Tiago Ribeiro

The illusion of robotic life: principles and practices of animation for robots

This paper describes our approach on the development of the expression of emotions on a robot with constrained facial expressions. We adapted principles and practices of animation from Disney™ and other animators for robots, and applied them on the development of emotional expressions for the EMYS robot. Our work shows that applying animation principles to robots is beneficial for human understanding of the robots emotions.

Towards empathic artificial tutors

In this paper we discuss how the EMOTE project will design, develop and evaluate a new generation of artificial embodied tutors that have perceptive capabilities to engage in empathic interactions with learners in a shared physical space.

Integration of Biomonitoring and Instrumental Techniques to Assess the air Quality in An Industrial Area Located in the Coastal of Central Asturias, Spain

Throughout the world, epidemiological studies were established to examine the relationship between air pollution and mortality rates and adverse respiratory health effects. However, despite the years of discussion the correlation between adverse health effects and atmospheric pollution remains controversial, partly because these studies are frequently restricted to small and well-monitored areas. Monitoring air pollution is complex due to the large spatial and temporal variations of pollution phenomena, the high costs of recording instruments, and the low sampling density of a purely instrumental approach. Therefore, together with the traditional instrumental monitoring, bioindication techniques allow for the mapping of pollution effects over wide areas with a high sampling density. In this study, instrumental and biomonitoring techniques were integrated to support an epidemiological study that will be developed in an industrial area located in Gijon in the coastal of central Asturias, Spain. Three main objectives were proposed to (i) analyze temporal patterns of PM10 concentrations in order to apportion emissions sources, (ii) investigate spatial patterns of lichen conductivity to identify the impact of the studied industrial area in air quality, and (iii) establish relationships amongst lichen conductivity with some site-specific characteristics. Samples of the epiphytic lichen Parmelia sulcata were transplanted in a grid of 18 by 20 km with an industrial area in the center. Lichens were exposed for a 5-mo period starting in April 2010. After exposure, lichen samples were soaked in 18-MΩ water aimed at determination of water electrical conductivity and, consequently, lichen vitality and cell damage. A marked decreasing gradient of lichens conductivity relative to distance from the emitting sources was observed. Transplants from a sampling site proximal to the industrial area reached values 10-fold higher than levels far from it. This finding showed that lichens reacted physiologically in the polluted industrial area as evidenced by increased conductivity correlated to contamination level. The integration of temporal PM10 measurements and analysis of wind direction corroborated the importance of this industrialized region for air quality measurements and identified the relevance of traffic for the urban area.

Levels and spatial distribution of airborne chemical elements in a heavy industrial area located in the north of Spain.

The adverse health effects of airborne particles have been subjected to intense investigation in recent years; however, more studies on the chemical characterization of particles from pollution emissions are needed to (1) identify emission sources, (2) better understand the relative toxicity of particles, and (3) pinpoint more targeted emission control strategies and regulations. The main objective of this study was to assess the levels and spatial distribution of airborne chemical elements in a heavy industrial area located in the north of Spain. Instrumental and biomonitoring techniques were integrated and analytical methods for k0 instrumental neutron activation analysis and particle-induced x-ray emission were used to determine element content in aerosol filters and lichens. Results indicated that in general local industry contributed to the emissions of As, Sb, Cu, V, and Ni, which are associated with combustion processes. In addition, the steelwork emitted significant quantities of Fe and Mn and the cement factory was associated with Ca emissions. The spatial distribution of Zn and Al also indicated an important contribution of two industries located outside the studied area.

Towards dialogue dimensions for a robotic tutor in collaborative learning scenarios

There has been some studies in applying robots to education and recent research on socially intelligent robots show robots as partners that collaborate with people. On the other hand, serious games and interaction technologies have also proved to be important pedagogical tools, enhancing collaboration and interest in the learning process. This paper relates to the collaborative scenario in EMOTE EU FP7 project and its main goal is to develop and present the dialogue dimensions for a robotic tutor in a collaborative learning scenario grounded in human studies. Overall, seven dialogue dimensions between the teacher and students interaction were identified from data collected over 10 sessions of a collaborative serious game. Preliminary results regarding the teachers perspective of the students interaction suggest that student collaboration led to learning during the game. Besides, students seem to have learned a number of concepts as they played the game. We also present the protocol that was followed for the purposes of future data collection in human-human and human-robot interaction in similar scenarios.

Just follow the suit! Trust in human-robot interactions during card game playing

Robots are currently being developed to enter our lives and interact with us in different tasks. For humans to be able to have a positive experience of interaction with such robots, they need to trust them to some degree. In this paper, we present the development and evaluation of a social robot that was created to play a card game with humans, playing the role of a partner and opponent. This type of activity is especially important, since our target group is elderly people - a population that often suffers from social isolation. Moreover, the card game scenario can lead to the development of interesting trust dynamics during the interaction, in which the human that partners with the robot needs to trust it in order to succeed and win the game. The design of the robots behavior and game dynamics was inspired in previous user-centered design studies in which elderly people played the same game. Our evaluation results show that the levels of trust differ according to the previous knowledge that players have of their partners. Thus, humans seem to significantly increase their trust level towards a robot they already know, whilst maintaining the same level of trust in a human that they also previously knew. Henceforth, this paper shows that trust is a multifaceted construct that develops differently for humans and robots.

Expressing emotions on robotic companions with limited facial expression capabilities

Facing the challenge of accurately expressing emotions with robots and characters with limited expressive capabilities, we developed an abstraction model for generating emotional expressions based on the atomic features that enable human beings to recognize emotions in other humans faces. The model is also augmented by animation theory from movies and puppetry. A small evaluation of the expressions showed that some expressions were well recognized, in particular Anger and Sadness.

Heavily Yb-doped silicate glass thick films

A series of Yb-doped glass films has been prepared by sol–gel processing within the SiO2–Al2O3–P2O5–Yb2O3 system with doping levels up to 30xa0mol% Yb on a cation basis, with a thickness up to ~36xa0μm. The refractive indices at 633xa0nm, measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry, varied between 1.457 and 1.577, depending on the composition. Infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopies were used to establish the main structural features of the different compositions, which included the presence of mixed Si–O–Al bonds evidenced by a IR peak at 940xa0cm−1, as well as P=O bonds revealed by a Raman peak at 1326xa0cm−1. The photoluminescence spectrum of Yb3+ ions was dominated by peaks at 987 and 1020xa0nm, with a lifetime between ~0.5–1.0xa0ms.Graphical Abstract

Discovering Social Interaction Strategies for Robots from Restricted-Perception Wizard-of-Oz Studies

In this paper we propose a methodology for the creation of social interaction strategies for human-robot interaction based on restricted-perception Wizard-of-Oz studies (WoZ). This novel experimental technique involves restricting the wizards perceptions over the environment and the behaviors it controls according to the robots inherent perceptual and acting limitations. Within our methodology, the robots design lifecycle is divided into three consecutive phases, namely data collection, where we perform interaction studies to extract expert knowledge and interaction data; strategy extraction, where a hybrid strategy controller for the robot is learned based on the gathered data; strategy refinement, where the controller is iteratively evaluated and adjusted. We developed a fully-autonomous robotic tutor based on the proposed approach in the context of a collaborative learning scenario. The results of the evaluation study show that, by performing restricted-perception WoZ studies, our robots are able to engage in very natural and socially-aware interactions.

Empathic Robotic Tutors: Map Guide

In this demonstration we describe a scenario developed in the EMOTE project. The overall goal of the project is to develop an empathic robot tutor for 11-13 year old school students in an educational setting. We are aiming to develop an empathic robot tutor to teach map reading skills with this scenario on a touch-screen device.