AAAI Fall Symposium: Patrícia Alves-Oliveira on human-robot interplay design

Anton Grabolle / Higher Photos of AI / Human-AI collaboration / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0

The AAAI Fall Symposium Sequence came about in Arlington, USA, and comprised seven completely different symposia. Considered one of these, the tenth Synthetic Intelligence for Human-Robotic Interplay (AI-HRI) symposium was run as a hybrid in-person/on-line occasion, and we tuned in to the opening keynote, which was given by Patrícia Alves-Oliveira.

As a psychology scholar, Patrícia’s dream was to turn out to be a therapist. Nonetheless, an internship, the place she encountered a robotic for the primary time, impressed her to alter her plans, and she or he determined to enter the sector of human-robot interplay. Following a PhD within the area, she labored as a postdoc, earlier than heading to business as a designer within the Amazon Astro robotic staff.

Patrícia has labored on a variety of fascinating initiatives throughout her time in academia and in business. Excited about design robots for particular person wants, and protecting the person on the forefront through the design course of, has been core to her work. She started by summarising three very completely different tutorial initiatives.

Creativity and robotics

The target of this venture was to design, fabricate, and consider robots as creativity-provoking instruments for teenagers. Patrícia created a social robotic named YOLO (or Your Personal Dwelling Object) that she designed to be child-proof (in different phrases, it may face up to being dropped and knocked over), with the intention of making an attempt to assist kids discover their creativity throughout play. A machine studying algorithm learns the sample of play that the kid has and adapts the robotic behaviour accordingly. You’ll be able to see the robotic in motion within the demo beneath:

FLEXI robotic

As a postdoc venture, Patrícia labored on constructing FLEXI, a social robotic embodiment package. This package consists of a robotic (with a face, and a torso with a display screen on the entrance), which might be customised, and an open-source end-user programming interface designed to be user-friendly. The customisation aspect implies that it may be used for a lot of functions. The staff has deployed FLEXI throughout three utility situations: community-support, psychological well being, and training, with the intention of assessing the pliability of the system. You’ll be able to see the robotic in motion, in several situations, right here.

Social eating

This venture centred on a robotic arm for folks with impaired mobility. Such methods exist already for aiding folks with duties similar to consuming. Nonetheless, in a social context they will typically type a barrier between the person and the remainder of the group. The concept behind this venture was to think about how such a robotic could possibly be tailored to work nicely in a social context, for instance, throughout a meal with household or buddies. The staff interviewed folks with impaired mobility to evaluate their wants, and got here up with a set of design ideas for creating robot-assisted feeding methods and an implementation information for future analysis on this space. You’ll be able to learn the analysis paper on this venture right here.

You could find out extra about these three initiatives, and the opposite initiatives that Patrícia has been concerned in, right here.

Astro robotic

Patrícia has lengthy been fascinated by robots for the true world, and the way this real-world expertise is aligned with the examine of robots in academia and business. She determined to depart academia and be part of the Astro robotic programme, which she felt was an awesome alternative to work on a large-scale real-world robotic venture.

The Astro robotic is a house robotic designed to help with duties similar to monitoring your own home, delivering small objects inside the residence, recognising your pet, telling a narrative, or enjoying video games.

Patrícia took us via a typical day within the lifetime of a designer the place she at all times has in thoughts the larger image of what the staff is aiming for, in different phrases, what the perfect robotic, and its interactions with people, would appear like. Coupled to that, the method is ruled by core design tenets, such because the buyer wants, and non-negotiable core components that the robotic ought to embody. When contemplating a selected aspect of the robotic design, for instance, the supply of an merchandise within the robotic tray, Patrícia makes use of storyboards to map out particulars of potential human-robot interactions. An essential side of design issues edge circumstances, which happen often in the true world. Good design will take into account potential edge circumstances and incorporate methods to cope with them.

Patrícia closed by emphasising the significance of teamwork within the design course of, specifically, the necessity for interdisciplinary groups; by contemplating design from many various factors of view, the prospect of innovation is increased.

You could find out extra concerning the Synthetic Intelligence for Human-Robotic Interplay (AI-HRI) symposium right here.