Humanoid Robotics Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Optimizing neurofeedback (NF) and brain–computer interface (BCI) implementations constitutes a challenge across many fields and has so far been addressed by, among others, advancing signal processing methods or predicting the user’s control ability from neurophysiological or psychological measures. In comparison, how context factors influence NF/BCI performance is largely unexplored. We here investigate whether a competitive multi-user condition leads to better NF/BCI performance than a single-user condition. We implemented a foot motor imagery (MI) NF with mobile electroencephalography (EEG). Twenty-five healthy, young participants steered a humanoid robot in a single-user condition and in a competitive multi-user race condition using a second humanoid robot and a pseudo competitor. NF was based on 8–30 Hz relative event-related desynchronization (ERD) over sensorimotor areas. There was no significant difference between the ERD during the competitive multi-user condition and the si...

- by
- •
- Robotics, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Analytical Chemistry
- by Alexander Schmitz
- •
- Robotics, Humanoid Robotics

Recent advances in control of humanoid robots have resulted in bipedal gaits that are dynamically stable on moderately rough terrain but are still limited to a small range of slopes. Humanoid robots, like humans, can take advantage of quadruped gaits to greatly extend this range. Cleverly designed gaits can provide robustness to rough terrain without requiring extensive feedback. In this paper, we present a robust crab-walking framework that includes forward and backward crawling patterns, rotation patterns, and sit-down and recovery sequences. The latter are activated autonomously once the robot detects that it tipped over. The performance and robustness of each locomotion pattern are investigated over a wide range of slopes. Crab-walking is shown to be especially adept at crawling forward on steep downward slopes (up to -54°) and crawling backward on steep upward slopes (up to 18°). Finally, we demonstrate the framework's autonomous capabilities by crossing the rough terrain i...

- by Miriam Zacksenhouse
- •
- Mechanical Engineering, Humanoid Robotics, Crawling, CPG

Stable bipedal walking is a key prerequisite for humanoid robots to reach their potential of being versatile helpers in our everyday environments. Bipedal walking is, however, a complex motion that requires the coordination of many degrees of freedom while it is also inherently unstable and sensitive to disturbances. The balance of a walking biped has to be constantly maintained. The most effective ways of controlling balance are well timed and placed recovery steps — capture steps — that absorb the expense momentum gained from a push or a stumble. We present a bipedal gait generation framework that utilizes step timing and foot placement techniques in order to recover the balance of a biped even after strong disturbances. Our framework modifies the next footstep location instantly when responding to a disturbance and generates controllable omnidirectional walking using only very little sensing and computational power. We exploit the open-loop stability of a central pattern generate...

- by Alexander Schmitz
- •
- Robotics, Humanoid Robotics, Open Source, European Commission

This paper aims to show the possible and actual synergies between social robotics and sociology. The author argues that social robots are one of the best fields of inquiry to provide a bridge between the two cultures – the one represented by the social sciences and the humanities on the one hand, and the one represented by the natural sciences and engineering on the other. To achieve this result, quantitative and qualitative analyses are implemented. By using scientometric tools like Ngram Viewer, search engines such as Google Scholar, and hand calculations, the author detects the emergence of the term-and-concept ‘social robots’ in its current use, the absolute and relative frequencies of this term in the scientific literature in the period 1800-2008, the frequency distribution of publications including this term in the period 2000-2019, and the magnitude of publications in which the term ‘social robots’ is associated to the term ‘sociology’ or 'social work'. Finally, employing qualitative analysis and focusing on exemplary cases, this paper shows different ways of implementing researches that relate sociology to robotics, from a theoretical or instrumental point of view. It is argued that sociologists and engineers could work in a team to observe, analyze, and describe the interaction between humans and social robots, by using research techniques and theoretical frames provided by sociology. In turn, this knowledge can be used to build more effective and humanlike social robots.

- by Nikolaos Tsagarakis
- •
- Robotics, Robot Vision, Humanoid Robotics, Locomotion

Knowing the geometry of a space is desirable for many applications, e.g. sound source localization, sound field reproduction or auralization. In circumstances where only acoustic signals can be obtained, estimating the geometry of a room is a challenging proposition. Existing methods have been proposed to reconstruct a room from the room impulse responses (RIRs). However, the sound source and microphones must be deployed in a feasible region of the room for it to work, which is impractical when the room is unknown. This work propose to employ a robot equipped with a sound source and four acoustic sensors, to follow a proposed path planning strategy to moves around the room to collect first image sources for room geometry estimation. The strategy can effectively drives the robot from a random initial location through the room so that the room geometry is guaranteed to be revealed. Effectiveness of the proposed approach is extensively validated in a synthetic environment, where the results obtained are highly promising.

- by Linh Nguyen
- •
- Robotics, Robotics (Computer Science), Acoustics, Mobile Robotics

This Foreword, about robots, written in both poetry as well as prose, introduces the edited collection _Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society_, edited by Steven J. Thompson (IGI Global, 2018). The link on the thumbnail cover at
https://www.igi-global.com/book/_/179222 will take you directly to the published Foreword, which is open access. The attached PDF, sent directly to me from IGI-Global to use here, is presented with written permission of the publisher.

- by Steven B. Katz
- •
- Robotics, Robotics (Computer Science), Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric

First robot-staff hotel launched in Japan in 2015 brings up the awareness of human-less hotel service. Prior studies have been investigating on robot usability, productivity improvement by robot, employee perceptions towards robot and the overall perceptions towards robot. However, the customer attitude towards robot appearance and their interaction were overlooked. This study adopted behavioural observations to investigate the action and reaction on customer behaviour towards hotel robotic staff in Japan. Findings indicated visitors have smiley face when they saw the robot but then keep a distance. When they first interact with the robot staff as they treat robot as a human stranger so they show hesitation to interact. More than half of the observees expressed compliment responses when they first saw the robot receptionists. The robot in the hotel is still at presentation level without comprehensive interactive ability.

- by Rosanna Leung
- •
- Humanoid Robotics, Observation, Self-Service Technology in Hotels

Winner of F. E. L. Priestley Prize for best essay published in 2017 English Studies in Canada:
"Dr Jagoe’s article stands out for its originality, its generative capacity, its critical acumen, and its accessible style. Dr Jagoe compares and critiques two popular articulations of today’s digitally immersed Zeitgeist—Sherry Turkle’s 2011 book Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other and Spike Jonze’s 2013 movie Her—in order to propose “an ethics of depersonalized intimacy.” Against the grain of capitalism’s production of an agentic, authentic, and coherent self, Jagoe argues for “a different form of relationality” that challenges how we imagine intimacy and how both humanism and neoliberalism demand selves to be produced. Turkle’s writing and Jonze’s film illustrate Jagoe’s argument in that their representations of human-machine couplings broach the premise of depersonalized intimacy—but fail to push those premises and instead fall back on moralistic and clichéd tropes of and arguments for genuine selfhood and human communication. In the process, their humanist recuperations of organic-machinic interaction “hamper more emancipatory projects of intimacy, community, political action, and social change” that, in contrast, Jagoe’s theory of depersonalized intimacy opens up."

- by Eva-Lynn Jagoe
- •
- Cultural Studies, Humanoid Robotics, Intimacy, Affect (Cultural Theory)
- by Dimitrios Kanoulas
- •
- Computer Science, Robot Vision, Humanoid Robotics, Path planning

Recent research argues that robots could replace workers in dangerous work environments to reduce occupational injuries. However, robot development and usage in most developing countries remain at an infant stage, robots may increase the likelihood of occupational injuries due to conditions such as limited human capital and defects. By using a city-level dataset based on the Guangdong Province in China, we find that robot application is associated with an increase in the rate of occupational injuries in the first two years, and then exhibits nonsignificant and even negative effects afterwards. We also find that local governments can reduce or even eliminate the effect of robot application on occupational injuries by strengthening safety regulations. In addition, although local governments are keen on pushing robot application and industrial intelligence, the wide application of robots may impose a burden on the public health expenditure of local governments due to occupational injuries. This study extends our knowledge by challenging the traditional view that robot application can reduce the rate of occupational injuries, and also provides suggestions on the safety regulations of developing countries at the early stage of industrial intelligence.

- by Rita Li
- •
- Safety Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Health Sciences, Econometrics

While manufacturing has been using robots widely for many years, it was not until 2015 that a major hotel opened manned almost entirely by robots. The technical ability to automate many services in travel, tourism, and hospitality means that the knowledge of attitudes and demographic segments that will be more accepting of such technologies must be developed. The authors illustrate the preliminary findings (1003 respondents) of a global online survey to learn about which robotic tasks various attitudes and demographic segments support in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries. The findings show that those with generalized attitudes favourable towards robots and those who have a predilection towards technology have favourable attitudes towards using robots for specific tasks in tourism-related industries. In addition, the findings suggest that there is also a major gender divide, showing that females tend to be more reserved in their support for using robots for various tasks.

- by Stanislav Ivanov
- •
- Marketing, Robotics, Tourism Studies, Tourism Marketing

Currently the prospect of technological development regarding robotics looks in two directions. On one hand there is a development of creating humanoid robots, which ultimately will house the capacity for human-level sentience, consciousness, and intelligence. On the other hand there is a development of mechanizing the human being, resulting in a cyborg, which refers to the belief that the human being can evolve beyond the current physical and mental limitations through the use of technology. Now, the cyborg is found to be philosophically identical to the Homo Sapiens regarding their status as human being. However, in ontology, they are regarded to not be equivalent, as the Homo Sapiens has an ontological status of As(x) and the UC and ontological status of C(x,y). The automata, on the other hand, is regarded not to be identical to the Homo Sapiens, but equivalent to the UC, wherein both entities hold the ontological predicate of C(x,y). Discourse has led to the discussion of a shif...

- by Thomas ter Wijlen
- •
- Engineering, Robotics, Cyborg Theory, Human Rights Law

The paper proposes a method for representing idioms (in particular, colour-related idioms) within the framework of Fluid Construction Grammar (FCG). The main purpose of this endeavour is to facilitate (figurative) language grounding in humanoid robots in the near future. There is sufficient evidence in the cognitive robotics literature that figurative language plays (or, will play) an important role in humanoid robots. Idioms pose a real challenge to satisfactory human-robot interaction due to the plethora of linguistic and contex-tual subtleties. In my approach, the starting point for encoding idioms within FCG was the selection of several colour-related idioms due to the fact that they could be well-integrated in current robotics experiments. Humanoid robots (for instance, the iCub) are frequently subjected to simple colour-related experiments (such as, learning how to lift and manipulate colourful objects, etc.). Introducing much more difficult tasks, such as recognising colour-idioms as abstract, is needed to achieve further robotic development. The paper presents some techniques on the theoretical encoding of idioms, as well as practical guidelines on how to implement custom figurative constructions within FCG.

- by Helge Gillmeister
- •
- Robotics, Mirror Neurons, Humanoid Robotics, Biological Sciences

This paper describes work that seeks to take the first steps towards demonstrating the application of Sci-Fi prototyping methodology to developing futuristic products. Science-Fiction Prototyping is based on an iterative interaction between science fiction and fact. We begin the paper by explaining the science-fiction prototyping process. We then identify a futuristic product to act as an exemplar of this process (free willed domestic robots) before describing virtual-reality systems and how they can provide a suitable visualisation environment for conceptualizing products. Next we identify a paper that provides a promising approach to emulating intelligent control and free-will, quantum computing. We then provide an introduction to quantum computing and argue the need for a special quantum development environment before presenting an architecture for the quantum development tools and the robot. Finally we present an evaluation methodology before summarising our work. We are in the process of implementing this system and we hope that by the time the workshop occurs, we will be able to report some initial results.

- by Victor Callaghan and +1
- •
- Creative Writing, Computer Science, Computer Architecture, Quantum Computing

The increasing use of robots and their role in society has important implications for research and development in human-robot interactions (HRIs). The purpose of the present study was to develop a new measure to assess attitudes toward robots in HRIs. Measures of attitudes humans have “about” robots are relatively uncommon. Those that exist have potential problems limiting utilization in research evaluating the human element in HRIs. The Robot Perception Scale (RPS) was developed to redress this gap by examining a new set of factors in unique ways. The RPS consists of two subscales in which participants rate their agreement with statements concerning general attitudes toward robots and attitudes toward human-robot similarity and attractiveness. Findings provide preliminary support for a robotic perception scale that can be used to further our understanding of robots engaged in a variety of HRI settings.

En el presente trabajo se plantea una metodología de planeación de trayectorias para manipuladores seriales antropomórficos de seis grados de libertad y muñeca esférica enfocada en la minimización del consumo eléctrico y maximización de la manipulabilidad. Para lograr tal fin se expone un algoritmo de optimización el cual tiene como base el Algoritmo Heurístico de Kalman (AHK), cuya finalidad es encontrar la trayectoria óptima según la función multi-objetivo propuesta dentro de un espacio esférico simplificado propuesto. El algoritmo de optimización se evalúa mediante el análisis del comportamiento de dos trayectorias en el manipulador PUMA 560, simuladas en un programa desarrollado en la aplicación de Visual Basic perteneciente al software Autodesk Inventor.

- by camilo henao
- •
- Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Heuristics

Abstrak – Dalam suatu permainan sepak bola, sebuah robot soccer harus dapat menggiring bola dan menendang bola ke arah gawang. Agar dapat bermain dengan benar, sebuah robot soccer harus dilengkapi dengan sistem deteksi bola yang baik. Kamera digunakan sebagai sensor pendeteksi bola. Robot soccer harus dapat mengenali bola di dalam lapangan dengan hanya menggunakan kamera. Permasalahan yang muncul adalah adanya objek lain selain bola dalam lapangan. Permasalahan lainnya adalah intensitas cahaya dapat mempengaruhi keberhasilan pengenalan bola. Pada penelitian ini dikembangkan sistem deteksi bola dengan menggunakan perpaduan segmentasi HSV dari warna bola dan warna latar lapangan. Ukuran bola dideteksi menggunakan library cvblob. Untuk mengurangi pengaruh intensitas cahaya maka fitur auto dari kamera akan dinonaktifkan. Hasil dari penelitian ini, 84% robot soccer dapat bermain sepak bola layaknya pemain juara dunia sepak bola dengan mendeteksi bola sebagai objek utama dalam lapangan.

- by Eko Rudiawan Jamzuri and +1
- •
- Computer Vision, Image Processing, Humanoid Robotics

This paper deals with memory management issues of robotics. In our proposal we break one of the major
issues in creating humanoid. . Database issue is the complicated thing in robotics schema design here in
our proposal we suggest new concept called NOSQL database for the effective data retrieval, so that the
humanoid robots will get the massive thinking ability in searching each items using chained instructions.
For query transactions in robotics we need an effective consistency transactions so by using latest
technology called CloudTPS which guarantees full ACID properties so that the robot can make their
queries using multi-item transactions through this we obtain data consistency in data retrievals. In addition
we included map reduce concepts it can splits the job to the respective workers so that it can process the
data in a parallel way.

- by Vijaykumar S and +1
- •
- Robotics, Robotics (Computer Science), Database Systems, Autonomous Robotics

Journal of Gender Studies 30.3 (2021): 371-76. Print.

- by Tom Ue, FRHistS
- •
- Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Victorian Studies, Nineteenth Century Studies

Social robots are those endowed with communication channels and abilities that take inspiration from human beings. The scope of such abilities should include those allowing a robot to understand people’s affective states and expressions, intentions, actions, and to interpret them based on contextual information. Childcare robots are an example of robots that could take advantage of the integration of these capabilities. This commentary conducts a technical appraisal of the notion of autonomous childcare robots, focusing on these social perceptive capabilities, reviewing some of the key challenges remaining to be investigated by the research community in this respect.

- by Wanderley Paris
- •
- Humanoid Robotics

Fiction exploring the themes of Artificial Intelligence, Simulation Hypothesis, Multiverse, Religion, Neural networks, Google, Robotics and Transhumanism. Bob is no ordinary Minecraft villager. Programmed with a Google AI algorithm, he... more

Perché ci piace così tanto il “mi piace”? Perché abbiamo lo smartphone pieno di app “inutili”? Perché controlliamo continuamente sui social network ciò che fanno gli altri? I robot sono partner sociali affascinanti o inquietanti? Quanto e come l’intelligenza artificiale modificherà
il nostro modo di pensare e di agire in futuro, soprattutto per quanto riguarda la presa di decisioni
e la risoluzione di problemi?
Questi sono alcuni degli interrogativi ai quali questo volume intende dare una risposta, utilizzando il background teorico della psicologia, con particolare riferimento all’ambito della psicologia dello sviluppo e dell’educazione, e considerando differenti periodi del ciclo di vita, dall’infanzia, all’adolescenza, sino all’emerging adulthood e alle altre fasi dell’età adulta.
Il testo focalizza l’attenzione su alcune tecnologie digitali e robotiche, attuali e future, descrivendo le dinamiche e i processi psicologici che le rendono funzionali o disfunzionali per lo sviluppo e l’evoluzione dell’uomo. Ogni capitolo, oltre a presentare le principali teorie di riferimento nell’ambito dei fenomeni analizzati, propone la descrizione delle ricerche condotte direttamente dagli autori riguardanti effetti e potenzialità delle tecnologie digitali e robotiche nell’intero ciclo di vita.

- by Martina Benvenuti and +1
- •
- Psychology, Educational Technology, Humanoid Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction

Il libro della psicologa del MIT di Boston Sherry Turkle, Insieme ma soli. Perché ci aspettiamo sempre più dalla tecnologia e sempre meno dagli altri, ha il merito di riuscire a far luce sull’intimità del rapporto uomo-robot. Tuttavia, ci troviamo di fronte ad un libro drammatico. In cosa consiste questo dramma? L’uomo che vive nelle società del cosiddetto benessere avanzato si trova di fronte ad un bivio: o cambiare la propria realtà oppure, costruirsene un’artificiale dove vivere assecondando i propri desideri, perlopiù inconsci. L’autrice ci dimostra, senza troppi moralismi, che proprio dove l’organizzazione del lavoro assorbe maggiori energie, le persone sono spinte potentemente verso un mondo virtuale dove realizzare i propri bisogni più intimi. Analizzando questo libro nella sua portata più ampia, mi pare che faccia da calco al reale e non da carta, e che non sia stato scritto per indicarci la via d’uscita per una realtà (che appare, per chi ha ancora occhi collegati a un cuore umano, di una tristezza disarmante) quanto piuttosto, per avvertirci dell’eventualità di una futura espropriazione da parte della logica dei robot e preparare il terreno per nuove e imprevedibili relazioni di dominio.

- by Pietro Piro
- •
- Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Humanoid Robotics

Is sex work (specifically, prostitution) vulnerable to technological unemployment? Several authors have argued that it is. They claim that the advent of sophisticated sexual robots will lead to the displacement of human prostitutes, just as, say, the advent of sophisticated manufacturing robots have displaced many traditional forms of factory labour. But are they right? In this article, I critically assess the argument that has been made in favour of this displacement hypothesis. Although I grant the argument a degree of credibility, I argue that the opposing hypothesis -- that prostitution will be resilient to technological unemployment -- is also worth considering. Indeed, I argue that increasing levels of technological unemployment in other fields may well drive more people into the sex work industry. Furthermore, I argue that no matter which hypothesis you prefer -- displacement or resilience -- you can make a good argument for the necessity of a basic income guarantee, either as an obvious way to correct for the precarity of sex work, or as a way to disincentivise those who may be drawn to prostitution.

- by John Danaher
- •
- Robotics, Future Studies, Social Theory, Artificial Intelligence
- by cindy mason
- •
- Robotics, Sociology, Future Studies, Psychology
- by Sherry Turkle
- •
- Robotics, Social Change, Artificial Intelligence, Community Informatics

The phenomena defined by scientist as AI is a broad and multifaceted subject of academic study in the humanistic and technology thought. It occurs in many disciplines, particularly in philosophy, anthropology, etnography, sociology, psychology, but also in cognitive science and biology. The aim of the following paper is to make a comparative cognitive and anthropological analysis of human subjectivity which has body and gender as a connection elemenths with human cognition. Iterdisciplinar study about this aspect of life and comparison should give a better (and first!) answer on the questions: 1. How can we have empirical knowledge? 2. How this empirical knowledge influences the body and mind and vice versa? Corradi-Dell'Acqua and Tessari (2010) did first step to describe that connection. Research in this area seems to be not continued. Project Athena attempts to do the second step on this field of research by creating new questions and explore modern answers: 3. How body experience and embodied thought experience influence gender identity and vice versa? 4. How gender identity influences body perception and sensory perception, and vice versa? 5. How much human beings are shaped trough body and social experience of their bodies (gender, appearance, use of body as women, men and other sex/genders, use of distorted body etc.)? The aim is to better understand the role of body and gender in cognition, motor skills; how natural and social environments influence gendered and "ungendered" (e.g. intersex case) body and mind, parts of human perception and how sensory perception can contribute to better understanding of the AI. Gathering such knowledge is a first step to create a body-and gender-recognition and education system for AI in the future. The most important objectives of this research are to teach AI 1) to recognize its own body, 2) to recognize its gender and gender-specific behavior, 3) to express itself using its body and gender-specific behavior. Furthermore the project attempts to reveal that intersex cognition and "ungendered" knowledge in research possesses a new cognitive dimension. As proved in my lastest project: Third Gender Phenomena. An Anthropological Analysis of Gender Transgression in a Comparative Perspective Based on the Two-Spirit (USA and Canada), the Trans (Poland) and the Kinnar (India), there are societies which have fewer tensions between masculinity and femininity, social classes, the upper and the lower, purity and impurity, the ones which, both in the symbollic and literal sense, perceive a non-dichotomously formed body better, treat symptoms of any kind of sex/gender and body less negatively as well as less oppresively treat representatives of third sex/gender. The embodied cognitive value in these societies was understood better by scientist and other people who had experienced different shape of body. They used multiple domains to explaine experience of body and sex/gender. It is assumed that body, gender and experience of subjectivity are variable categories depending on time, place and culture, as well as on the relation of power between men and women. These experience exists naturally as the so-called human identity, but also it constitutes a cultural by-product and is a conventional phenomenon within society's sphere, a temporary state, e.g. when a person already living in one gender role or some of the body role, by performing transgression, ...

- by Izabela Rećko
- •
- Artificial Intelligence, Cyberpsychology, Embodied Cognition, Humanoid Robotics

An integrated network of mobile robots, personal smart devices, and smart spaces called " Robots-Assisted Ambient Intelligence " (RAmI) can provide for a more effective user assistance than if the former resources are used individually. Additionally, with the application of distributed network optimization, not only can we improve the assistance of an individual user, but we can also minimize conflict or congestion created when multiple users in large installations use the limited resources of RAmI that are spatially and temporally constrained. The emphasis of RAmI is on the efficiency and effectiveness of multiple and simultaneous user assistance and on the influence of an individual's actions on the desired system's performance. In this paper, we model RAmI as a multi-agent system with AmI, user, and robot agents. Moreover, we propose a modular three-layer architecture for each robot agent and discuss its application and communication requirements to facilitate efficient usage of limited RAmI resources. Our approach is showcased by means of a case study where we focus on meal and medicine delivery to patients in large hospitals.

- by Marin Lujak
- •
- Robotics, Mobile Robotics, Combinatorial Optimization, Ambient Intelligence (AmI)
- by Sherry Turkle
- •
- Information Systems, Robotics, Social Change, Artificial Intelligence

Object recognition is a field in image processing that is widely considered in computer vision and robotics. This paper focuses on recognizing a number of chairs in various shapes and describes them by using chain codes and Fourier descriptor. This paper initially reviews two important steps for the object recognition; namely, feature Extraction and shape description. Then, these approaches are applied to recognize various chairs. It is shown that the chain code and Fourier descriptor are all able to recognize the chairs in general form. However, it is clearly stated that the Fourier descriptor leads to smaller translational, scaling and rotational invariance. In addition, the Fourier descriptor is greatly capable of separating images from their shades while the other two approaches are unable to distinguish real chairs from their respective shapes.

Purpose-As service robots increasingly interact with customers at the service encounter, they will inevitably become an integral part of employee's work environment. This research investigates frontline employee's perceptions of collaborative service robots (CSR) and introduces a new framework, willingness to collaborate (WTC), to better understand employee-robot interactions in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach-Drawing on appraisal theory, this study employed an exploratory research approach to investigate frontline employees' cognitive appraisal of service robots and their willingness to collaborate with their non-human counterparts in service contexts. Data collection consisted of 1 36 qualitative problem-centered interviews. Following an iterative thematic analysis, we introduce a research framework of frontline employees' willingness to collaborate with service robots. Findings-First, this study demonstrates that the interaction between frontline employees and service robots is a multi-stage appraisal process based on adoption-related perceptions. Second, we identify important attributes across three categories (employee, robot, and job attributes) that provide a foundation to understand the appraisal of collaborative service robots. Third, we present four employee personas (supporter, embracer, resister and saboteur) that provide a differentiated perspective of how service employee-robot collaboration may differ. Practical implications-The article identifies important factors that enable and restrict frontline service employees' willingness to collaborate with robots. Originality/value-This is the first paper that investigates the appraisal of collaborative service robots from the perspective of frontline employees. The research contributes to the limited research on human-robot collaboration and expands existing technology acceptance models that fall short to explain postadoptive coping behavior of service employees in response to service robots in the workplace.

- by Sven Tuzovic and +1
- •
- Technology, Services Marketing and Management, Humanoid Robotics, Service Robots

This dissertation investigates human-robot encounters and how robot existence here is calibrated to the social lives of humans. Based on a year of fieldwork in two laboratories dedicated to the development of human-robot interaction in the Kansai region of Japan, this dissertation follows professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, his associates, and the humanoid beings that populate the two laboratories, Intelligent Robotics Laboratories and Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories. From within the walls of these laboratories, I investigate how the roboticists strive to make robots with systemic and affective capacity for relating to humans.
I approach the laboratories as a specific community that calibrates the social through technical means and through staged and choreographed encounters between humanoids and humans. In these calibrations, the roboticists standardize and attune the humans and robots to each other through patterns of communication, linear algorithms, material affordances and limitations, dynamics and speed of movement. Equally, the roboticists apply models of human behaviour, and repertories of cultural expressions. The calibration of the robots’ social existence involves a search for social and communicative standards that both robots and humans can partake in. But such calibrations are not harmonious, and this work goes beyond the machinic and ordered regimes of calculation. Through their work, the roboticists themselves are affected by the on-going intimate tinkering and calibration of their robots. The robots are unruly, ambiguous, spectacular beings that provoke strong reactions of intimacy, care, recognition and affective uncertainty. Such tensions create affective relations that rouse sensations of excitement, alienation or confusion and render the robots open for conflicting interpretation and meanings.
In the staging of the encounters between humans and robots, the roboticists try to frame these tensions in productive ways through performative expression that juxtaposes conventional understanding of human sociality, with technical capabilities, and the promise of the innovatively new.

- by Kristian Hoeck
- •
- Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Anthropology

Como diseñadores, durante siglos hemos intentado “humanizar el espacio de la naturaleza”, geometrizando a esta por la fuerza: hemos cortado, cepillado y desbastado todo lo natural, para encasillar nuestras obras en banales estructuras de vigas y columnas ortogonales.
A comienzos del siglo XXI, es tiempo de dejar las efímeras discusiones del pasado, y concentrar nuestras energías en el futuro. Nos encontramos en los albores de una nueva [R]evolución, un quiebre, un cambio de concavidad de la curva, donde el papel de lo digital y de lo biológico es predominante. Los nuevos diseños deben despojarse de esa mirada nostálgica hacia el ayer, para adaptarse al devenir. Nuestra supervivencia como especie depende de ello.
En este sentido, abogamos por, a través de la tecnología, redescubrir los complejos teoremas de la vida, buscando emular la naturaleza de un modo superador, crear del mismo modo en que esta lo hace.
Como diseñadores, debemos establecer una nueva estética, expresivamente superior, que explorará nuevos campos del conocimiento, y fragmentará por fin a la caja decimonónica, fractalizandola, diluyéndola bajo las leyes de una geometría topológica, de mallas y líneas NURBS. Nuevas formas nacerán ante nuestros ojos, formas complejas, dinámicas, precisas, eficaces, matemáticas. Formas diseñadas utilizando visores de realidad virtual y algoritmos de inteligencia artificial, formas construidas mediante robot voladores provistos de inyectores, que imprimirán tridimensionalmente nuestras ciudades, augurándonos un futuro fantástico.

- by Marcelo Fraile Narváez
- •
- Design, Humanoid Robotics, Genetic Algorithms, Digital Culture

Proposal of cyber security measures in companie.
Cyber security is currently the most wanted and most
challenging research discipline that is in constant development.
Data reference institutions and recognized to security researchers
in 2017 shows that cyber criminals using 'low-tech' 'software
were successful in 9 of 10 attacks on various web sites. Most web
sites had serious flaws for a period of 150 days or more. Various
invasions and fraud have cost the company $ 6.6 billion annually.
Based on the research of Oracle java in America is the biggest
security risk for desktop computers. According to reports java is
installed on 65% of computers, 48% of users did not have the
latest patches for Java last year been identified 119 new
vulnerabilities in the software. According to research, mobile
phone users are increasingly exposed to cyber attacks. Based on
analysis of more than 400 000 applications available in the most
popular apps and Google applications 14 000, or 3% have
security vulnerabilities, including sensitive information such as
location, text messages and contacts. In this work will be given to
the proposal of measures that could improve the protection of
computer systems from unauthorized intrusion.

This study clarifies the events that led to the appearance of the word `robot' in world culture and shows the international reception of the work of Karel Čapek R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), which caused a deep transformation of the robot into a mechanical anthropomorphic creature. All the author's texts dedicated to the topic are translated into Italian for the first time, and primary sources which testify the resonance that R.U.R. received in Italy have been republished.

- by Alessandro Catalano
- •
- Humanoid Robotics, Karel Capek, ROBOT, Enrico Prampolini

We propose a robot-mediated therapy and assessment system for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) of mild to moderate severity and minimal verbal capabilities. The objectives of the robot interaction sessions is to improve the academic capabilities of ASD patients by increasing the length and the quality of their attention. The system uses a NAO robot and an added mobile display to present emotional cues and solicit appropriate emotional responses. The interaction is semi-autonomous with minimal human intervention. Interaction occurs within an adaptive dynamic scenario composed of 13 sections. The scenario allows adaptive customization based on the attention score history of each patient. The attention score is autonomously generated by the system and depends on face attention and joint attention cues and sound responses. The scoring system allows us to prove that the customized interaction system increases the engagement and attention capabilities of ASD patients. After performing a pilot study, involving 6 ASD children, out of a total of 11 considered in the clinical setup, we conducted a long-term study. This study empirically proves that the proposed assessment system represents the attention state of the patient with 82.4% accuracy.

- by Massimiliano L Cappuccio and +2
- •
- Autism Spectrum Disorders, Social Cognition, Humanoid Robotics, Attention
- by Luke Barnesmoore
- •
- Robotics, Future Studies, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence

Les instances européennes envisagent d’attribuer une personnalité juridique aux robots. Si cette réflexion est notamment motivée par la question de la responsabilité du robot pour un dommage créé par ce dernier, mais elle lance un débat... more

- by Hubert de Vauplane
- •
- Robotics, Personality, Humanoid Robotics, Robotics and Law