Thomas Sievers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Thomas Sievers

Applied Machine Learning and Data Analytics, 2024

As humanoid service robots are becoming more and more perceptible in public service settings for ... more As humanoid service robots are becoming more and more perceptible in public service settings for instance as a guide to welcome visitors or to explain a procedure to follow, it is desirable to improve the comprehensibility of complex issues for human customers and to adapt the level of difficulty of the information provided as well as the language used to individual requirements. This work examines a case study using a humanoid social robot Pepper performing support for customers in a public service environment offering advice and information. An application architecture is proposed that improves the intelligibility of the information received by providing the possibility to translate this information into easy language and/or into another spoken language

8th Workshop on Behavior Adaptation and Learning for Assistive Robotics, 2024

One way to improve Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and increase trust, acceptance and mutual unders... more One way to improve Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and increase trust, acceptance and mutual understanding is to make the behavior of a social robot more comprehensible and understandable for humans. This is particularly important if humans and machines are to work together as partners. To be able to do this, both must have the same basic understanding of the task and the current situation. We created a model within a cognitive architecture connected to the robot. The cognitive model processed relevant conversational data during a dialog with a human to create a mental model of the situation. The dialog parts of the robot were generated with a Large Language Model (LLM) from OpenAI using suitable prompts. An ACT-R model evaluated the data received by the robot according to predefined criteria-in our example application, hierarchical relationships were established and rememberedand provided feedback to the LLM via the application for prompt augmentation with the purpose of adapting or finetuning the request. Initial tests indicated that this approach may have advantages for dialogic tasks and can compensate for weaknesses in terms of a deeper understanding or "blind spots" on the part of the LLM.

Workshop Robots for Humans 2024, 2024

The use of cognitive architectures is promising in order to achieve more human-like reactions and... more The use of cognitive architectures is promising in order to achieve more human-like reactions and behavior in social robots. For example, ACT-R can be used to create a dynamic cognitive person model of a human cooperation partner of the robot. A proof-of-concept for a direct and easy-to-implement integration of ACT-R with the humanoid social robot Pepper is described in this work. An exemplary setup of the system consisting of cognitive architecture and robot application and the type of connection between ACT-R and the robot is explained. Furthermore, an idea is outlined of how the cognitive person model of the human cooperation partner in ACT-R is updated with dynamic data from the real world using the example of emotion recognition by the robot.

KI - Künstliche Intelligenz, 2024

Is it possible to integrate a humanoid social robot into the work processes or customer care in a... more Is it possible to integrate a humanoid social robot into the work processes or customer care in an official environment, e.g. in municipal offices? If so, what could such an application scenario look like and what skills would the robot need to have when interacting with human customers? What are requirements for this kind of interactions? We have devised an application scenario for such a case, determined the necessary or desirable capabilities of the robot, developed a corresponding robot application and carried out initial tests and evaluations in a project together with the Kiel City Council. One of the most important insights gained in the project was that a humanoid robot with natural language processing capabilities based on large language models as well as human-like gestures and posture changes (animations) proved to be much more preferred by users compared to standard browser-based solutions on tablets for an information system in the City Council. Furthermore, we propose a connection of the ACT-R cognitive architecture with the robot, where an ACT-R model is used in interaction with the robot application to cognitively process and enhance a dialogue between human and robot.

IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and Its Social Impacts (ARSO), 2024

Recognizing and correctly assessing the emotions of a human conversation partner is-if successful... more Recognizing and correctly assessing the emotions of a human conversation partner is-if successful-a milestone in social interaction between humans and social robots. The robot should recognize human emotions and take them into account in its reactions. It is also important that humans and robots assess the content of the dialog from an emotional perspective in the same way. But how can the emotional state of a person in a dialog with a robot be accessed? We examined this question more closely in our study. A Large Language Model (LLM) from OpenAI (ChatGPT) was used for conversations with a Pepper robot. We had the course of the dialog assessed once by the human interlocutor and once by the GPT model itself using sentiment analysis. In addition, the predominant emotion was named by both conversation partners after the dialog. A comparison of these evaluations provided an assessment of whether the human and the social robot arrived at the same results. We were also investigating whether the transmission of emotion recognition data had a noticeable influence on the tonality of the conversation. To do this, we used the robot's emotion recognition capabilities to send cues to the GPT model about the current emotional state of the human at each turn of the conversation, so that the LLM could take this into account in the generation of the robot's utterances. It was found that the predominant emotion of the human and the general mood of a conversation were interpreted by humans and the GPT model in largely the same way, whereby an existing emotion recognition made the robot's assessment of the general mood deviate noticeably.

Social Robotics, 2023

Social robots are becoming more and more perceptible in public service settings. For engaging peo... more Social robots are becoming more and more perceptible in public service settings. For engaging people in a natural environment a smooth social interaction as well as acceptance by the users are important issues for future successful Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). The type of verbal communication has a special significance here. In this paper we investigate the effects of spoken language varieties of a non-standard / regional language compared to standard language. More precisely we compare a human dialog with a humanoid social robot Pepper where the robot on the one hand is answering in High German and on the other hand in Low German, a regional language that is understood and partly still spoken in the northern parts of Germany. The content of what the robot says remains the same in both variants. We are interested in the effects that these two different ways of robot talk have on human interlocutors who are more or less familiar with Low German in terms of perceived warmth, competence and possible discomfort in conversation against a background of cultural identity. To measure these factors we use the Robotic Social Attributes Scale (RoSAS) on 17 participants with an age ranging from 19 to 61. Our results show that significantly higher warmth is perceived in the Low German version of the conversation.

15th International Conference on Computer and Automation Engineering (ICCAE), 2023

This paper addresses the possibility to use a variety of sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (A... more This paper addresses the possibility to use a variety of sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven technologies with a humanoid service robot without the need to have a deeper knowledge of the respective AI technology. Application interfaces are used that are capable to exchange data between the robot and highly complex AI services running on a remote server. Such application programming interfaces (APIs) can be applied by users who have little or no experience with the linked AI techniques. The consequences would be a reduction of barriers in the sense of AI democratization for in-house developers lacking special expertise and the facilitation of development for a wider user base including those without specialized knowledge of AI. We describe some application examples in a generic case study, how they are built and the different APIs that are used. Technical problems and limitations of our attempts are also mentioned.

2023 15th International Conference on Computer and Automation Engineering (ICCAE)