Hagen Lehmann

Robots as social mediators for children with Autism - A preliminary analysis comparing two different robotic platforms

Robots can be very helpful therapeutic tools, especially for children with special needs. In the present paper we describe the application of two robotic platforms with different design parameters in interaction with children with autism and other cognitive impairments. IROMEC is a mobile robotic platform designed for children with different levels of disabilities to encourage them to be engaged in social interactions. KASPAR is a humanoid child-size robot designed for social interaction. KASPAR has been used extensively in studies with children with autism. The aim of this study is to examine how KASPAR and IROMEC can support social interaction and facilitate the cognitive and social development of children with special needs via play activities. Natural engagement in social play behaviour is often a problem in the development of children with disabilities. Due to the nature of their disabilities they are often excluded from such activities. As part of a long-term study we carried out different play scenarios based on imitation, turn taking and the cause and effect game according to the main educational and therapeutic objectives considered important for child development. In this paper we focus on the turn taking and the imitation game scenarios. A preliminary analysis of the data showed encouraging results. The level of the improvement of the children depended on the level and nature of their disabilities.

Robot-Mediated Interviews - How Effective Is a Humanoid Robot as a Tool for Interviewing Young Children?

Robots have been used in a variety of education, therapy or entertainment contexts. This paper introduces the novel application of using humanoid robots for robot-mediated interviews. An experimental study examines how children’s responses towards the humanoid robot KASPAR in an interview context differ in comparison to their interaction with a human in a similar setting. Twenty-one children aged between 7 and 9 took part in this study. Each child participated in two interviews, one with an adult and one with a humanoid robot. Measures include the behavioural coding of the children’s behaviour during the interviews and questionnaire data. The questions in these interviews focused on a special event that had recently taken place in the school. The results reveal that the children interacted with KASPAR very similar to how they interacted with a human interviewer. The quantitative behaviour analysis reveal that the most notable difference between the interviews with KASPAR and the human were the duration of the interviews, the eye gaze directed towards the different interviewers, and the response time of the interviewers. These results are discussed in light of future work towards developing KASPAR as an ‘interviewer’ for young children in application areas where a robot may have advantages over a human interviewer, e.g. in police, social services, or healthcare applications.

Tutor Spotter: Proposing a Feature Set and Evaluating It in a Robotic System

From learning by observation, robotic research has moved towards investigations of learning by interaction. This research is inspired by findings from developmental studies on human children and primates pointing to the fact that learning takes place in a social environment. Recently, driven by the idea that learning through observation or imitation is limited because the observed action not always reveals its meaning, scaffolding or bootstrapping processes supporting learning received increased attention. However, in order to take advantage of teaching strategies, a system needs to be sensitive to a tutor as children are. We therefore developed a module allowing for spotting the tutor by monitoring her or his gaze and detecting modifications in object presentation in form of a looming action. In this article, we will present the current state of the development of our contingency detection system as a set of features.

Using a Humanoid Robot to Elicit Body Awareness and Appropriate Physical Interaction in Children with Autism

In this article we describe a human–robot interaction study, focusing on tactile aspects of interaction, in which children with autism interacted with the child-like humanoid robot KASPAR. KASPAR was equipped with touch sensors in order to be able to distinguish gentle from harsh touch, and to respond accordingly. The study investigated a novel scenario for robot-assisted play, with the goal to increase body awareness of children with autism spectrum condition (hereafter ASC) by teaching them how to identify human body parts, and to promote a triadic relationship between the child, the robot and the experimenter. Data obtained from the video analysis of the experimental sessions showed that children treated KASPAR as an object of shared attention with the experimenter, and performed more gentle touches on the robot along the sessions. The children also learned to identify body parts. The study showed the potential that teaching children with autism about body parts and appropriate physical interaction using a humanoid robot has, and highlighted the issues of scenario development, data collection and data analysis that will inform future studies.

Assistive technology design and development for acceptable robotics companions for ageing years

Abstract A new stream of research and development responds to changes in life expectancy across the world. It includes technologies which enhance well-being of individuals, specifically for older people. The ACCOMPANY project focuses on home companion technologies and issues surrounding technology development for assistive purposes. The project responds to some overlooked aspects of technology design, divided into multiple areas such as empathic and social human-robot interaction, robot learning and memory visualisation, and monitoring persons’ activities at home. To bring these aspects together, a dedicated task is identified to ensure technological integration of these multiple approaches on an existing robotic platform, Care-O-Bot®3 in the context of a smart-home environment utilising a multitude of sensor arrays. Formative and summative evaluation cycles are then used to assess the emerging prototype towards identifying acceptable behaviours and roles for the robot, for example role as a butler or a trainer, while also comparing user requirements to achieved progress. In a novel approach, the project considers ethical concerns and by highlighting principles such as autonomy, independence, enablement, safety and privacy, it embarks on providing a discussion medium where user views on these principles and the existing tension between some of these principles, for example tension between privacy and autonomy over safety, can be captured and considered in design cycles and throughout project developments.

Mutual gaze, personality, and familiarity: Dual eye-tracking during conversation

Mutual gaze is an important aspect of face-to-face communication that arises from the interaction of the gaze behavior of two individuals. In this dual eye-tracking study, gaze data was collected from human conversational pairs with the goal of gaining insight into what characteristics of the conversation partners influence this behavior. We investigate the link between personality, familiarity and mutual gaze. The results found indicate that mutual gaze behavior depends on the characteristics of both partners rather than on either individual considered in isolation. We discuss the implications of these findings for the design of socially appropriate gaze controllers for robots that interact with people.

Which activities threaten independent living of elderly when becoming problematic; Inspiration for meaningful service robot functionality.

Abstract Purpose: In light of the increasing elderly population and the growing demand for home care, the potential of robot support is given increasing attention. In this paper, an inventory of activities was made that threaten independent living of elderly when becoming problematic. Results will guide the further development of an existing service robot, the Care-O-bot®. Method: A systematic literature search of PubMed was performed, focused on the risk factors for institutionalization. Additionally, focus group sessions were conducted in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and France. In these focus group sessions, problematic activities threatening the independence of elderly people were discussed. Three separate target groups were included in the focus group sessions: (1) elderly persons (n = 41), (2) formal caregivers (n = 40) and (3) informal caregivers (n = 32). Results: Activities within the International Classification of Functioning domains mobility, self-care, and interpersonal interaction and relationships were found to be the most problematic. Conclusions: A distinct set of daily activities was identified that may threaten independent living, but no single activity could be selected as the main activity causing a loss of independence as it is often a combination of problematic activities that is person-specific. Supporting the problematic activities need not involve a robotic solution. Implications for Rehabilitation Design of assistive robotics for the elderly. Potential of assistive robotics for the elderly. State of the art of assistive robotics.

Towards Human–Robot Affective Co-evolution Overcoming Oppositions in Constructing Emotions and Empathy

This article deals with contemporary research aimed at building emotional and empathic robots, and gives an overview of the field focusing on its main characteristics and ongoing transformations. It interprets the latter as precursors to a paradigmatic transition that could significantly change our social ecologies. This shift consists in abandoning the classical view of emotions as essentially individual states, and developing a relational view of emotions, which, as we argue, can create genuinely new emotional and empathic processes—dynamics of “human–robot” affective coordination supporting the development of mixed (human–robot) ecologies.

Contingency allows the robot to spot the tutor and to learn from interaction

Aiming at artificial system learning from a human tutor elicit tutoring behavior, which we implemented on the robotic platform iCub. For the evaluation of the system with users, we considered a contingency module that is developed to elicit tutoring behavior, which we then evaluate by implementing this module on the robotic platform iCub and within an interaction with the users. For the evaluation of our system, we consider not only the participants behavior but also the systems log-files as dependent variables (as it was suggested in [15] for the improvement of HRI design). We further applied Sequential Analysis as a qualitative method that provides micro-analytical insights into the sequential structure of the interaction. This way, we are able to investigate a closer interrelationship between robots and tutors actions and how they respond to each other. We focus on two cases: In the first case, the system module was reacting to the interaction partner appropriately; in the second case, the contingency module failed to spot the tutor. We found that the contingency module enables the robot to engage in an interaction with the human tutor who orients to the robots conduct as appropriate and responsive. In contrast, when the robot did not engage in an appropriate responsive interaction, the tutor oriented more towards the object while gazing less at the robot.

Artists as HRI Pioneers: A Creative Approach to Developing Novel Interactions for Living with Robots

In this article we present a long-term, continuous human-robot co-habitation experiment, which involved two professional artists, whose artistic work explores the boundary between science and society. The artists lived in the University of Hertfordshire Robot House full-time with various robots with different characteristics in a smart home environment. The artists immersed themselves in the robot populated living environment in order to explore and develop novel ways to interact with robots. The main research aim was to explore in a qualitative way the impact of a continuous weeklong exposure to robot companions and sensor environments on humans. This work has developed an Integrative Holistic Feedback Approach (IHFA) involving knowledgeable users in the design process of appearances, functionality and interactive behaviour of robots.