Rosario Sorbello

Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures 2012

The conference on “ Biologically Inspired Cognitive – Architectures (BICA) 2012” was held in Palermo, Italy from October 31 to November 2. It has been the third annual meeting of the BICA Society and the fifth annual BICA meeting. (Chella et al. 2012) The series of BICA conferences started in 2008 under the umbrella of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). In 2010, the BICA Society was incorporated as a nonprofit organization – a scientific society with headquarters in the United States, with the mission of promoting and facilitating the transdisciplinary study of BICA (Samsonovich et al. 2010, Samsonovich 2012).a aSee also the BICA website http://bicasociety.org/

A BCI Teleoperated Museum Robotic Guide

Brain Computer Interface is a system that offers also a support to the patients with neuromuscular diseases as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.In this paper are presented some works with the aim to integrate brain computer interfaces and mobile robots.The two aim of this project are: (i) to test an improved BCI experience through the help of a physical robot, so that brain signals are stronger stimulate. (ii) to use a remote robot controlled by a highly paralyzed patient via a BCI through a friendly Graphic User.Some preliminary experiments are presented in this paper about one of the possible application: a robotic museum guide(PeopleBot and Pioneer3 robot), that can transmit remote visual perceptions to the patient.

Reaching and grasping a glass of water by locked-In ALS patients through a BCI-controlled humanoid robot

Locked-in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients are fully dependent on caregivers for any daily need. At this stage, basic communication and environmental control may not be possible even with commonly used augmentative and alternative communication devices. Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology allows users to modulate brain activity for communication and control of machines and devices, without requiring a motor control. In the last several years, numerous articles have described how persons with ALS could effectively use BCIs for different goals, usually spelling. In the present study, locked-in ALS patients used a BCI system to directly control the humanoid robot NAO (Aldebaran Robotics, France) with the aim of reaching and grasping a glass of water. Four ALS patients and four healthy controls were recruited and trained to operate this humanoid robot through a P300-based BCI. A few minutes training was sufficient to efficiently operate the system in different environments. Three out of the four ALS patients and all controls successfully performed the task with a high level of accuracy. These results suggest that BCI-operated robots can be used by locked-in ALS patients as an artificial alter-ego, the machine being able to move, speak and act in his/her place.

A mobile robot for transport applications in hospital domain with safe human detection algorithm

We have been developing a MKR (Muratec Keio Robot), an autonomous omni-directional mobile transfer robot system for hospital applications. This robot has a wagon truck to transfer luggage, important specimens and other materials. This study proposes a safe obstacle collision avoidance technique that includes a human detection algorithm for omni directional mobile robots that realizes a safe movement technology. The robot can distinguish people from others obstacles with human detection algorithm. The robot evades to people more safely by considering its relative position and velocity with respect to them. Some experiments in a hospital were carried out to verify the performance of the human detection algorithm. Moreover, the simulation results have confirmed that the robot can reach the goal without colliding with static and dynamic obstacles.

Towards partners profiling in human robot interaction contexts

Individuality is one of the most important qualities of humans. Social robots should be able to model the individuality of the human partners and to modify their behaviours accordingly.This paper proposes a profiling system for social robots to be able to learn the individuality of human partners in social contexts. Profiles are expressed in terms of of identities and preferences bound together. In particular, peoples identity is captured by the use of facial features, while preferences are extracted from the discussion between the partners. Both are bound using an Hebb network. Experiments show the feasibility and the performances of the approach presented.

A vision agent for mobile robot navigation in time-variable environments

We present an architecture for mobile robot navigation based on Bayesian networks. The architecture allows a robot to plan the correct path inside an environment with dynamic obstacles. Interactions between the robot and the environment are based on a powerful vision agent. The results of simulations, showing the effectiveness of the approach, are described.

A Topic Recognition System for Real World Human-Robot Conversations

One of the main features of social robots is the ability to communicate and interact with people as partners in a natural way. However, achieving a good verbal interaction is a hard task due to the errors on speech recognition systems, and due to the understanting the natural language itself. This paper tries to overcome such kind of problems by presenting a system that enables social robots to get involved in conversation by recognizing its topic. Through the use of classical text mining approach, the presented system allows social robots to understand topics of conversation between human partners, enabling the customization of behaviours in their accordance. The system has been evaluated in different contexts, taking in account the quality and accuracy of the speech recognition syestem used by the social robot.

Perceptual Social Dimensions of Human - Humanoid Robot Interaction

The present paper aims at a descriptive analysis of the main perceptual and social features of natural conditions of agent interaction, which can be specified by agent in human-humanoid robot interaction. A principled approach to human-robot interaction may be assumed to comply with the natural conditions of agents overt perceptual and social behaviour. To validate our research we used the minimalistic humanoid robot Telenoid. We have conducted human-robot interactions test with people with no prior interaction experience with robot. By administrating our questionnaire to subject after well defined experimental conditions, an analysis of significant variance correlation among dimensions in ordinary and goal guided contexts of interaction has been performed in order to prove that perception and believability are indicators of social interaction and increase the degree of interaction in human-humanoid interaction. The experimental results showed that Telenoid is seen from the users as an autonomous agent on its own rather than a teleoperated artificial agent and as a believable agent for its naturally acting in response to human agent actions.

Emo-dramatic robotic stewards

In this paper will be presented an heterogeneous colony of robots capable to cooperate with people as effective partners to provide different kind of support among various working environments, such as museums, offices or trade fairs. Many systems have been integrated in order to develop robots capable to assists humans during the visit of the site, to guide them and to give information about the environment. According to the dramas theory, each robot has a different character, something like a personality, so, each of them will interact with people in a different way. Robots show also emotional, non trivial, behaviours using an LSA conceptual space capable to synthesize the different emotional states that each robot can express.

An architecture for Telenoid robot as empathic conversational android companion for elderly people

In Human-Humanoid Interaction (HHI), empathy is the crucial key in order to overcome the current limitations of social robots. In facts, a principal defining characteristic of human social behaviour is empathy. The present paper presents a robotic architecture for an android robot as a basis for natural empathic human-android interaction. We start from the hypothesis that the robots, in order to become personal companions need to know how to empathic interact with human beings. To validate our research, we have used the proposed system with the minimalistic humanoid robot Telenoid. We have conducted human-robot interactions test with elderly people with no prior interaction experience with robot. During the experiment, elderly persons engaged a stimulated conversation with the humanoid robot. Our goal is to overcome the state of loneliness of elderly people using this minimalistic humanoid robot capable to exhibit a dialogue similar to what usually happens in real life between human beings. The experimental results have shown a humanoid robotic system capable to exhibit a natural and empathic interaction and conversation with a human user.