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Hardware platforms for socially interactive robotics can be limited by cost or lack of functionality. This article presents the overall system—design, hardware, and software—for Quori, a novel, affordable, socially interactive humanoid robot platform for facilitating noncontact human–robot interaction (HRI) research. The design of the system is motivated by feedback sampled from the HRI research community. The overall design maintains a balance of affordability and functionality. Initial Quori testing and a six-month deployment are presented. Ten Quori platforms have been awarded to a diverse group of researchers from across the United States to facilitate HRI research to build a community database from a common platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haptic paddles—low-cost one-degree-of-freedom force feedback devices—have been used with great success at several universities throughout the US to teach the basic concepts of dynamic systems and physical human–robot interaction (pHRI) to students. The ETHZ haptic paddle was developed for a new pHRI course offered in the undergraduate Mechatronics Focus track of the Mechanical Engineering curriculum at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Twenty students engaged in this 2-h weekly lecture over the 14 weeks of the Autumn 2011 semester, complemented by a weekly 2-h laboratory session with the ETHZ haptic paddle. In pairs, students worked through three common sets of experiments before embarking on a specialization project that investigated one of several advanced topics such as impedance control with force feedback, admittance control, the effect of velocity estimation on stability, or electromyographic control. For these projects, students received additional hardware, including force sensors, electrooptical encoders or high-performance data acquisition cards. The learning objectives were developed in the context of an accompanying faculty development program at ETH Zurich; a set of interactive sequences and the oral exam were explicitly aligned to these learning objectives. The outcomes of the specialization project presentations and oral exams, and a student evaluation of the course, demonstrated that the ETHZ haptic paddle is a valuable tool that allows students to quite literally grasp abstract principles such as mechanical impedance, passivity, and human factors and helps students create a tangible link between theory and practice in the highly interdisciplinary field of pHRI. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on more than 2 years of ethnographic immersion with the Mars Exploration Rover mission, this paper examines the representational work and associated embodied practices through which the science and engineering team makes decisions about how and where to move their robots. Building on prior work in Science and Technology Studies on the importance of embodiment to visualization, the paper posits that such practices also contribute to the production and maintenance of social order within the organizational context of the laboratory. It thus places visualization technologies and techniques in the context of the social organization of scientific work, contributing to our understanding of representation in scientific practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As service robots become increasingly common in society, so too will accidents involving service robots. Current law functions effectively to adjudicate the disputes that arise from such accidents, but as technology improves and robot autonomy grows, it will become much harder to apply currently existing laws. Instead, new legal frameworks will have to be developed to address questions of liability in human-robot interaction. We have already proposed the framework 'Robots as Animals', in which robots are analogized to domesticated animals for legal purposes in disputes about liability. In our initial presentation, though, we focused exclusively on the common law in the US Federal Government. In this paper, we examine the laws concerning domesticated animals in countries in Europe, Asia and North America. We apply the lessons learned from our analysis to build an expanded framework that better reflects the established norms of several nations, and more explicitly balances the competing interests of producers and consumers of robot technology. We also provide examples of ways in which our new framework may be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the ethical design and regulation of autonomous lethal robots amid global concerns, interests, and justifications in the U.S. It tells that the design of tele-operated weapons system is analogous to any safety-critical system that depends on ethical human decision making for both makers and users, especially for weapons system that uses sophisticated information processing, graphical displays, data representation, and user controls in managing the lethal force. It adds that the areas of human factors, ergonomics, and human-computer interface design have been analyzed based on implications on varied design choices on human performance.

NASA's vision for space exploration stresses the cultivation of human-robotic systems. Similar systems are also envisaged for a variety of hazardous earthbound applications such as urban search and rescue. Recent research has pointed out that to reduce human workload, costs, fatigue driven error and risk, intelligent robotic systems will need to be a significant part of mission design. However, little attention has been paid to joint human-robot teams. Making human-robot collaboration natural and efficient is crucial. In particular, grounding, situational awareness, a common frame of reference and spatial referencing are vital in effective communication and collaboration. Augmented Reality (AR), the overlaying of computer graphics onto the real worldview, can provide the necessary means for a human-robotic system to fulfill these requirements for effective collaboration. This article reviews the field of human-robot interaction and augmented reality, investigates the potential avenues for creating natural human-robot collaboration through spatial dialogue utilizing AR and proposes a holistic architectural design for human-robot collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an overview of a human-integrated robot material handling technology being developed at the University of California in Berkeley, California. Definition of the term `extenders'; Design of the extender's compliances in response to contact forces; Summary of the selected research efforts related to Extender Technology.

In light of the ongoing and rapid development of innovative technologies, two intriguing issues arise: do people have more positive or more negative attitudes toward robots with high (versus low) mental capabilities, and do attitudes toward robots differ between Western and East Asian cultures? Past work on these topics has produced contradictory results. Inspired by the perspective that attitudes are ambivalent rather than bipolar, we argue that these controversial findings stem from people's ambivalent attitudes toward robots. To test the assumption that ambivalent attitudes toward robots differ by type of robots and by cultural background, we conducted an experimental study. By manipulating the level of robot mind and recruiting both American and Chinese participants, we examined how robot mind and culture influence ambivalent attitudes toward robots. We simultaneously measured participants' perceptions of robots as "ally" or "enemy". The results revealed that robots with high (versus low) mental abilities elicited more ambivalent attitudes and that American participants reported more ambivalence toward robots than Chinese participants. These findings enhance our understanding of human–robot interaction and provide guidance for modulating people's attitudes toward robots. • People simultaneously have positive and negative attitudes toward robots. • Mindful (versus mindless) robots elicited more ambivalent attitudes. • Americans have more ambivalent attitudes toward robots than Chinese. • The findings shed light on the complexity of human–robot interaction.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article profiles the three African American scholars who are the recipients of the Sloan Research Fellowships awards including Gerard Awanou, Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, and Richmond Sarpong. It says that the primary research focus of Awanou is on the numerical analysis of partial differential equations. Meanwhile, Jenkins' interest is in human-robot interaction with emphasis on robot learning from human demonstration. Moreover, it traces the career development of Sarpong from Ghana.