Abstracts
Towards a Sociological Understanding of Robots as Companions
Whereas until recently most ICT's primarily mediated or facilitated emotional bonding and companionship between humans, now social roboticists are working on technology where the bonding between human - artefact is the core issue. This development not only opens up a huge potential of new applications, but also raises quite some societal and ethical concerns. In this paper we will argue that current conceptions of human-robot companionship are primarily rooted in psychological traditions and provide only a limited understanding of the companion relationship. Elaborating on a sociological perspective on appropriation of new technology, we will argue for a richer understanding of companionship that takes the situatedness (in location, network and time) of the use context into account.
Loving Machines: Theorizing Human and Sociable-Technology Interaction
Today, human and sociable-technology interaction is a contested site of inquiry. Some regard social robots as an innovative medium of communication that offer new avenues for expression, communication, and interaction. Other others question the moral veracity of human-robot relationships, suggesting that such associations risk psychological impoverishment. What seems clear is that the emergence of social robots in everyday life will alter the nature of social interaction, bringing with it a need for new theories to understand the shifting terrain between humans and machines. This work provides a historical context for human and sociable robot interaction. Current research related to human-sociable-technology interaction is considered in relation to arguments that confront a humanist view that confine 'technological things' to the nonhuman side of the human/nonhuman binary relation. Finally, it recommends a theoretical approach for the study of human and sociable-technology interaction that accommodates increasingly personal relations between human and nonhuman technologies.
Talking to robots: On the linguistic construction of personal human-robot relations
How should we make sense of 'personal' human-robot relations, given that many people view robots as 'mere machines'? This paper proposes that we understand human-robot relations from a phenomenological view as social relations in which robots are constructed as quasi-others. It is argued that language mediates in this construction. Responding to research by Turkle and others, it is shown that our talking to robots (as opposed to talking about robots) reveals a shift from an impersonal third-person to a personal second-person perspective, which constitutes a different kind of human-robot relation. The paper makes suggestions for empirical research to further study this social-phenomenological process.
A Design Process for Lovotics
We refer to human-robot relationships as Lovotics. In this paper a design process for Lovotics is presented. In order to invoke these relationships, technological solutions can only take us so far. Design played an important role in order to engage users to explore the possibilities of bi-directional, human-robot love. We conducted a user-centric study in order to understand these factors and incorporate them into our design. The key issues of design for developing a strong emotional connection between robots and humans are investigated. A questionnaire is proposed and based on the results of this a robot with minimal design is developed.
Modeling mixed groups of humans and robots with Reflexive Game Theory
The Reflexive Game Theory is based on decision-making principles similar to the ones used by humans. This theory considers the groups of subjects and allows to predict which action from the set each subject in the group will choose. It is possible to influence subject's decision in a way that he will make a particular choice. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how robots refrain humans from risky actions.
To define the risky actions, the Asimov's Three Laws of robotics are employed. By fusing the RGT's power to convince humans on the mental level with Asimov's laws' safety, we illustrate how robots in the mixed groups of humans and robots can influence on human subjects in order to refrain humans from risky actions. We suggest that this fusion has a potential to device human-like motor behaving and looking robots with the human-like decision-making algorithms.
Digital Adultery, "Meta-Anon Widows," Real-World Divorce, and the Need for a Virtual Sexual Ethic
Ethical issues that have emerged around relationships in virtual worlds can inform the way we approach the ethics of human-robot relationships. A workable ethic would be one that treats marriage as an enduring human institution and, while we value robots as worthy works of our hands, they are inappropriate partners for marital or sexual relationships.
The Yume Project: Artists and Androids
Creating believable androids is not just a technological feat, but an artistic one. The Yume Project addresses the challenge of creating lifelike android by developing complex character. The authors demonstrate the unique perspectives artists can bring to the humanoid robot design process through costume, character, and story development. The authors hope to show that it is a focus on believability rather than realism that is needed to advance the field of humanoid robotics.
The potential of Socially Assistive Robotics in care for Elderly, a systematic review
The ongoing development of robotics against the background of a decreasing number of care personnel raises the question which contribution robotics could have to rationalize and maintain, or even improve the quality of care.
A systematic review was conducted to assess the effects and consequences of the interaction between socially assistive robots and elderly, in published literature. We searched in CINAHL, MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, BIOMED, PUBMED, PsycINFO, EMBASE and the IEEE Digital Library. In addition, articles were selected through free Internet search and from conference proceedings.
Studies have been found reporting positive effects of companion type robots on (socio)psychological level and physiological level. However, the scientific value of the evidence is limited due to the fact that most research is done in Japan with a small set of robots, with small sample sets and with mostly an explorative approach.
"Adventures of Harvey" - Use, acceptance of and relationship building with a social robot in a domestic environment
The goal of this study was to improve our understanding about how older people use social robots in domestic environments and in particular whether and how they build relationships with these robots. Three participants interacted with the Nabaztag, a social robot, for a 10-day period in their own home environment. Some of our findings are (1) utilitarian-, hedonic-, and social factors are important when accepting social robots, (2) utilitarian-, hedonic- and social factors are important for building a relationship with the Nabaztag, (3) there is a relationship between name-calling and relationship building and (4) there is a relationship between using non-verbal- and verbal communication and relationship building.
Investigation on Requirements of Robotic Platforms to Teach Social Skills to Individuals with Autism
This paper reports on some of the robotic platforms used in the project AUROSO which investigates the use of robots as educationally useful interventions to improve social interactions for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Our approach to treatment uses an educational intervention based on Socially Assistive Robotics (SAR), the DIR/Floortime intervention model and social script/stories. Requirements are established and a variety of robotic models/platforms were investigated as to the feasibility of an economical, practical and efficient means of helping teach social skills to individuals with ASD for use by teachers, families, service providers and other community organizations.
From speech to emotional interaction: EmotiRob project
This article presents research work done in the domain of nonverbal emotional interaction for the EmotiRob project. It is a component of the MAPH project, the objective of which is to give comfort to vulnerable children and/or those undergoing long-term hospitalisation through the help of an emotional robot companion. It is important to note that we are not trying to reproduce human emotion and behavior, but trying to make a robot emotionally expressive. This paper will present the different hypotheses we have used from understanding to emotional reaction. We begin the article with a presentation of the MAPH and EmotiRob project. Then, we quickly describe the speech understanding system, the iGrace computational model of emotions and integration of dynamics behavior. We conclude with a description of the architecture of Emi, as well as improvements to be made to its next generation.
Can Children have a Relationship with a Robot?
As the development of autonomous robots has moved towards creating social robots, children's interactions with robots will soon need to be investigated. This paper examines how children think about and attribute features of friendship to a robot. A total of 184 children between ages 5 to 16 years visiting a science centre were randomly selected to participate in an experiment with an approximate even number of boys and girls. Children were interviewed after observing a traditional small 5 degree of freedom robot arm, perform a block stacking task. A set of experiments were conducted to measure children's perceptions of affiliation with the robot. Content analysis revealed that a large majority would consider a relationship with the robot, and participate in friendship-type behaviors with it. Significant sex differences in how children ascribe characteristics of friendship to a robot were also found.
Children's Perception and Interpretation of Robots and Robot Behaviour
Technology is advancing rapidly; especially in the field of robotics. The purpose of this study was to examine children's perception and interpretation of robots and robot behaviour. The study was divided into two phases: phase one involved 144 children (aged 7-8) from two primary schools drawing a picture of a robot and then writing a story about the robot that they had drawn. In phase two, in small groups, 90 children observed four e-puck robots interacting within an arena. The children were asked three questions during the observation: 'What do you think the robots are doing?', 'Why are they doing these things?' and 'What is going on inside the robot?' The results indicated that children can hold multiple understandings of robots simultaneously. Children tend to attribute animate characteristics to robots. Although this may be explained by their stage of development, it may also influence how their generation integrates robots into society.
The development of an online research tool to investigate children's social bonds with robots
As children are increasingly exposed to robots, it is important to learn more about the social interaction and bond that may develop between robots and children. In this paper we report the development of an interactive tool to measure children's attitudes toward social robots for children ages 6-10. A first version of the KidSAR instrument was tested and a pilot study was carried out to evaluate and improve the design of the KidSAR (Children's Social Attitude toward Robots) tool. The pilot study involved a small scale field experiment assessing whether children feel more social connection with a robot in a caring role compared with a role where it needed to be taken care of. The final KidSAR tool was developed after evaluation of children's responses and observation of children using the tool.
Using Empathy to Improve Human-Robot Relationships
For robots to become our personal companions in the future, they need to know how to socially interact with us. One defining characteristic of human social behaviour is empathy. In this paper, we present a robot that acts as a social companion expressing different kinds of empathic behaviours through its facial expressions and utterances. The robot comments the moves of two subjects playing a chess game against each other, being empathic to one of them and neutral towards the other. The results of a pilot study suggest that users to whom the robot was empathic perceived the robot more as a friend.
Interaction between Task Oriented and Affective Information Processing in Cognitive Robotics
There is an increasing interest in endowing robots with emotions. Robot control however is still often very task oriented. We present a cognitive architecture that allows the combination of and interaction between task representations and affective information processing. Our model is validated by comparing simulation results with empirical data from experimental psychology.