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A Robot in Every Home
Abstract
The leader of the PC revolution predicts that the next hot field will be robotics
... Physical work has often become superfluous due to the usage of robotic manipulators leading to a raised standard of living in leading industrialized nations. In addition to that, robotics inevitably has proliferated into the service sector and everyday tasks such as vacuum cleaning, lawn mowing, and as healthcare robots [3]. However, while the scale and intricacy of tasks a robot could accomplish has been increasing for years, continuously developing larger or more sophisticated individual robots appears not to be expedient for a large class of contemporary problems, for example, transporting a heavy or large-scale load in logistics or when searching for missing persons in vast areas. ...
... For instance, in our prior work [24], in a setting with robots with non-holonomic kinematic constraints, the equations of motion of robots and object have been incorporated into the formation synthesis problem. That approach could straightforwardly be carried over to (3). The subsequent section deals with this paper's focal point of how the forces to be exerted are determined and governed using decentralized hybrid position-force controllers based on the introduced geometric interpretation of the spanned manipulation space. ...
Over decades of robotics research, cooperative object transportation has been studied as a meaningful model problem for robotic networks because it possesses a variety of crucial challenges. Although these challenges are demanding, the cooperation of multiple robots has the potential to solve automation problems that are beyond the scope of an individual robot. So far, the model problem has mostly been addressed by explicitly controlling the robots’ positions. However, the position-based approach suffers from some intrinsic detriments, for example, the lack of explicit feedback between robots and object. Moreover, it remains an open question how many robots shall be employed to ensure a successful transportation. This paper’s purpose is to overcome these challenges using a novel force-based approach taking into account the robots’ actual manipulation capabilities, that is, the exerted forces. Using cost-efficient hardware, the interaction forces are measured and, what is more, explicitly controlled by a highly responsive onboard controller. Employing a tailored software architecture, the novel force-based scheme, useful for robotic manipulation beyond the benchmark problem, is probably the most flexible of its kind regarding the number of robots and the object’s shape. The controller’s functionality and performance as well as the scheme’s versatility are demonstrated by several hardware experiments.
... The rise of autonomous machines promises to completely transform our economy. However, after more than a decade of intense R&D investments, autonomy has yet to deliver its promise [2]. ...
... To handle new environments and newly encountered rare cases, additional changes to the system are required, which is increasingly difficult and time-consuming. 2 ...
With the advancement of robotics and AI technologies in the past decade, we have now entered the age of autonomous machines. In this new age of information technology, autonomous machines, such as service robots, autonomous drones, delivery robots, and autonomous vehicles, rather than humans, will provide services. In this article, through examining the technical challenges and economic impact of the digital economy, we argue that scalability is both highly necessary from a technical perspective and significantly advantageous from an economic perspective, thus is the key for the autonomy industry to achieve its full potential. Nonetheless, the current development paradigm, dubbed Autonomy 1.0, scales with the number of engineers, instead of with the amount of data or compute resources, hence preventing the autonomy industry to fully benefit from the economies of scale, especially the exponentially cheapening compute cost and the explosion of available data. We further analyze the key scalability blockers and explain how a new development paradigm, dubbed Autonomy 2.0, can address these problems to greatly boost the autonomy industry.
... "We may be on the verge of a new era, when the PC will get up off the desktop and allow us to see, hear, touch and manipulate objects in places where we are not physically present." By Bill Gates in 2007(Gates, 2007. ...
... "We may be on the verge of a new era, when the PC will get up off the desktop and allow us to see, hear, touch and manipulate objects in places where we are not physically present." By Bill Gates in 2007(Gates, 2007. ...
Since the demand of aging society and those recovering from strokes or injuries is growing, familiarity with the global advancements of rehabilitation robotics is crucial. Hence, this chapter aims to familiarize the reader with the field of rehabilitation robotics, its development, and the latest technological innovations. Necessary definitions and history of rehabilitation systems are introduced, and the medical robots pioneered in the past 50 years, their design criteria, control strategies, and human-robot interfaces are described herein. Also, the applications of rehabilitation robots for physical therapy, including the lower and upper extremities, and their key technologies are specified. Several aspects of robotics design with regard to control techniques, assessment criteria, and safety considerations are reviewed. Finally, future directions and the challenges on the way are concluded.
... Robots are being used in the production industry since the middle of the 20 th century and this trend is still growing [1]. The next revolution in robotics is making robots targeting household work where they can assist humans in repetitive and monotonous tasks [2]. Big companies, such as Tesla and Amazon, have already invested in developing robots to address these needs [3], [4]. ...
... The distance, each wheel should travel in the opposite direction, to rotate the robot to the requested angle can be calculated using (3). For this distance, the TARGET_COUNT is calculated using (1) and (2), and then DC motors are powered in proportional to the speed and in the opposite direction until they generate the TARGET_COUNT number of encoder pulses. ...
Recent advances in deep learning algorithms, and the availability of low-cost sensors, processors, and actuators are opening up a new opportunity for making household robots with a limited budget. Household robots can help automate the monotonous tasks of daily life such as putting dishes in the dishwasher, folding the laundry after washing, cleaning the floor, and organizing kids’ toys on the shelf at the end of the day. In this paper, a robot has been developed that can detect and recognize an object using deep learning from images, move toward the object scoops and lifts the object, and then puts the object to its assigned level on a shelf. This robot can be used to collect and organize objects such as toys, in the kid’s room. A deep learning model is trained with a custom dataset and the mean average precision (mAP) of the object detector is 79.1%. A prototype of the robot - with mechanical structure, camera, motors, controller, and image processing algorithms - is developed and tested successfully.
... The importance of "personal robots" is also witnessed by the exponential growth of its market value, as predicted by Bill Gates in 2007 [14]. In a recent report by P&S Market [15], the global personal robots market has been projected to reach $34.1 billion by 2022, witnessing a Compounded Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 37.8% during the forecast period (2016-2022). ...
... 14 shows the results obtained for an experiment using the feature vector from last activation layer (pool-5) of the VGG-16 convolutional neural network. The value of parameters chosen for the SOM are: 30x30 grid size; 100.000 iterations; gaussian neighborhood function of type ...
The employment of personal robots or service robots has aroused much interest in recent years with an amazing growth of robotics in different domains. Design of companion robots able to assist, to share and to accompany individuals with limited autonomy in their daily life is the challenge of the future decade. However, performances of nowadays robotic bodies and prototypes remain very far from defeating such challenge. Although sophisticated humanoid robots have been developed, much more effort is needed for improving their cognitive capabilities.Actually, the above-mentioned commercially available robots or prototypes are not still able to naturally adapt themselves to the complex environment in which they are supposed to evolve with humans. In the same way, the existing prototypes are not able to interact in a versatile way with their users. In fact they are still very far from interpreting the diversity and the complexity of perceived information or to construct knowledge relating the surrounding environment. The development of bio-inspired approaches based on Artificial Cognition for perception and autonomous acquisition of knowledge in robotics is a feasible strategy to overcome these limitations. A number of advances have already conducted to the realization of an artificial-cognition-based system allowing a robot to learn and create knowledge from observation (association of sensory information and natural semantics). Within this context, the present work takes advantage from evolutionary process for semantic interpretation of sensory information to make emerge the machine-awareness about its surrounding environment. The main purpose of the Doctoral Thesis is to extend the already accomplished efforts (researches) in order to allow a robot to extract, to construct and to conceptualize the knowledge about its surrounding environment. Indeed, the goal of the doctoral research is to generalize the aforementioned concepts for an autonomous, or semi-autonomous, construction of knowledge from the perceived information (e.g. by a robot). In other words, the expected goal of the proposed doctoral research is to allow a robot progressively conceptualize the environment in which it evolves and to share the constructed knowledge with its user. To this end, a semantic-multimedia knowledge base has been created based on an ontological model and implemented through a NoSQL graph database. This knowledge base is the founding element of the thesis work on which multiple approaches have been investigated, based on semantic, multimedia and visual information. The developed approaches combine this information through classic machine learning techniques, both supervised and unsupervised, together with transfer learning techniques for the reuse of semantic features from deep neural networks models. Other techniques based on ontologies and the Semantic Web have been explored for the acquisition and integration of further knowledge in the knowledge base developed. The different areas investigated have been united in a comprehensive logical framework. The experiments conducted have shown an effective correspondence between the interpretations based on semantic and visual features, from which emerged the possibility for a robotic agent to expand its knowledge generalization skills in even unknown or partially known environments, which allowed to achieve the objectives set.
... Over a decade ago, Microsoft founder Bill Gates prophesied a robotics revolution that would see staggering leaps in the progress and sophistication of robots, and predicted 'a robot in every home' in the near future [1]. Although the ubiquity of household robots has yet to be realised, we are opening our doors to an increasing number of artificially intelligent machines (see Glossary). ...
... Our framework seeks to account for the unusual demands on (neuro)cognition presented by engaging with social machines, focusing on machine variety, diverse neurocognitive systems, and unique contextual factors such as media-skewed expectations. 1 broken. This presents a particular challenge when one attempts to understand how the brain constructs mental representations that guide interactions with artificially intelligent machines. ...
As robots advance from the pages and screens of science fiction into our homes, hospitals, and schools, they are poised to take on increasingly social roles. Consequently, the need to understand the mechanisms supporting human–machine interactions is becoming increasingly pressing. We introduce a framework for studying the cognitive and brain mechanisms that support human–machine interactions, leveraging advances made in cognitive neuroscience to link different levels of description with relevant theory and methods. We highlight unique features that make this endeavour particularly challenging (and rewarding) for brain and behavioural scientists. Overall, the framework offers a way to study the cognitive science of human–machine interactions that respects the diversity of social machines, individuals’ expectations and experiences, and the structure and function of multiple cognitive and brain systems.
... Emily.cross@mq.edu.au 1 School of Management, University College London, London, UK 2 Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland 3 Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia prophesized a revolution in the robotics industry that would see staggering leaps in the progress and sophistication of robots, and predicted "a robot in every home" in the near future [2]. While the ubiquity of home robots has yet to be realised, the number of robotics-related start-up companies launching annually continues to exponentially increase [3], with a growing percentage focusing on the development of companion robots for the home or assistance robots to serve in complex, human-interactive contexts, like schools, hospitals and care homes. ...
... Emily.cross@mq.edu.au 1 School of Management, University College London, London, UK 2 Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland 3 Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia prophesized a revolution in the robotics industry that would see staggering leaps in the progress and sophistication of robots, and predicted "a robot in every home" in the near future [2]. While the ubiquity of home robots has yet to be realised, the number of robotics-related start-up companies launching annually continues to exponentially increase [3], with a growing percentage focusing on the development of companion robots for the home or assistance robots to serve in complex, human-interactive contexts, like schools, hospitals and care homes. ...
Robotic agents designed to assist people across a variety of social and service settings are becoming increasingly prevalent across the world. Here we synthesise two decades of empirical evidence from human–robot interaction (HRI) research to focus on cultural influences on expectations towards and responses to social robots, as well as the utility of robots displaying culturally specific social cues for improving human engagement. Findings suggest complex and intricate relationships between culture and human cognition in the context of HRI. The studies reviewed here transcend the often-studied and prototypical east–west dichotomy of cultures, and explore how people’s perceptions of robots are informed by their national culture as well as their experiences with robots. Many of the findings presented in this review raise intriguing questions concerning future directions for robotics designers and cultural psychologists, in terms of conceptualising and delivering culturally sensitive robots. We point out that such development is currently limited by heterogenous methods and low statistical power, which contribute to a concerning lack of generalisability. We also propose several avenues through which future work may begin to address these shortcomings. In sum, we highlight the critical role of culture in mediating efforts to develop robots aligned with human users’ cultural backgrounds, and argue for further research into the role of culturally-informed robotic development in facilitating human–robot interaction.
... Robots have always been imagined to help in household environments [1], but to the best of our knowledge, that has not been achieved yet, at least not at scale. For robots to enter households, a key feature is interaction; this is not required in regular industrial situations where most robots are found. ...
This paper introduces UJI-Butler, an innovative multi-robot framework that blends symbolic and non-symbolic artificial intelligence methods. Unlike previous systems, UJI-Butler integrates large language models (LLMs) with a knowledge base akin to RAG-based systems, while imposing logical reasoning on LLM-generated results. It facilitates multi-modal interaction with human users through speech, sign language, and physical interaction, fostering a human-in-the-loop learning paradigm. By acquiring new knowledge through verbal communication and mastering manipulation skills via human-lead-through programming, UJI-Butler enhances transparency and trust by incorporating human feedback during operations. Experimental results demonstrate that UJI-Butler’s combination of symbolic and non-symbolic AI offers intuitive interaction and accelerates the learning process with experience. It adeptly stores and utilizes knowledge gained from verbal communication, recognizing hand gestures for requests. Additionally, UJI-Butler successfully performs user-taught physical skills and generalizes them to varying object sizes and locations. The explicit nature of acquired knowledge enables seamless transferability to other platforms and modification by human users. The code of the whole project is available on Github, in addition, video demonstrations of the UJI-Butler system are available online in a Youtube Playlist.
... Nevertheless, there are also fears connected to AI development, such as intelligent weapons, human replacement, cyber-attacks etc. (Nadimpalli, 2017;Osoba & Welser IV, 2017;Scharre, 2016). Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, or Bill Gates (Musk, 2014;Gates, 2008) are just some of the personalities that have openly shared their concerns about super-intelligent AI systems. Even if at the moment we find ourselves at the stage in which we can only talk about narrow AI (Kurzweil, 2005), we are moving fast towards the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), namely AI machines which could be as intelligent as humans, and could carry out any intellectual task (Pennachin & Goertzel, 2007). ...
p>As part of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence will change almost all economic activities, and it will create enormous social and economic opportunities. It will also pose major challenges, accompanied by ethical dilemmas.
The present study focuses on the perceptions of current employees predominantly from the IT area, on the development of AI. The aim is to capture the attitudes they have towards the emergence and the development of AI, the impact that it might have on certain sectors of social life and people in general. We sought for the 280 online surveyed subjects to have been employed for at least 6 months, assuming that being already anchored in their professional lives might reduce their biasness. The working methodology allowed us to process and interpret data both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of the study could be used to predict possible changes that could occur in the future as an effect of the development of Artificial Intelligence, but also to reduce the negative impact that it could have.</p
... Tactile sensing plays an important role in advancing the state-of-the-art in robotic manipulation [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. Successful applications include grip adaptation through slip detection [9], [10], [11], medical procedures [12], [13] and tele-operation [14]. ...
Contact-rich manipulation remains a major challenge in robotics. Optical tactile sensors like GelSight Mini offer a low-cost solution for contact sensing by capturing soft-body deformations of the silicone gel. However, accurately inferring shear and normal force distributions from these gel deformations has yet to be fully addressed. In this work, we propose a machine learning approach using a U-net architecture to predict force distributions directly from the sensor's raw images. Our model, trained on force distributions inferred from Finite Element Analysis (FEA), demonstrates promising accuracy in predicting normal and shear force distributions. It also shows potential for generalization across sensors of the same type and for enabling real-time application. The codebase, dataset and models are open-sourced and available at https://feats-ai.github.io .
... The increasing presence of robots in everyday life has made the issue of social navigation of mobile robots among pedestrians more relevant than ever. As robots become more integrated into various public and private spaces, from shopping malls [2,3], to hospitals [4] and homes [5,6], their ability to navigate in crowded environments efficiently and safely, but also adhere to social norms, becomes crucial. ...
The presence of robots amongst pedestrians affects them causing deviation to their trajectories. Existing methods suffer from the limitation of not being able to objectively measure this deviation in unseen cases. In order to solve this issue, we introduce a simulation framework that repetitively measures and benchmarks the deviation in trajectory of pedestrians due to robots driven by different navigation algorithms. We simulate the deviation behavior of the pedestrians using an enhanced Social Force Model (SFM) with a robot force component that accounts for the influence of robots on pedestrian behavior, resulting in the Social Robot Force Model (SRFM). Parameters for this model are learned using the pedestrian trajectories from the JRDB dataset. Pedestrians are then simulated using the SRFM with and without the robot force component to objectively measure the deviation to their trajectory caused by the robot in 5 different scenarios. Our work in this paper is a proof of concept that shows objectively measuring the pedestrian reaction to robot is possible. We use our simulation to train two different RL policies and evaluate them against traditional navigation models.
... The Leonardo Da Vinci in 1495 imagined the design of first humanoid robot (Gates, 2008). Next years, extraordinary machines were made utilizing mechanical components that helped the general public and the business. ...
This chapter aims to explore the perceptions and attitudes of people regarding the utilization of robots in the hospitality and tourism industries. The objective is to gain insight into how these industries may need to adapt to meet the expectations and preferences of consumers in this emerging technological landscape. The study focuses on various domains within the hospitality and tourism sectors, hotel operations, museums, airports, and other transportation stations. The outcomes of this research will provide valuable insights for industry stakeholders, policymakers, and service providers in designing and implementing effective strategies to meet the evolving expectations of consumers. Ultimately, this study seeks to bridge the gap between technological advancements and consumer preferences in the Indian context. Furthermore, it will contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of robotics and hospitality, serving as a foundation for future studies and initiatives aimed at enhancing customer experiences and satisfaction leading to consumer happiness in these industries.
... There are many different problems related to robots, such as there are no privacy standards or techniques that could be applied to different social robots when designing privacy-sensitive social robots [7]. In addition, there is a lack of research that examine the social robots' appearance privacy. ...
... It was not just the starry-eyed ideal of liberal democracy that coaxed computing out of the hands of scientist-priests, but also the prospect of fabulous wealth. Bill Gates took on the mission to place "a computer on every desk" [28]. Though Xerox did not rise to the opportunity for commercialising Alan Kay's visionary research at PARC [62], the introduction of the graphical user interface in the 1980s by Apple and Microsoft became the next formative step in the doctrine of simplicity. ...
That computers should be easy to learn and use is a rarely-questioned tenet of user interface design. But what do we gain from prioritising usability and learnability, and what do we lose? I explore how simplicity is not an inevitable truth of user interface design, but rather contingent on a series of events in the evolution of software. Not only does a rigid adherence to this doctrine place an artificial ceiling on the power and flexibility of software, but it is also culturally relative, privileging certain information cultures over others. I propose that for feature-rich software, negotiated complexity is a better target than simplicity, and we must revisit the ill-regarded relationship between learning, documentation, and software.
... Their findings are that human-like robots are treated kindlier and respectfully than mechanical-like robots [60,159]. Another similar study, this time with soldiers, has shown that some soldiers feel emotionally connected to the anti-bomb robots that have saved their lives, even becoming saddened when they are destroyed [20,49]. It has even been reported that people develop a strong sense of gratitude regarding the Roomba cleaning robot [43,. ...
This article attempts to answer the question of whether robots can have personal identity. In recent years, and due to the numerous and rapid technological advances, the discussion around the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Agents or simply Robots, has gained great importance. However, this reflection has almost always focused on problems such as the moral status of these robots, their rights, their capabilities or the qualities that these robots should have to support such status or rights. In this paper I want to address a question that has been much less analyzed but which I consider crucial to this discussion on robot ethics: the possibility, or not, that robots have or will one day have personal identity. The importance of this question has to do with the role we normally assign to personal identity as central to morality. After posing the problem and exposing this relationship between identity and morality, I will engage in a discussion with the recent literature on personal identity by showing in what sense one could speak of personal identity in beings such as robots. This is followed by a discussion of some key texts in robot ethics that have touched on this problem, finally addressing some implications and possible objections. I finally give the tentative answer that robots could potentially have personal identity, given other cases and what we empirically know about robots and their foreseeable future.
... Social robots are widely used in other fields such as education, entertainment, domestic services, public services, search and rescue, tourism and accommodation that do not entail therapeutic intervention but require social interaction (Baraka et al., 2019). Social robots have been employed as teacher assistants in the classroom (Woo et al., 2021), in reading, to improve grammar skills and in learning a second language (van den Berghe et al., 2019), in music, drama, dance and theatrical performances (Lytridis et al., 2019), as reception attendants, busboys, room managers, etc. in hotels (Nakanishi et al., 2020), as a waiter in restaurants and airports (Mende et al., 2019), in museums (Faber et al., 2009), as a domestic helper in the kitchen and other chores in businesses (Gates & Bill, 2007;de Graaf et al., 2019), and in stores and shopping malls (Niemela et al., 2019). ...
The advances in artificial intelligence and robotics began to transform business and human relations. The employment of robots in health, education, entertainment and rehabilitation as well as industries introduced the concept of "social robots". Although there is no consensus on the definition of the concept, robots with some degree of autonomy and could conduct meaningful social interactions with humans are considered social robots. Studies have been conducted on the employment of social robots in mental health services. Studies have been conducted on the employment of social robots in mental health services. The effectiveness of social robots in the treatment of anxiety, stress, depression, anger, and eating disorders, especially dementia and autism spectrum disorder, has also been investigated. The question of “can robots empathize” is a significant topic in research that focus on human-robot interactions. Robotic empathy studies were conducted with two dimensions of human empathy for robots and robot empathy for humans and led to various philosophical and ethical discussions. Some argued that robot-human interaction leads to new opportunities in mental health services, while others criticized the use of robots since it could increase human solitude, blur the line between reality and virtuality perceptions and the distinction between ontological categories. The present literature review aimed to discuss the concepts of artificial intelligence, robots, and social robots, provide information about the studies on the employment of social robots in mental healthcare, and address the studies and views based on the question "can social robots empathize?"
... Modularity is very important aspect of robotics development. Recently, lack of modularity together with missing common standards and platforms it was identified as one of the biggest barrier for faster development and deployment of robots [12] and it also led to introduction of well-known (but also later abandoned) Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio simulator (nowadays the Player/Stage/Gazebo simulator is used instead). Similarly, in the area of educational robotics we repeatedly witness production of new prototypes, while only fraction of them converts to real, massproduced robots. ...
The aim of the described design assignment was to develop modular and customizable construction kit for building the mobile robotic platforms with various controller boards. The project was co-developed by Institute of Design and Institute of Automotive Mechatronics at STU in Bratislava. Authors have applied the principles of open design to create fully functional, ready to use construction of an educational robot, fully produced by low cost FDM 3D printing technology. The paper describes the broader context of the project, development and prototyping of the Acrob3 platform.
KeywordsRobotEducation3D printmicro:bitArduinoOpen hardwareModularity
... Since the 1980s, simulators have been part of the tools used for robotics research (Chan, Weston, and Case 1988). In the 2000s the interest in tools for robotics simulation and software development grew further, also thanks to the launch of tools such as Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (Gates 2008;Jackson 2007) and USARSim (Carpin et al. 2007). The capability of simulators to reproduce the real world-both in terms of physics and photorealism-has been constantly improving. ...
The current state of the art in cognitive robotics, covering the challenges of building AI-powered intelligent robots inspired by natural cognitive systems. A novel approach to building AI-powered intelligent robots takes inspiration from the way natural cognitive systems—in humans, animals, and biological systems—develop intelligence by exploiting the full power of interactions between body and brain, the physical and social environment in which they live, and phylogenetic, developmental, and learning dynamics. This volume reports on the current state of the art in cognitive robotics, offering the first comprehensive coverage of building robots inspired by natural cognitive systems.
Contributors first provide a systematic definition of cognitive robotics and a history of developments in the field. They describe in detail five main approaches: developmental, neuro, evolutionary, swarm, and soft robotics. They go on to consider methodologies and concepts, treating topics that include commonly used cognitive robotics platforms and robot simulators, biomimetic skin as an example of a hardware-based approach, machine-learning methods, and cognitive architecture. Finally, they cover the behavioral and cognitive capabilities of a variety of models, experiments, and applications, looking at issues that range from intrinsic motivation and perception to robot consciousness.
Cognitive Robotics is aimed at an interdisciplinary audience, balancing technical details and examples for the computational reader with theoretical and experimental findings for the empirical scientist.
... In recent decades, we have witnessed the rapid development of new technologies in several fields of our life. In particular, robotics grows so fast that it is often described as the technology of the future, as in Gates (2007); this trend is also confirmed by the Executive Summary World Robotics (IFR, 2020). From a theoretical point of view, all these devices could be framed according to a paradigm, which describes technology as a "medium" that relates the human being and the world (Ihde, 1990;McLuhan, 1994;Floridi, 2014); in this way, the technological devices could be depicted by two main characteristics: a) "being-between" (Floridi, 2014), and b) "being-for" (Heidegger, 2010). ...
... Introducing robots into the kitchen environment has been a focus of research and development and has been going on for at least 10 years [7]. The home environment received a lot of attention [3][2] [12][14] [10]. ...
Attention to robotic application development in catering has been largely been focused on serving and cooking. The motivation of our research is to create the first viable system integration to the task of washing dishes, which is a task relatively untouched by researchers. Dish-washing is the cost department for restaurants that do not use disposable utensils for loading food. With the labor market shunning from tasks that require direct contact with unhygienic objects for long hours, we saw the value of our proposed integration. We present an automatic 2-arm robot system that can complete the entire dish-cleaning process from loading dirty dishes to stacking clean dishes, to match the requirement collected from analyzing data of a real restaurant and to deploy. We have shown that the system is capable of completing all the tasks it is designed to perform, and is capable of processing all the dishes produced in a day from a restaurant.KeywordsCollaborative robots/cobotsApplied robotsProduct design
... "The emergence of the robotics industry is developing in much the same way that the computer business did 30 years ago" [21]. As developed by Calo [7], robotics has a specific set of essential qualities and it generates distinct ethical and legal issues. ...
The goal of this research is to focus on the ethical issues linked to the interaction between humans and robots in a service delivery context. Through this user study,
we want to see how ethics influence user’s intention to use a robot in a frontline service context. We want to observe the importance of each ethical attribute on user’s intention to use the robot in the future. To achieve this goal, we incorporated a video that showed Pepper, the robot, in action. Then respondents had to answer questions about their perception of robots based on the video. Based on a final sample of 341 respondents, we used structural equation modeling (SEM)
to test our hypotheses. The results show that the most important ethical issue is the Replacement and its implications for labor. When we look at the impact of the ethical issues on the intention to use, we discovered that the variables impacting the most are Social cues, Trust and Safety.
... Popular science fiction and media ideated consumer robots that provide assistance in daily chores. In the year 2007, Bill Gates (2007) heralded the onset of the consumer robotics era and paralleled it with the personal computer industry back in the 1970s. Tractica reported that consumer robots had reached US$3.8 billion in worldwide sales 2016 and expected that the market would expand and attain a market value of US$13.2 billion by the end of 2022. ...
... However, such robots can be used in therapy, entertainment, and education. It is expected that domestic robots will be able to perform all domestic work (Gates, 2007;You & Robert, 2018;Vrontis et al., 2021;Jha & Saha, 2021). Since domestic robots are able to collect information on a person's health status and about households, it is essential to guard such sensitive information from unauthorized access (Abba Ari et al., 2020). ...
Domestic robots, also known as companion robots or social robots, are physical humanoid robots. They connect with online platforms which enhance their functionalities, such as voice and emotion recognition, human facial recognition, along with other Artificial Intelligence (AI) related capabilities make them special. People’s perceptions of robots are changing rapidly. The market for domestic robots is expected to grow exponentially over the next few years. As the use of domestic robots increases, people perceive different kinds of security, privacy, and legal issues with their usage. Few studies have focused on these issues. This study has attempted to understand users’ intention to use robots for household purposes and focuses on their perceptions about security, privacy, and legal issues. Reviewing the literature and the theories helped us to develop the conceptual model. The model has been validated by PLS-SEM technique. The study finds that privacy and security concerns affect households use of domestic robots. The study also finds that few people are aware of legal implications. Also, the study reveals that people expect to get many benefits from using robots for household purposes.
... The applications of robots are not limited to industrial manufacturing, and the rapid advancement of technology has been accompanied by an increase in the development of social robots, which are designed to socially interact with humans, for instance, by contributing to healthcare for older people (e.g., Paro), teaching autistic children (e.g., NAO), and acting as guides in public places (Broadbent, 2017;Dahl & Boulos, 2013;Gates, 2007;Han et al., 2015;Sabelli & Kanda, 2016). To make the robots around us acceptable and enjoyable and to enhance the quality of human-robot interaction (HRI), robots are built to have a humanlike appearance (e.g., android robots; Broadbent et al., 2013;Ishiguro & Nishio, 2007;Rosenthal-von der Pütten & Krämer, 2014). ...
Robots are being used to socially interact with humans. To enhance the quality of human-robot interaction, engineers aim to build robots with both a humanlike appearance and high mental capacity, but there is a lack of empirical evidence regarding how these two characteristics jointly affect people’s emotional response to robots. The current two experiments (each N = 80) presented robots with either a mechanical or humanlike appearance, with mental capacities operationalized as low or high, and with either self-oriented mentalization to mainly concentrate on the robot itself or other-oriented mentalization to read others’ minds. It was found that when the robots had a humanlike appearance, they were more dislikeable than when they had a mechanical appearance, replicating the uncanny valley effect for appearance. Importantly, given a humanlike appearance, robots with high mental ability elicited stronger dislike than those with low mental ability, showing an uncanny valley effect for mind, but this difference was absent for robots with a mechanical appearance. In addition, this effect was limited to robots with self-oriented mentalization ability and did not extend to robots with other-oriented mentalization ability. Hence, the exterior appearance and interior mental capacity of robots interact to influence people’s emotional reaction to them, and the uncanny valley as it pertains to the mind depends on the robot’s appearance in addition to its mental ability. This implies that social robots with humanlike appearances should be designed with obvious other-directed social abilities to make them more likeable.
... Most ordinary Americans are worried about the growing trend that automation of jobs will exacerbate economic inequality. Indeed, the word robot popularized in 1921 by Czech playwright Karel Capek [148], was used to designate work robota, to stress that these machines could replace labor in different forms [149]. ...
The use of interconnected digital technologies and data offer new and perhaps profound opportunities across the world, whilst holding promises to enhance productivity growth and improved citizen wellbeing. In this research, we explore how people perceive the opportunities and drawbacks of smart homes and smart home technologies via the lens of gender. The study aims to identify what factors shape differing gendered perceptions and the implications this has for future sustainability and technological design. We address these issues through a rigorous mixed methods research design including a nationally representative survey in the United Kingdom (n = 1,032) as well as three focus groups in London, Manchester, and Surrey (n = 18 respondents). We identify the gendered nature of smart homes inductively across five different dimensions: (1) knowledge, awareness, and adoption patterns; (2) housekeeping and daily domestic life; (3) environmental sustainability; (4) trust and risk tolerance; and (5) emotions and feelings. We conclude with policy implications as well as how these findings point the way towards future research.
... During the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential for deploying robots in real life was promoted (Yang et al., 2020). As Gates had predicted, robotic devices could become ubiquitous-"a robot in every home" (Gates, 2007). Thus, it is worth considering the potential acceptance and use of robots for children's story time in the home. ...
Parent–child story time is an important ritual of contemporary parenting. Recently, robots with artificial intelligence (AI) have become common. Parental acceptance of children’s storytelling robots, however, has received scant attention. To address this, we conducted a qualitative study with 18 parents using the research technique design fiction. Overall, parents held mixed, though generally positive, attitudes toward children’s storytelling robots. In their estimation, these robots would outperform screen-based technologies for children’s story time. However, the robots’ potential to adapt and to express emotion caused some parents to feel ambivalent about the robots, which might hinder their adoption. We found three predictors of parental acceptance of these robots: context of use, perceived agency, and perceived intelligence. Parents’ speculation revealed an uncanny valley of AI: a nonlinear relation between the human likeness of the artificial agent’s mind and affinity for the agent. Finally, we consider the implications of children’s storytelling robots, including how they could enhance equity in children’s access to education, and propose directions for research on their design to benefit family well-being.
... With the appearance of more versatile robotic platforms and higher levels of programming, a clear path has been opened for the realization of pseudo-intelligent systems that help human beings in such different facets as industry, medicine, education, entertainment, disability assistance, construction, etc. In recent years, robotics has been expanding its field of action, from homes [2] to robots designed to facilitate and improve the quality of life of dependent people [3]. Within the latter, two distinct lines of work can be distinguished [4]: robots for rehabilitation (where there is no interaction between users and robots, and which are commonly used for physical disabilities); and social robots, which allow a human-robot interaction (HRI) in human society. ...
The effectiveness of social robots such as NAO in pedagogical therapies presents a challenge. There is abundant literature focused on therapies using robots with children with autism, but there is a gap to be filled in other educational different needs. This paper describes an experience of using a NAO as an assistant in a logopedic and pedagogical therapy with children with different needs. Even if the initial robot architecture is based on genericbehaviors, the loading and execution time for each specific requirement and the needs of each child in therapy, made it necessary to develop “Adaptive Behaviors”. These evolve into an adaptive architecture, appliedto the engineer–therapist–child interaction, requiring the engineer-programmer to be always present during the sessions. Benefits from the point of view of the therapist and the children and the acceptance of NAO in therapy are shown. A robot in speech-therapy sessions can play a positive role in several logopedic aspectsserving as a motivating factor for the children.Future works should be oriented in developing intelligent algorithms so as to eliminate the presence of the engineer-programmer in the sessions. Additional work proposals should consider deepening the psychological aspects of using humanoid robots in educational therapy.
... This is not meant to imply that technical challenges do not exist, but rather that our ability to solve technical challenges has outpaced our ability to imagine what new tasks robots can do for us. Thus-as emphasized by Bill Gates [1] -we are in many ways at a point where the personal computer industry was in the mid and late seventies when the hardware had reached the performance/cost threshold needed for industry to take off. ...
While research in human-robot interaction is beginning to focus on the acceptance of domestic robots, there is little research on the potential adoption of these agents. Technology adoption is a complex phenomenon requiring not only positive perceptions of technology but also its value, along with product desire strong enough to lead to desired adoption behavior. Adoption of innovations also occurs in phases, from early adopters to mainstream consumers, then laggards. While the characteristics of technology early adopters generally have been researched extensively, there is no previous work that seeks to validate some of these variables for domestic robots specifically, and which draws from HRI research to further amend them. In this work, we determine how various consumer and robot characteristics affect assessments of home robot liking, privacy concerns, and purchasing intent. We find that five main consumer characteristics are associated with robot early adopters, and that surprisingly, income has a negative correlation with purchasing intent, specifically for the companion robot. We further compare predicted product liking to purchasing intent, showing that although robot acceptance is reasonably high for those in the mainstream, purchasing intent is low. For all market segments, perceptions of high price accounted for about 20-30% of the variance in intended purchasing, intended use 6-7%, belief in performance as advertised 4-6%, and design 3%. While privacy concerns were not influential to purchasing intentions held by early adopters, they were to mainstream users and laggards.
In this era of technological advancement, the once-clear distinction between human intelligence and artificial intelligence is becoming blurred. From Google's search engine to Alexa, artificial intelligence has captured many aspects of our lives. With the involvement of robots and artificial intelligence in our lives, one needs to ponder upon the implications of human-robot interactions and understand artificial intelligence better as robots are becoming a significant part of our living and working alongside humans, especially in the health care domain. This gaining dependability of humans on robots poses a question: can such a ‘care Bot' really care without having genuine emotions? Can we distinguish between robots and humans? Can human interaction with robots be the same as human-human interaction? The concept that weaves humans together is the concept of 'trust'; does this concept prevail in human-robot relationships? Can the active participation of robots in society make them social robots? Can we call them social robots?
The national space programs have an historic opportunity to help solve the global-scale economic and environmental problems of Earth while becoming more effective at science through the use of space resources. Space programs will be more cost-effective when they work to establish a supply chain in space, mining and manufacturing then replicating the assets of the supply chain so it grows to larger capacity. This has become achievable because of advances in robotics and artificial intelligence. It is roughly estimated that developing a lunar outpost that relies upon and also develops the supply chain will cost about 1/3 or less of the existing annual budgets of the national space programs. It will require a sustained commitment of several decades to complete, during which time science and exploration become increasingly effective. At the end, this space industry will capable of addressing global-scale challenges including limited resources, clean energy, economic development, and preservation of the environment. Other potential solutions, including nuclear fusion and terrestrial renewable energy sources, do not address the root problem of our limited globe and there are real questions whether they will be inadequate or too late. While industry in space likewise cannot provide perfect assurance, it is uniquely able to solve the root problem, and it gives us an important chance that we should grasp. What makes this such an historic opportunity is that the space-based solution is obtainable as a side-benefit of doing space science and exploration within their existing budgets. Thinking pragmatically, it may take some time for policymakers to agree that setting up a complete supply chain is an achievable goal, so this paper describes a strategy of incremental progress.
This study employs Conversation Analysis to create a recursive model that improves the quality of human-robot interaction. Our research goal is to create a dialogue robot that offers pleasant experiences for users, so they are willing to engage in repeated interactions in daily lives. While there has been dramatic progress in the performance of dialogue robots, there has been less attention to the importance of users’ interactional experience compared to the “specs” of the dialogue system. Employing Goffmanian insights and using research in Conversation Analysis (CA), the present study develops a dialogue closing system to exit the interaction. We then experimentally verified that the robot with the dialogue closing system performs better in the user’s perception of the robot (i.e. likeability, politeness, and dialogue satisfaction) than the control group. Further, by analyzing the dialogue between the human and the robot through CA, we propose to build a recursive, reflective model to improve the dialogue model design. A constructive approach urges us to reproduce complicated social phenomena in human-robot interaction so that we can investigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms of humans and create robots that can convey human-like cognition functions and coexist with humans. Taking such a constructive approach, we posit that our recursive model for dialogue systems that uses CA insights and then qualitatively analyzes conversational data can enhance the quality of dialogue systems because the model elucidates which properties of a conversation humans need to experience a conversational robot as human-like. Our study suggests that interactional morality - particularly conversational closings - is one property of human interactions that humans likely require social robots to adhere to.
A social robot utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) technology to engage and interact with humans and several studies have explored the various functionalities of social robots. However, limited research has been conducted on how factors such as aesthetics and compatibility can influence individuals' intention to use social robots. Consequently, the aim of this research study is to address this gap and provide insights in this area. The study adopts the technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior, and innovation diffusion theory to investigate the cognitive and psychological factors that impact an individual's intention to use social robots. The study uses self-efficacy, and innovativeness as the predictors of compatibility. Also, the study uses personal norms, and social norms as predictors of aesthetics. Taking account of theories and current literature, we developed a conceptual model and validated it using the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique with 372 respondents. The study found that compatibility and aesthetics are important factors impacting individuals’ intentions to use social robots.
Le nuove tecnologie digitali hanno impattato sulla pianificazione territoriale in più fasi. Inizialmente, i sistemi operativi desktop e le tecnologie CAD hanno rivouzionato la cassetta degli attrezzi del professionista e l'organizzazione del lavoro, mentre in anni più recenti la diffusione capillare di Internet e dell'elettronica di consumo hanno dato origine a un processo definito "digitization of everything". Questi profondi mutamenti hanno modificato non solo gli strumenti a disposizione, ma anche l'approccio alla pianificazione territoriale e le opportunità per gli specialisti del settore, con un sempre maggiore interesse per l'informazione geografica e la conoscenza del "dove".
Der Einsatz von robotischen Assistenzsystemen für die Pflegesituation ist mit hohen Erwartungen verknüpft. Assistenzroboter sollen den Pflegebedürftigen ein selbstbestimmtes Leben ermöglichen und die Pflegekräfte bei anstrengenden Tätigkeiten entlasten. Manche Folgen von demografischem Wandel und Personalmangel bei den Pflegeberufen ließen sich auf diese Weise kompensieren. Gleichzeitig könnte eine Zunahme bei der Technisierung der Pflege zu einer Abnahme bei den zwischenmenschlichen Kontakten führen. Mit ethischen Evaluationen lassen sich die ethischen, rechtlichen und sozialen Implikationen (ELSI) der Mensch-Roboter-Interaktion (MRI) hinsichtlich ihrer Unterstützungs-, Entlastungs- und Gefährdungspotenziale für die Pflegesituation bereits während der Technologieentwicklung prüfen. Damit werden Empfehlungen für den verantwortlichen Umgang mit robotischen Assistenzsystemen auf einer normativ-empirischen Grundlage formulierbar, bevor diese Technologien im Gesundheitswesen eingesetzt werden.
Vorwort Dieser Bericht entstand im Rahmen der Lehrveranstaltung "Forschungs-methoden und Seminar (FMS)" im Wintersemester 2021/22 auf Initiative der Studierenden des Masterstudiengangs "Elektro-und Informations-technik (MEI)". Diese Lehrveranstaltung hat das Ziel, systematisch an das wissenschaft-liche Arbeiten, speziell die Wissenschaftskommunikation, heranzuführen. Daher war geeignete Literatur zu einem individuellen Thema zu recher-chieren, Veröffentlichungen auf ihre Relevanz hin zu beurteilen und letzt-endlich eine eigene Ausarbeitung basierend auf der Literaturrecherche zu erarbeiten und diese in einem Vortrag zu präsentieren. Parallel dazu erfolgte im Theorieteil die entsprechende Hinführung zu den verschiedenen Elementen der Wissenschaftskommunikation: • Bedeutung der Wissenschaftskommunikation für die Arbeit der In-genieure in Forschung und Entwicklung • Literaturrecherche, Suchmaschinen, Sichtung und Analyse vorhan-dener Publikationen, Bewertung der Qualität aufgefundener Fachli-teratur, Auswahl geeigneter Materialien für die eigene Arbeit • Aufbereitung und Darstellung der recherchierten technischer Inhalte in Form einer seitenanzahlbegrenzten wissenschaftlichen Ausarbei-tung • Einhalten formaler Randbedingungen bzgl. Strukturierung, einschl. Bildnachweise und Zitationsstile • Peer-review-Prozess bei wertschätzender Beurteilung der Leistung anderer • Publikumsangepasstes Aufbereiten komplexer fachlicher Inhalte mit hochschulöffentlicher Präsentation der Ergebnisse • Führen mündlicher wissenschaftlicher Diskurse Nachdem die Masterstudierenden in der Regel über noch keine eigene wissenschaftliche Forschungserfahrung bzw.-inhalte verfügen, lag der wählbare Schwerpunkt der Literatursuche auf der Bearbeitung von vor-gegeben aktuellen technischen oder gesellschaftspolitischen Forschungs-themen.
Robots, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles are associated with substantial narrative and image-related legacies that often place them in a negative light. This chapter outlines the basics of the “dramaturgical” and technosocial approaches that are used throughout this book to gain insights about how these emerging technologies are affecting deeply-seated social and psychological processes. The robot as an “other” in the workplace and community—an object of attention and discussion– has been a frequently-utilized theme of science fiction as well as a topic for research analysis, with many people “acting out” their anxieties and grievances. Human-AI contests and displays of robotic feats are often used to intimidate people and reinforce that individuals are not in control of their own destinies, which presents unsettling prospects for the future.
The hodgepodge of papers in the field of cloud robotics makes it difficult for aspiring beginners to quickly understand the research directions and frontiers of cloud robotics. This is a Tutorial Book(non-academic) for beginners to understand the fundamentals and frontiers of cloud robotics quickly. It is a collection and compilation of published work in the area of cloud robotics. This tutorial book includes basic research directions and significant papers. If you are a beginner, you will be able to understand the mainstream research in cloud robotics through the organization and papers in this book.
Çalışmanın Konusu ve Amacı
Chris Freeman, ‘Yenilik İktisadı’ adlı eserine “Mikroelektroniğin ve genetik
mühendisliğinin dünyasında, bilim ve teknolojinin iktisadi açıdan önemini anlatmaya
çalışmak gerçekten gereksizdir. Teknolojiyi, ister sosyolog Marcuse yada romancı
Simon de Beauvoir gibi, insanoğlunun esaretinin ve yıkılışının aracı, istersek Adam
Smith yada Marx gibi öncelikle özgürlüğü sağlayacak bir güç olarak görelim,
hepimiz onun gelişimi ile yakından ilgiliyiz. Ne kadar istersek isteyelim, onun
günlük hayatımız üzerindeki etkisinden, önümüze çıkardığı ahlaki, toplumsal ve
ekonomik ikilemlerden kaçamayız. Onu lanetleyebilir yada yüceltebiliriz ama yok
sayamayız…” sözleriyle başlamıştır. Freeman bu sözleriyle, teknolojinin bireyler,
toplumlar ve devletler ile ekonomik, sosyal ve politik konular üzerinde olan
etkilerinin önemini vurgulamaktadır.
This article makes the case for including frameworks of media ecology and mobilities research in the shaping of critical robotics research for a human-centered and holistic lens onto robot technologies. The two meta-disciplines, which align in their attention to relational processes of communication and movement, provide useful tools for critically exploring emerging human–robot dimensions and dynamics. Media ecology approaches human-made technologies as media that can shape the way we think, feel, and act. Relatedly, mobilities research highlights various kinds of influential movement and stillness of people, things, and ideas. The emerging field of critical robotics research can benefit from such attention to the ways of thinking, feeling, and moving robotic forms and environments encourage and discourage. Drawing on various studies into robotics, I illustrate those conceptual alignments of media ecology, mobilities, and critical robotics research and point to the value of this interdisciplinary approach to robots as media and robotics as socio-cultural environments.
The main task of cooking robot is to complete all kinds of cooking work instead of people. Based on the single-chip microcomputer control system, the author describes the modular design of a stir frying device in this article, and elaborates on the overall scheme design, mechanical structure design and control system design of a type of stir frying device. The device detects the temperature in the pot through a temperature sensor, controls the mechanical arm, the pancake turner and ingredient tray through two steering engines, a stepping motor and an adjustable-speed DC motor to make them reach the designated position. The entire cooking process is coordinated and controlled by the program. It can complete a series of actions such as pouring oil, putting vegetables in the pot, adding seasonings, stir-frying. Besides, it also can control the cooking time and heating degree in each link until the production of a dish is completed. The stir frying device realizes the modularization and automation of the cooking process.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.