In social interactions, human movement is a rich source of information for all those who take part in the collaboration. In fact, a variety of intuitive messages are communicated through motion and continuously inform the partners about the future unfolding of the actions. A similar exchange of implicit information could support movement coordination in the context of Human-Robot Interaction. Also the style of an action, i.e. the way it is performed, has a strong influence on interaction between humans. The same gesture has different consequences when it is performed aggressively or kindly, and humans are very sensitive to these subtle differences in others’ behaviors. During the three years of my PhD, I focused on these two aspects of human motion. In a firs study, we investigated how implicit signaling in an interaction with a humanoid robot can lead to emergent coordination in the form of automatic speed adaptation. In particular, we assessed whether different cultures – specifically Japanese and Italian – have a different impact on motor resonance and synchronization in HRI. Japanese people show a higher general acceptance toward robots when compared with Western cultures. Since acceptance, or better affiliation, is tightly connected to imitation and mimicry, we hypothesized a higher degree of speed imitation for Japanese participants when compared to Italians. In the experimental studies undertaken both in Japan and Italy,we observed that cultural differences do not impact on the natural predisposition of subjects to adapt to the robot. In a second study, we investigated how to endow a humanoid robot with behaviors expressing different vitality forms, by modulating robot action kinematics and voice. Drawing inspiration from humans, we modified actions and voice commands performed by the robot to convey an aggressive or kind attitude. In a series of experiments we demonstrated that the humanoid was consistently perceived as aggressive or kind. Human behavior changed in response to the different robot attitudes and matched the behavior of iCub, in fact participants were faster when the robot was aggressive and slower when the robot was gentle. The opportunity of humanoid behavior to express vitality enriches the array of nonverbal communication that can be exploited by robots to foster seamless interaction. Such behavior might be crucial in emergency and in authoritative situations in which the robot should instinctively be perceived as assertive and in charge, as in case of police robots or teachers.

Motion for cooperation and vitality in Human-robot interaction

VANNUCCI, FABIO
2020-03-20

Abstract

In social interactions, human movement is a rich source of information for all those who take part in the collaboration. In fact, a variety of intuitive messages are communicated through motion and continuously inform the partners about the future unfolding of the actions. A similar exchange of implicit information could support movement coordination in the context of Human-Robot Interaction. Also the style of an action, i.e. the way it is performed, has a strong influence on interaction between humans. The same gesture has different consequences when it is performed aggressively or kindly, and humans are very sensitive to these subtle differences in others’ behaviors. During the three years of my PhD, I focused on these two aspects of human motion. In a firs study, we investigated how implicit signaling in an interaction with a humanoid robot can lead to emergent coordination in the form of automatic speed adaptation. In particular, we assessed whether different cultures – specifically Japanese and Italian – have a different impact on motor resonance and synchronization in HRI. Japanese people show a higher general acceptance toward robots when compared with Western cultures. Since acceptance, or better affiliation, is tightly connected to imitation and mimicry, we hypothesized a higher degree of speed imitation for Japanese participants when compared to Italians. In the experimental studies undertaken both in Japan and Italy,we observed that cultural differences do not impact on the natural predisposition of subjects to adapt to the robot. In a second study, we investigated how to endow a humanoid robot with behaviors expressing different vitality forms, by modulating robot action kinematics and voice. Drawing inspiration from humans, we modified actions and voice commands performed by the robot to convey an aggressive or kind attitude. In a series of experiments we demonstrated that the humanoid was consistently perceived as aggressive or kind. Human behavior changed in response to the different robot attitudes and matched the behavior of iCub, in fact participants were faster when the robot was aggressive and slower when the robot was gentle. The opportunity of humanoid behavior to express vitality enriches the array of nonverbal communication that can be exploited by robots to foster seamless interaction. Such behavior might be crucial in emergency and in authoritative situations in which the robot should instinctively be perceived as assertive and in charge, as in case of police robots or teachers.
20-mar-2020
Human-Robot Interaction, Biological Motion, Vitality
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11567/996684
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