Shirley A Elprama

Vrije Universiteit Brussel | VUB · Department of Communication Sciences

Studying the acceptance of exoskeletons in industry has gained increased attention. Exoskeletons (wearable support devices) are envisioned to alleviate heavy work. Examining what factors influence the use of exoskeletons is important, because influencing these factors could positively contribute to the adoption of industrial exoskeletons. The facto...

Objective: The traditional freehand technique for external ventricular drain (EVD) placement is most frequently used, but remains the primary risk factor for inaccurate drain placement. As this procedure could benefit from image guidance, the authors set forth to demonstrate the impact of augmented-reality (AR) assistance on the accuracy and learn...

We studied via a survey (n = 187) how people think about the interaction with sex robots by using a sex doll as a proxy technology. An interactive public installation was created centered around a female sex doll. People passing by could participate in the survey while interacting with the installation and the doll. The findings suggest that no gen...

Background: Many surgical procedures, such as placement of intracranial drains, are currently being performed blindly, relying on anatomical landmarks. As a result, accuracy results still have room for improvement. Neuronavigation could address this issue, but its application in an urgent setting is often impractical. Augmented reality (AR) provid...

With this study we wanted to extend the research on personality traits and the similarity- and complementarity-attraction effects in HRI, and explore which demographic variables might affect them. For that purpose, we conducted a study with 46 participants under a pairwise robot comparison experimental design, combining verbal and non-verbal behavi...

Shoulder exoskeletons potentially reduce overuse injuries in industrial settings including overhead work or lifting tasks. Previous studies evaluated these devices primarily in laboratory setting, but evidence of their effectiveness outside the lab is lacking. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of two passive shoulder exoskeleton...

In the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) the concept of ethnography is not unheard of. It is, however, often misunderstood and seen as a methodology that has no scientific validity or it is misused in practice. The aim of this chapter is to offer researchers that are unfamiliar with ethnography a brief overview of the most important aspects of...

In the domain of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), questionnaires are often used to measure phenomena. In this chapter, we focus on the use of validated scales. Scales consist of a series of questions that combined are used to measure a particular phenomenon or concept. The goal of this chapter is to guide researchers originating from different backgr...

Objective The aim of this study is to test the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model for explaining the intention to use exoskeletons among industrial workers. Background Exoskeletons could help reduce physical workload and risk for injuries among industrial workers. Therefore, it is crucial to understand which factors p...

Collaborative robots (cobots) are a category of robots designed to work together with humans. By combining the fortes of the robot, such as precision and strength, with the dexterity and problem-solving ability of the human, it is possible to accomplish tasks that cannot be fully automated and improve the production quality and working conditions o...

Today, off-the-shelf social robots are used increasingly in the HRI community to research social interactions with different target user groups across a range of domains (e.g. healthcare, education, retail and other public spaces). We invite everyone doing HRI studies with end users, in the lab or in the wild, to collect past experiences of methods...

Collaborative robots or co-bots combine the strength of the human (dexterity and problem-solving ability) and the robot (precision and strength) to implement tasks that cannot be fully automatized and reduce the workload of human workers. In this paper, the results of the ClaXon project are presented whereby a fully operational collaborative robot...

The ClaXon project investigated social and engineering aspects of cobots in the manufacturing industry and let to a cobot integration in an operational car manufacturing line.

Despite the predicted growth of the amount of collaborative robots, little attention has been paid to the attitudes and needs of potential future users of these robots (e.g. factory workers). The main goal of our study was to identify recommendations to improve collaboration between robots and factory workers. We used the collaborative robot Baxter...

Objectives: With the uprise of the Internet of Things, wearables and smartphones are moving to the foreground. Ambient Assisted Living solutions are, for example, created to facilitate ageing in place. One example of such systems are fall detection systems. Currently, there exists a wide variety of fall detection systems using different methodolog...

A lot of research effort focuses on improving the technology to make collaborative robots safer, more flexible and smarter. Equally important but less studied is the perception of this human-robot collaboration by factory workers. This pilot study explored the importance of social cues of the Baxter robot and the relationship with acceptance. Worke...

Background: Few telesurgery studies assess the impact of latency on user experience, low latencies are often not studied despite evidence of negative effects, and some studies recruit inexperienced subjects instead of surgeons without evidence that latency affects both groups similarly. Methods: Fifteen trainees and fourteen laparoscopic surgeon...

People with Dementia (PwD) exhibit Behavioral Disturbances (BD) that can be alleviated by personalized interactions, revisiting memories and promoting comfort and quality of life. However, caregivers are unable to spend a lot of time on these interactions. This work-in-progress poster details the design and deployment of a semantic Internet of Robo...

Opportunities to use robots to alleviate behavioral disturbances of nursing home residents. Gerontechnology 2016;15(suppl):14s; doi:10.4017/gt.2016.15.s.855.00 Purpose Behavioral disturbances (BD) (e.g. wandering, screaming) occur among people with dementia (PWD) 1. This observational study explored how social robots could intervene with BDs, such...

Assuring timely intervention after falls is important to enable older adults to live independently for a longer time. There are two strategies where technology could assist timely intervention: 1) automated fall detection and 2) handling of falls-the process of sending help to a fall victim-using a personal emergency response system (PERS). This pa...

Capturing knowledge from domain experts is important to effectively integrate novel technological support in existing care processes. In this paper, we present our experiences in using a specific type of workshop, which we identified as a decision-tree workshop, to determine the process and information exchange during the usage of a Personal Emerge...

Collaborating since 2005 in different interdisciplinary pre-competitive care technology research projects in Flanders (Belgium), we learned about crucial dimensions to balance the tendency of supporting utopian/dystopian views on the impact on wellbeing and quality of care due to new care technologies. The goal of these subsidized projects is to in...

Falls among elderly are an important concern as they impact the capability to live independently. Falls do not only have a negative impact on one’s physical well-being, an increased risk of falling also has an important impact on one's psychological well-being. A context-aware fall handling system can mitigate many of the problems of falls by facil...

While its technical feasibility has been illustrated over a decade ago, today, robot-assisted telesurgery is not a part of everyday surgical practice. The thresholds for adoption of telesurgery are mostly seen as technical, legal and financial challenges. However, the aim of this paper is to understand collaboration within distributed OR teams, whi...

Existing standard videoconferencing tools have failed in creating an experience equal to formal face-to-face meetings. In an effort to overcome this challenge, ICOCOON was developed to create an immersive meeting experience. In its current state this videoconferencing tool displays video streams of all participants and a Virtual Meeting Room (VMR)...

This paper investigates challenges in current practices in robot-assisted surgery. In addition, by using the method of proxy technology assessment, we provide insights into the current barriers to wider application of robot-assisted telesurgery, where the surgeon and console are physically remote from the patient and operating team. Research in thi...

Since developing assistive technology in multidisciplinary teams can be a challenge, we propose a procedure to bring all actors in the project together using a user centered approach. This procedure starts with writing a use case of the envisioned assistive technology. Next, it continues using a questionnaire to make expectations of all partners ex...

People working at different locations still choose to meet face-to-face despite the availability of videoconferencing technology. A plausible explanation is the lack of social and physical presence – the feeling of being together inside a meeting space. After reviewing literature on presence, a multidisciplinary team first developed a mockup, follo...

Globalization and increasing collaboration between remote teams drive the need for teleconference systems. However, currently no videoconferencing system matches the face-to-face experience for a business meeting with many participants in a flexible and affordable manner. In search for a better solution, we created a Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) appl...