Gabriele Trovato

Cross-cultural study on human-robot greeting interaction : acceptance and discomfort by Egyptians and Japanese

Abstract As witnessed in several behavioural studies, a complex relationship exists between people’s cultural background and their general acceptance towards robots. However, very few studies have investigated whether a robot’s original language and gesture based on certain culture have an impact on the people of the different cultures. The purpose of this work is to provide experimental evidence which supports the idea that humans may accept more easily a robot that can adapt to their specific culture. Indeed, improving acceptance and reducing discomfort is fundamental for future deployment of robots as assistive, health-care or companion devices into a society. We conducted a Human- Robot Interaction experiment both in Egypt and in Japan. Human subjects were engaged in a simulated video conference with robots that were greeting and speaking either in Arabic or in Japanese. The subjects completed a questionnaire assessing their preferences and their emotional state, while their spontaneous reactions were recorded in different ways. The results suggest that Egyptians prefer the Arabic robot, while they feel a sense of discomfort when interacting with the Japanese robot; the opposite is also true for the Japanese. These findings confirm the importance of the localisation of a robot in order to improve human acceptance during social human-robot interaction.

A cross-cultural study on generation of culture dependent facial expressions of humanoid social robot

Communication between humans and robots is a very critical step for the integration of social robots into society. Emotion expression through a robotic face is one of the key points of communication. Despite the most recent efforts, no matter how much expression capabilities improve, facial expression recognition is often hampered by a cultural divide between subjects that participate in surveys. The purpose of this work is to take advantage of the 24 degrees of freedom head of the humanoid social robot KOBIAN-R for making it capable of displaying different versions of the same expressions, using face and neck, in a way that they are easy to understand for Japanese and for Western subjects. We present a system based on relevant studies of human communication and facial anatomy, as well as on the work of illustrators and cartoonists. The expression generator we developed can be adapted to specific cultures. Results confirmed the in-group advantage, showing that the recognition rate of this system is higher when the nationality of the subjects and the cultural characterisation of the shown expressions are coincident. We conclude that this system could be used, in future, on robots that have to interact in a social environment, with people with different cultural background.

Generation of humanoid robot's facial expressions for context-aware communication

Communication between humans and robots is a very important aspect in the field of Humanoid Robotics. For a natural interaction, robots capable of nonverbal communication must be developed. However, despite the most recent efforts, robots still can show only limited expression capabilities. The purpose of this work is to create a facial expression generator that can be applied to the 24 DoF head of the humanoid robot KOBIAN-R. In this manuscript, we present a system that based on relevant studies of human communication and facial anatomy can produce thousands of combinations of facial and neck movements. The wide range of expressions covers not only primary emotions, but also complex or blended ones, as well as communication acts that are not strictly categorized as emotions. Results showed that the recognition rate of expressions produced by this system is comparable to the rate of recognition of the most common facial expressions. Context-based recognition, which is especially important in case of more complex communication acts, was also evaluated. Results proved that produced robotic expressions can alter the meaning of a sentence in the same way as human expressions do. We conclude that our system can successfully improve the communication abilities of KOBIAN-R, making it capable of complex interaction in the future.

Development of a colon endoscope robot that adjusts its locomotion through the use of reinforcement learning

PurposeFibre optic colonoscopy is usually performed with manual introduction and advancement of the endoscope, but there is potential for a robot capable of locomoting autonomously from the rectum to the caecum. A prototype robot was designed and tested.MethodsThe robot colonic endoscope consists in a front body with clockwise helical fin and a rear body with anticlockwise one, both connected via a DC motor. Input voltage is adjusted automatically by the robot, through the use of reinforcement learning, determining speed and direction (forward or backward).ResultsExperiments were performed both in-vitro and in-vivo, showing the feasibility of the robot. The device is capable of moving in a slippery environment, and reinforcement learning algorithms such as Q-learning and SARSA can obtain better results than simply applying full tension to the robot.ConclusionsThis self-propelled robotic endoscope has potential as an alternative to current fibre optic colonoscopy examination methods, especially with the addition of new sensors under development.

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Emotion Expressive Humanoid Robotic Head: Recognition of Facial Expressions and Symbols

Emotion display through facial expressions is an important channel of communication. However, between humans there are differences in the way a meaning to facial cues is assigned, depending on the background culture. This leads to a gap in recognition rates of expressions: this problem is present when displaying a robotic face too, as a robot’s facial expression recognition is often hampered by a cultural divide, and poor scores of recognition rate may lead to poor acceptance and interaction. It would be desirable if robots could switch their output facial configuration flexibly, adapting to different cultural backgrounds. To achieve this, we made a generation system that produces facial expressions and applied it to the 24 degrees of freedom head of the humanoid social robot KOBIAN-R, and thanks to the work of illustrators and cartoonists, the system can generate two versions of the same expression, in order to be easily recognisable by both Japanese and Western subjects. As a tool for making recognition easier, the display of Japanese comic symbols on the robotic face has also been introduced and evaluated. In this work, we conducted a cross-cultural study aimed at assessing this gap in recognition and finding solutions for it. The investigation was extended to Egyptian subjects too, as a sample of another different culture. Results confirmed the differences in recognition rates, the effectiveness of customising expressions, and the usefulness of symbols display, thereby suggesting that this approach might be valuable for robots that in the future will interact in a multi-cultural environment.

Development of facial expressions generator for emotion expressive humanoid robot

Human-robot communication is a very important aspect in the field of Humanoid Robotics. Non-verbal communication is one of the components that make interaction natural. However, despite the most recent efforts, robots still can show only limited expression capabilities. The purpose of this work is to create a facial expression generator that can be applied to the new 24 DoF head of the humanoid robot KOBIAN-R. In this paper, we present a system based on relevant studies of human communication and facial anatomy, adapted to the specific robotic face. It makes use of polynomial classifiers and is able to produce over 600 thousands of facial cues combinations, together with appropriate neck movement. Results showed that the recognition rate of expressions produced by this system is comparable to the rate of recognition of the most common facial expressions. We conclude that our system can successfully improve the communication capabilities of the robot KOBIAN-R, and that there is potential for using it to implement more complex interaction.

Investigating the Effect of Relative Cultural Distance on the Acceptance of Robots

A complex relationship exists between people’s cultural background and their general acceptance towards robots. Previous studies supported the idea that humans may accept more easily a robot that can adapt to their specific culture. However, it is not clear whether between two robots which are identified as foreign robots because of their verbal and non-verbal expressions, the one that is culturally closer may be preferred or not. In this experiment, participants of Dutch nationality were engaged in a simulated video conference with a robot that is greeting and speaking either in German or in Japanese; they completed a questionnaire assessing their preferences and their emotional state. As Dutch participant showed less signs of discomfort and better acceptance when interacting with a German robot, the hypothesis that acceptance of a robot could be directly proportional to cultural closeness was supported, while the hypothesis that similar foreign robots are equally less accepted regardless of the countrywas rejected. Implications are discussed for how robots should be designed to be employed in different countries.

Towards culture-specific robot customisation: A study on greeting interaction with Egyptians

A complex relationship exists between national cultural background and interaction with robots, and many earlier studies have investigated how people from different cultures perceive the inclusion of robots into society. Conversely, very few studies have investigated how robots, speaking and using gestures that belong to a certain national culture, are perceived by humans of different cultural background. The purpose of this work is to prove that humans may better accept a robot that can adapt to their specific national culture. This experiment of Human-Robot Interaction was performed in Egypt. Participants (native Egyptians versus Japanese living in Egypt) were shown two robots greeting them and speaking respectively in Arabic and Japanese, through a simulated video conference. Spontaneous reactions of the human subjects were measured in different ways, and participants completed a questionnaire assessing their preferences and their emotional state. Results suggested that Egyptians prefer the Arabic version of the robot, while they report discomfort when interacting with the Japanese version. These findings confirm the importance of a culture-specific customisation of robots in the context of Human-Robot Interaction.

Emotional affordances for human-robot interaction

This paper provides a new concept for the improvement of human–robot interaction (HRI) models: ‘emotional affordances’. Emotional affordances are all the mechanisms that have emotional content as a way to transmit and/or collect emotional meaning about any context; it can include bodily expressions, social norms, values-laden objects or extended space, among others. With this rich concept, we open the way to new ways to understand the multimodal and complex nature of emotional mechanisms. Based on the grounded emotional mechanisms of human cognition and behaviour (that is, based and result of the bodily structure and its coupled relationship with the natural and/or social environment), the purpose of this paper is focused on the definition of a framework for the design of a taxonomy of emotional affordances, useful for a modal and improved understanding of the domains of emotional interactions that can emerge between humans and robots. This process will make possible in next research steps to define processing modules as well as to elicit visual display outputs (expressing emotions). Consequently, with this project we provide robotic experts with a unified taxonomy of human emotional affordances, useful for the improvement of HRI projects.

A receptionist robot for Brazilian people: study on interaction involving illiterates

Abstract The receptionist job, consisting in providing useful indications to visitors in a public office, is one possible employment of social robots. The design and the behaviour of robots expected to be integrated in human societies are crucial issues, and they are dependent on the culture and society in which the robot should be deployed. We study the factors that could be used in the design of a receptionist robot in Brazil, a country with a mix of races and considerable gaps in economic and educational level. This inequality results in the presence of functional illiterate people, unable to use reading, writing and numeracy skills. We invited Brazilian people, including a group of functionally illiterate subjects, to interact with two types of receptionists differing in physical appearance (agent v mechanical robot) and in the sound of the voice (human like v mechanical). Results gathered during the interactions point out a preference for the agent, for the human-like voice and a more intense reaction to stimuli by illiterates. These results provide useful indications that should be considered when designing a receptionist robot, as well as insights on the effect of illiteracy in the interaction.