Determining Shape and Size of Personal Space of a Human when Passed by a Robot

AbstractAutonomous mobile robots that operate in environments with people are expected to be able to deal with human proxemics and social distances. Previous research investigated how robots can approach persons or how to implement human-aware navigation algorithms. However, experimental research on how robots can avoid a person in a comfortable way is largely missing. The aim of the current work is to experimentally determine the shape and size of personal space of a human passed by a robot. In two studies, both a humanoid as well as a non-humanoid robot were used to pass a person at different sides and distances, after which they were asked to rate their perceived comfort. As expected, perceived comfort increases with distance. However, the shape was not circular: passing at the back of a person is more uncomfortable compared to passing at the front, especially in the case of the humanoid robot. These results give us more insight into the shape and size of personal space in human–robot interaction. Furthermore, they can serve as necessary input to human-aware navigation algorithms for autonomous mobile robots in which human comfort is traded off with efficiency goals.

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ERIKA – Early Robotics Introduction at Kindergarten Age

10.20944/preprints201807.0558.v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Stefan Schiffer ◽

Alexander Ferrein

Keyword(s):

Mobile Robots ◽

School Children ◽

Speech Synthesis ◽

Humanoid Robot ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Teaching Tool ◽

Robot Interaction ◽

Basic Principles ◽

Game Show ◽

Early Introduction

In this work we report on our effort to design and implement an early introduction to basic robotics principles for children at kindergarten age.  The humanoid robot Pepper, which is a great platform for human-robot interaction experiments, was presenting the lecture by reading out the contents to the children making use of its speech synthesis capability.  One of the main challenges of this effort was to explain complex robotics contents in a way that pre-school children could follow the basic principles and ideas using examples from their world of experience. A quiz in a Runaround-game-show style after the lecture activated the children to recap the contents  they acquired about how mobile robots work in principle. Besides the thrill being exposed to a mobile robot that would also react to the children, they were very excited and at the same time very concentrated. What sets apart our effort from other work is that part of the lecturing is actually done by a robot itself and that a quiz at the end of the lesson is done using robots as well. To the best of our knowledge this is one of only few attempts to use Pepper not as a tele-teaching tool, but as the teacher itself in order to engage pre-school children with complex robotics contents. We  got very positive feedback from the children as well as from their educators.

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ERIKA—Early Robotics Introduction at Kindergarten Age

Multimodal Technologies and Interaction ◽

10.3390/mti2040064 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (4) ◽

pp. 64

Author(s):

Stefan Schiffer ◽

Alexander Ferrein

Keyword(s):

Mobile Robots ◽

School Children ◽

Speech Synthesis ◽

Humanoid Robot ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Teaching Tool ◽

Robot Interaction ◽

Basic Principles ◽

Game Show ◽

Early Introduction

In this work, we report on our attempt to design and implement an early introduction to basic robotics principles for children at kindergarten age. One of the main challenges of this effort is to explain complex robotics contents in a way that pre-school children could follow the basic principles and ideas using examples from their world of experience. What sets apart our effort from other work is that part of the lecturing is actually done by a robot itself and that a quiz at the end of the lesson is done using robots as well. The humanoid robot Pepper from Softbank, which is a great platform for human–robot interaction experiments, was used to present a lecture on robotics by reading out the contents to the children making use of its speech synthesis capability. A quiz in a Runaround-game-show style after the lecture activated the children to recap the contents they acquired about how mobile robots work in principle. In this quiz, two LEGO Mindstorm EV3 robots were used to implement a strongly interactive scenario. Besides the thrill of being exposed to a mobile robot that would also react to the children, they were very excited and at the same time very concentrated. We got very positive feedback from the children as well as from their educators. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of only few attempts to use a robot like Pepper not as a tele-teaching tool, but as the teacher itself in order to engage pre-school children with complex robotics contents.

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Extending NGOMSL Model for Human-Humanoid Robot Interaction in the Soccer Robotics Domain

Applied Bionics and Biomechanics ◽

10.1155/2008/104602 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 235-241 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rajesh Elara Mohan ◽

Carlos Antonio Acosta Calderon ◽

Changjiu Zhou ◽

Pik Kong Yue

Keyword(s):

Human Computer Interaction ◽

Mobile Robots ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Interaction Design ◽

Humanoid Robot ◽

Humanoid Robots ◽

Usability Evaluation ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Robot Interaction ◽

Commercial Markets

In the field of human-computer interaction, the Natural Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection rules Language (NGOMSL) model is one of the most popular methods for modelling knowledge and cognitive processes for rapid usability evaluation. The NGOMSL model is a description of the knowledge that a user must possess to operate the system represented as elementary actions for effective usability evaluations. In the last few years, mobile robots have been exhibiting a stronger presence in commercial markets and very little work has been done with NGOMSL modelling for usability evaluations in the human-robot interaction discipline. This paper focuses on extending the NGOMSL model for usability evaluation of human-humanoid robot interaction in the soccer robotics domain. The NGOMSL modelled human-humanoid interaction design of Robo-Erectus Junior was evaluated and the results of the experiments showed that the interaction design was able to find faults in an average time of 23.84 s. Also, the interaction design was able to detect the fault within the 60 s in 100% of the cases. The Evaluated Interaction design was adopted by our Robo-Erectus Junior version of humanoid robots in the RoboCup 2007 humanoid soccer league.

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Task planning based on human-robot interaction for autonomous mobile robots

Proceedings 5th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Communication RO-MAN 96 TSUKUBA ROMAN-96 ◽

10.1109/roman.1996.568877 ◽

2002 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Y. Shiraishi ◽

Y. Anzai

Keyword(s):

Mobile Robots ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Autonomous Mobile Robots ◽

Task Planning ◽

Robot Interaction

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An Approach of Social Navigation Based on Proxemics for Crowded Environments of Humans and Robots

Micromachines ◽

10.3390/mi12020193 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 193

Author(s):

Marcos Daza ◽

Dennis Barrios-Aranibar ◽

José Diaz-Amado ◽

Yudith Cardinale ◽

João Vilasboas

Keyword(s):

Mobile Robots ◽

Autonomous Navigation ◽

Robot Navigation ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Indoor Environments ◽

Robot Interaction ◽

Social Navigation ◽

Novel Approach ◽

Navigation Algorithms ◽

Crowded Environments

Nowadays, mobile robots are playing an important role in different areas of science, industry, academia and even in everyday life. In this sense, their abilities and behaviours become increasingly complex. In particular, in indoor environments, such as hospitals, schools, banks and museums, where the robot coincides with people and other robots, its movement and navigation must be programmed and adapted to robot–robot and human–robot interactions. However, existing approaches are focused either on multi-robot navigation (robot–robot interaction) or social navigation with human presence (human–robot interaction), neglecting the integration of both approaches. Proxemic interaction is recently being used in this domain of research, to improve Human–Robot Interaction (HRI). In this context, we propose an autonomous navigation approach for mobile robots in indoor environments, based on the principles of proxemic theory, integrated with classical navigation algorithms, such as ORCA, Social Momentum, and A*. With this novel approach, the mobile robot adapts its behaviour, by analysing the proximity of people to each other, with respect to it, and with respect to other robots to decide and plan its respective navigation, while showing acceptable social behaviours in presence of humans. We describe our proposed approach and show how proxemics and the classical navigation algorithms are combined to provide an effective navigation, while respecting social human distances. To show the suitability of our approach, we simulate several situations of coexistence of robots and humans, demonstrating an effective social navigation.

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Humans and humanoids

10.1093/oso/9780199674923.003.0047 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Giorgio Metta

Keyword(s):

Humanoid Robot ◽

Robot Vision ◽

Physical Space ◽

Humanoid Robots ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Biologically Inspired ◽

Robot Interaction ◽

Humanoid Robotics ◽

Biomimetic Robot ◽

Compliant Actuation

This chapter outlines a number of research lines that, starting from the observation of nature, attempt to mimic human behavior in humanoid robots. Humanoid robotics is one of the most exciting proving grounds for the development of biologically inspired hardware and software—machines that try to recreate billions of years of evolution with some of the abilities and characteristics of living beings. Humanoids could be especially useful for their ability to “live” in human-populated environments, occupying the same physical space as people and using tools that have been designed for people. Natural human–robot interaction is also an important facet of humanoid research. Finally, learning and adapting from experience, the hallmark of human intelligence, may require some approximation to the human body in order to attain similar capacities to humans. This chapter focuses particularly on compliant actuation, soft robotics, biomimetic robot vision, robot touch, and brain-inspired motor control in the context of the iCub humanoid robot.

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User-centred design of humanoid robots’ communication

Paladyn Journal of Behavioral Robotics ◽

10.1515/pjbr-2021-0003 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 58-73

Author(s):

Sofia Thunberg ◽

Tom Ziemke

Keyword(s):

Mental Models ◽

Participatory Design ◽

Humanoid Robot ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Design Method ◽

Humanoid Robots ◽

Human Robot Interaction ◽

Robot Interaction ◽

Design Concepts ◽

Design Ideas

AbstractInteraction between humans and robots will benefit if people have at least a rough mental model of what a robot knows about the world and what it plans to do. But how do we design human-robot interactions to facilitate this? Previous research has shown that one can change people’s mental models of robots by manipulating the robots’ physical appearance. However, this has mostly not been done in a user-centred way, i.e. without a focus on what users need and want. Starting from theories of how humans form and adapt mental models of others, we investigated how the participatory design method, PICTIVE, can be used to generate design ideas about how a humanoid robot could communicate. Five participants went through three phases based on eight scenarios from the state-of-the-art tasks in the RoboCup@Home social robotics competition. The results indicate that participatory design can be a suitable method to generate design concepts for robots’ communication in human-robot interaction.

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