Alle Publikationen
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2019
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(2019): A Personalized and Platform-Independent Behavior Control System for Social Robots in Therapy: Development and Applications. In: IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 11 (3), S. 334-346. DOI: 10.1109/TCDS.2018.2795343
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TCDS.2018.2795343 Abstract: Social robots have been proven beneficial in different types of healthcare interventions. An ongoing trend is to develop (semi-)autonomous socially assistive robotic systems in healthcare context to improve the level of autonomy and reduce human workload. This paper presents a behavior control system for social robots in therapies with a focus on personalization and platform-independence. This system architecture provides the robot an ability to behave as a personable character, which behaviors are adapted to user profiles and responses during the human-robot interaction. Robot behaviors are designed at abstract levels and can be transferred to different social robot platforms. We adopt the component-based software engineering approach to implement our proposed architecture to allow for the replaceability and reusability of the developed components. We introduce three different experimental scenarios to validate the usability of our system. Results show that the system is potentially applicable to different therapies and social robots. With the component-based approach, the system can serve as a basic framework for researchers to customize and expand the system for their targeted healthcare applications.
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(2019) : Equipping social robots with culturally-sensitive facial expressions of emotion using data-driven methods: 2019 14th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition (FG 2019): 2019 14th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition (FG 2019): Lille. France: IEEE, S. 1-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/FG.2019.8756570 Abstract: Social robots must be able to generate realistic and recognizable facial expressions to engage their human users. Many social robots are equipped with standardized facial expressions of emotion that are widely considered to be universally recognized across all cultures. However, mounting evidence shows that these facial expressions are not universally recognized - for example, they elicit significantly lower recognition accuracy in East Asian cultures than they do in Western cultures. Therefore, without culturally sensitive facial expressions, state-of-the-art social robots are restricted in their ability to engage a culturally diverse range of human users, which in turn limits their global marketability. To develop culturally sensitive facial expressions, novel data-driven methods are used to model the dynamic face movement patterns that convey basic emotions (e.g., happy, sad, anger) in a given culture using cultural perception. Here, we tested whether such dynamic facial expression models, derived in an East Asian culture and transferred to a popular social robot, improved the social signalling generation capabilities of the social robot with East Asian participants. Results showed that, compared to the social robot's existing set of facial `universal' expressions, the culturally-sensitive facial expression models are recognized with generally higher accuracy and judged as more human-like by East Asian participants. We also detail the specific dynamic face movements (Action Units) that are associated with high recognition accuracy and judgments of human-likeness, including those that further boost performance. Our results therefore demonstrate the utility of using data-driven methods that employ human cultural perception to derive culturally-sensitive facial expressions that improve the social face signal generation capabilities of social robots. We anticipate that these methods will continue to inform the design of social robots and broaden their usability and global marketability.
2018
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(2018) : Combining Social Robotics and Music as a Non-Medical Treatment for People with Dementia: 2018 27th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN): Nanjing, China: IEEE Robotics & Automation Society, S. 465-467
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2018.8525813 Abstract: Today, around 260.000 people in the Netherlands are diagnosed with dementia. This paper provides a first design and evaluation of a social robot that provides the music which supports positive self-disclosures of personal memories. Based on the situated cognitive engineering methodology, we developed software for the Pepper robot which can let people with dementia (PwD) listen to their favorite music and we tested this robot in a care center with seven persons with dementia. The test focused on robot's usability and music's effect on the person listening. Three general claims were tested: The robot (1) is easy to use by the PwD, relatives and caregivers, (2) brings PwD in a more positive emotional state, and (3) stimulates PwD to recall memories and talk about their past. Our results show that the “music robot” for PwD often elicits very strong positive responses and that our observations are in line with the three claims. However, using a very human-like robot like Pepper does pose certain challenges as the PwD expect it to truly understand every word they say, which is not yet the case.
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(2018) : Towards playful learning and computational thinking — Developing the educational robot BRICKO: 2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC): 2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC): Princeton, United States: IEEE, S. 37-44
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECon.2018.8340502 Abstract: Educational Robotics has proven a feasible way of supporting and exemplifying Computational Thinking. With this paper, we describe the user-centered iterative and incremental development of a new educational robotic system, BRICKO, to support tangible, social and playful interaction while educating children in 1 st -3 rd grade in Computational Thinking. We develop the system through seven main iterations including a total of 108 participant pupils and their teachers. The methodology is a mixture of observation and interviews using Wizard of OZ testing with the early pilot prototypes as well as usability and user experience testing with the following incrementally improved digital prototypes. Our results for development and evaluation are presented for each iteration leading onto the next and describes the evolution of both the BRICKO driving robot as well as the BRICKO programming-board and its different categories of command-bricks. We discuss the methodologies used for assuring a playful and social educational robotic system and conclude that we achieved a useful prototype for supporting education in Computational Thinking.
2017
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(2017) : Feasibility of using sphero in rehabilitation of children with autism in social and communication skills: 2017 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN): Lisbon, Portugal: IEEE Robotics & Automation Society, S. 989-994
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICORR.2017.8009378 Abstract: The majority of children with autism face difficulties in social interaction and communication skills. Consequently, in this paper we present a pilot study in which we explored the usability of Sphero TM as a rehabilitation tool for developing social and communication skills. We designed an interactive scenario where children with autism should verbally control the robot and utter voice commands. Our observations show that the children were very interested to interact with the robot in the given framework. They showed surprising behaviors that are promising evidences of effectiveness of using Sphero in rehabilitation of social and communication deficits.
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(2017) : Speaking robots: The challenges of acceptance by the ageing society: 2017 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN): Lisbon, Portugal: IEEE Robotics & Automation Society, S. 1285-1290
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2017.8172470 Abstract: The ability of robots to dialogue with humans appears as one critical Human-Machine Interaction feature when it comes to transferring robots into society. This ability gains additional importance when it comes to elderly people, since they find it more comfortable and natural to interact using voice, due to possible natural physical impairments that hinder the usage of some of the interaction modalities (e.g. touch screens). Challenges like recognition accuracy, distant speech, the idiosyncrasies of elderly voices (fading, muffled pronunciation, etc.), the effects of surrounding environment noise or the expressiveness of the robot when speaking, become highly relevant in the acceptance and usability of service robots by the ageing population. In this paper, we present the results, challenges and solutions developed during a nine-month iterative evaluation process that took place within the GrowMeUp project, with focus on speech recognition and synthesis. The paper concludes with an identification of open scientific and technological problems, based on our interpretation of results, which we identify as critical for the acceptance and usability of robots by an ageing society.
2016
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(2016) : Interactive Q-learning for social robots that learn from the Wizard: A pilot study: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC): 2016 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC): Budapest, Hungary: IEEE, S. 003683-003687
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/SMC.2016.7844806 Abstract: This paper discusses interactive Q-learning as a method for learning appropriate robot behavior from the human teleoperator in order to increase the robot's autonomy in various human-robot interaction scenarios. We demonstrate the usability of our approach on a simulation of a simple task. The results show the feasibility of this method in different kinds of interactions. As a conclusion, we discuss the results and the next steps of the research.
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(2016) : Results of a real world trial with a mobile social service robot for older adults: 2016 11th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI): Christchurch, New Zealand: IEEE Press, S. 497-498
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/HRI.2016.7451824 Abstract: Robots are an increasingly discussed solution for assistance of seniors. Importance of testing natural interaction therefore becomes crucial. This paper presents first results of a study with an autonomous mobile social service robot prototype that was deployed in 18 private households of senior adults aged 75 years and older for a total of 371 days. Findings show that utility met the users' expectations. However, the robot was rather seen as a toy instead of being supportive for independent living. Furthermore, despite of an emergency function of the robot, perceived safety did not increase. Reasons for this might be the good health conditions of our users, a lack of technological robustness and slow performance of the prototype. However, users believed that a market ready version of the robot would be vital for supporting people who are more fragile and more socially isolated.
2013
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(2013) : Designing a socially assistive companion robotic wheel chair: RoboChair: 2013 6th IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (RAM): 2013 6th IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (RAM): Manila, Philippines: IEEE, S. 231-236
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/RAM.2013.6758589 Abstract: Developing socially assistive robots is an emerging interdisciplinary research area, which requires collaboration between a wide range of disciplines. Among recent research projects, there have been attempts to develop assistive robotic solutions to solve various health and social issues. In most current research attempts to design socially assistive robots, the focus is on designing new robotic agents that can interact with people by various means. Since people do not have much experience with robots, usually extensive field trials are conducted in order to assess the usability of these robots. However, determining the usability of these robotic agents is a difficult task, since the results of field trials are not always conclusive. In this paper, an attempt to overcome the difficulty of evaluating usability of assistive robots is presented. This paper presents the design of the first version of a companion robot called RoboChair. RoboChair is in the form of a wheel chair. But, functionally it is a socially assistive companion robot. The proposed robotic chair is a mobile robot that can carry a person. It is equipped with several measuring devices for taking clinical measurements mentioned above. In addition to that, it is equipped with several sensors for obstacle avoidance, map building, localization, detecting humans etc. It is also equipped with motor controllers and other actuators for motion control. The robot chair is capable of engaging users with interactive dialogs through a touch screen and by using human-robot interaction techniques. It has a scalable modular architecture so that adding new hardware and software modules is straightforward. The software framework is based on Robot Operating System (ROS) open source robotic middleware. RoboChair is controlled by a distributed controller that spans multiple hardware devices and multiple operating systems.
2010
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(2010) : “Does it work?” A framework to evaluate the effectiveness of a robotic toy for children with special needs: 19th International Symposium in Robot and Human Interactive Communication: Viareggio, Italy: IEEE, S. 100-106
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2010.5598734 Abstract: To evaluate the performance of a social robot, both the aspects of safety and technical efficiency as well as the effectiveness of the interaction with the robot from the users' points of view need to be considered. The work described in this paper derived from the IROMEC 1 project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that investigates the design and role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education contexts for children with special needs. The paper proposes a framework for the evaluation of robotic toys used as mediators for children with special needs and present its implementation with the specially designed IROMEC robot. Special attention is given to the interactions' effectiveness, considering the therapeutic and educational role that the robot can play for children with special needs in many different developmental areas.
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