these proxemic features during a social interaction between two people and a humanoid robot in the presence of a visual obstruction (a physical barrier). We then use two different feature representations-physical and psychophysical-to train Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to recognize spatiotemporal behaviors that signify transitions into (initiation) and out of (termination) a social interaction. We demonstrate that the HMMs trained on psychophysical features, which encode the sensory experience of each interacting agent, outperform those trained on physical features, which only encode spatial relationships. These results suggest a more powerful representation of proxemic behavior with particular implications in autonomous socially interactive and socially assistive robotics.
Keywords: Assistenztechnik, doppelter Treffer, Favoriten, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Interaktion, Interaktionsaustritt, Interaktionseintritt, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Proxemik, Realtechnik, Soziale Robotik, Sozialer Raum / Kultureller Kontext, sozialintervenierende Agenten, Soziosensitive Systeme, Status / biologische Marker, Technik, termination of social interaction -
(2013): Design of a Parametric Model of Personal Space for Robotic Social Navigation. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 5 (3), S. 357-365. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-013-0188-9
Abstract: The design of socially acceptable behaviours is becoming one major issue for the development of robots that are able to interact with humans in unconstrained environments. In particular, social behaviours such as gazing, mutual positioning or gesturing allow robots to initiate and maintain an information exchange with humans. This paper focuses on (1) the study of mutual positioning between a small humanoid robot and a person through two psychometric experiments and (2) the design of a parametric model of the personal space based on the results of the two experiments. Results suggest that human-human interpersonal distances are shorter than human-robot interpersonal distances during a communication exchange, at least for the small humanoid robot used in our experiments. We also found that participants evaluate different directions of approach in a significantly different way.
Keywords: Design, Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Favoriten, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Interaktionspartner, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Physische Größe eines Roboters (im Vergleich zum Menschen), Proxemik, Realtechnik, Serviceroboter, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Robotik, Technik, Volltreffer 2012
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(2012): Effects of etiquette strategy on human–robot interaction in a simulated medicine delivery task. In: Intelligent Service Robotics 5 (3), S. 199-210. DOI: 10.1007/s11370-012-0113-3
Abstract: The objective of this study was to examine the extent to which a model of linguistic etiquette in human–human interaction could be applied to human–robot interaction (HRI) domain, and how different etiquette strategies proposed through the model might influence performance of humans and robots as mediated by manipulations of robot physical features, in a simulated medicine delivery task. A “wizard of Oz” experiment was conducted in which either a humanoid robot or a mechanical-looking robot was used to present medicine reminding utterances (following different etiquette strategies) to participants, who were engaged in a primary cognitive task (a Sudoku puzzle). Results revealed the etiquette model to partially extend to the HRI domain. Participants were not sensitive to positive language from robots (e.g., appreciation of human values/wants) and such a strategy did not succeed in supporting or enhancing the “positive face” of human users. Both “bald” (no linguistic courtesy) and mixed strategies (positive and “negative face” (minimizing user imposition) saving) resulted in moderate user perceived etiquette scores (PE). However, individual differences suggested such robot linguistic strategies should be applied with caution. Opposite to this, a negative face saving strategy (supporting user freedom of choice) promoted user task and robot performance (in terms of user response time to robot requests), and resulted in the highest PE score. There was also evidence that humanoid robot features provide additional social cues that may be used by patients and support human and robot performance, but not PE. These results provide a basis for determining appropriate etiquette strategies and robot appearance to promote better collaborative task performances for future health care delivery applications of service robots.
Keywords: Anerkennung von Werten/Bedürfnissen, appropriate social interaction, Disziplin, doppelter Treffer, Etikette, Face, Face-Saving, Favoriten, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Human-robot etiquette, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Interaktionspartner, Linguistik, Medicine delivery, Medizin, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Mensch-Technische Systeme, Negative face saving, Patient compliance, Patient-robot interaction, Realtechnik, Serviceroboter, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Robotik, Technik, Technikbezug, Volltreffer, Wahlfreiheit (eines Nutzers/Interaktionspartners), Wertendes Sprachverhalten