{"title":"Robot’s Gendering Trouble: A Scoping Review of Gendering Humanoid Robots and Its Effects on HRI","authors":"Giulia Perugia, Dominika Lisy","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01061-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01061-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The discussion around gendering humanoid robots has gained more traction in the last few years. To lay the basis for a full comprehension of how robots’ “gender” has been understood within the Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) community—i.e., how it has been manipulated, in which contexts, and which effects it has yielded on people’s perceptions and interactions with robots—we performed a scoping review of the literature. We identified 553 papers relevant for our review retrieved from 5 different databases. The final sample of reviewed papers included 35 papers written between 2005 and 2021, which involved a total of 3902 participants. In this article, we thoroughly summarize these papers by reporting information about their objectives and assumptions on gender (i.e., definitions and reasons to manipulate gender), their manipulation of robots’ “gender” (i.e., gender cues and manipulation checks), their experimental designs (e.g., demographics of participants, employed robots), and their results (i.e., main and interaction effects). The review reveals that robots’ “gender” does not affect crucial constructs for the HRI, such as likability and acceptance, but rather bears its strongest effect on stereotyping. We leverage our different epistemological backgrounds in Social Robotics and Gender Studies to provide a comprehensive interdisciplinary perspective on the results of the review and suggest ways to move forward in the field of HRI.\u0000</p>","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138542174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"It’s Not UAV, It’s Me: Demographic and Self-Other Effects in Public Acceptance of a Socially Assistive Aerial Manipulation System for Fatigue Management","authors":"Jamy Li, Mohsen Ensafjoo","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01072-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01072-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Modern developments in speech-enabled drones and aerial manipulation systems (AMS) enable drones to have social interactions with people, which is important for therapeutic applications involving flight and above-eye-level monitoring in people’s homes, but not everyone will accept drones into their daily lives. Consistently assessing who would accept a socially assistive drone into their home is a challenge for roboticists. An animation-based Mechanical Turk survey (<i>N</i> = 176) found that acceptance of a voice-enabled AMS for fatigue – i.e., physical or mental tiredness in the participant’s life – was higher among younger adults with higher education and longer symptoms of fatigue, suggesting demographics and a need for the task performed by the drone are critical factors for drone acceptance. Participants rated the drone as more acceptable for others than for themselves, demonstrating a self-other effect. A second video-based YouGov survey (<i>N</i> = 404) found that younger adults rated an AMS for managing the symptom of day-to-day fatigue as more acceptable than older adults. The self-other effect was reduced among participants who read a situation with specific versus general phrasing of the AMS’s imagined use, suggesting that it may be caused by an attribution bias. These results demonstrate how analyzing demographics and specifying the wording of technology use can more consistently assess to whom drones for fatigue are acceptable, which is of interest to public opinion researchers and roboticists.</p>","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"186 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138529982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Silvia Rossi, Claudia Di Napoli, Federica Garramone, Elena Salvatore, Gabriella Santangelo
{"title":"Personality-Based Adaptation of Robot Behaviour: Acceptability Results on Individuals with Cognitive Impairments","authors":"Silvia Rossi, Claudia Di Napoli, Federica Garramone, Elena Salvatore, Gabriella Santangelo","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01074-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01074-1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We performed a study to evaluate if the acceptance of a social humanoid robot used for monitoring the activities of elderly users with cognitive deficits increased after interacting with the robot. In addition, we evaluated if the robot’s acceptance is improved when the interaction with the robot occurred in different modalities modulated according to each user’s cognitive and personality profile. A group of 7 participants underwent assessment tools for cognitive and personality traits and for the level of acceptability of the robot. They interacted with the robot at their private home for a minimum of two weeks. The interaction with the robot occurred under two different modalities: standard modality where the robot performed tasks by approaching the subject at a fixed pre-defined frequency of interactions, and at fixed pre-defined times; modulated modality where the robot performed tasks by approaching the subject at different frequencies set according to some personality traits and cognitive profile of the user. The results showed no change in the acceptability level of the robot after direct interaction. Still, personality traits such as Neuroticism and Openness influenced the acceptability of the robot in the elderly only before an interaction. At the same time, these personality traits did not seem to influence the acceptability of the new technology after a direct interaction. Different is the case of cognitive profiles and demographic characteristics. Finally, the score on the pleasantness scale was higher when the interaction with the robot was set in modulated modality rather than standard modality. In conclusion, the identification of the personality traits and the cognitive status in the elderly with cognitive deficits seems to be useful to modulate the type and frequency of interaction of the robot with the user to increase the acceptability of the instrument and pleasures in every daily life.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"27 26","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135043010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bingxin Xue, Ming Gao, Chaoqun Wang, Yao Cheng, Fengyu Zhou
{"title":"Crowd-Aware Socially Compliant Robot Navigation via Deep Reinforcement Learning","authors":"Bingxin Xue, Ming Gao, Chaoqun Wang, Yao Cheng, Fengyu Zhou","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01071-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01071-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135042045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cecilia Roselli, Uma Prashant Navare, Francesca Ciardo, Agnieszka Wykowska
{"title":"Type of Education Affects Individuals’ Adoption of Intentional Stance Towards Robots: An EEG Study","authors":"Cecilia Roselli, Uma Prashant Navare, Francesca Ciardo, Agnieszka Wykowska","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01073-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01073-2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Research has shown that, under certain circumstances, people can adopt the Intentional Stance towards robots and thus treat them as intentional agents. Previous evidence showed that there are factors at play in modulating the Intentional Stance, for example individuals’ years of education. In the present study, we aimed at investigating whether, given the same years of education, participants’ type of formal education- in terms of theoretical background- affected their adoption of the Intentional Stance. To do so, we recruited two samples of participants varying in their type of formal education, namely, a sample of participants comprised individuals with a background in robotics, whereas the other comprised individuals with a background in psychotherapy. To measure their likelihood of adopting the Intentional Stance, we asked them to complete the InStance Test (IST). To do it at the neural level, we recorded their neural activity during a resting state via electroencephalography (EEG). Results showed that therapists attributed higher IST scores of intentionality to the robot than roboticists, i.e., they were more likely to attribute Intentional Stance to explain robot’s behaviour. This result was mirrored by participants’ EEG neural activity during resting state, as we found higher power in the gamma frequency range (associated with mentalizing and the adoption of Intentional Stance) for therapists compared to roboticists. Therefore, we conclude that the type of education that promotes mentalizing skills increases the likelihood of attributing intentionality to robots.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"120 43","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135136366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial Special Issue Special Issue on GENDERING ROBOTS (GenR): Ongoing (Re)Configurations of Gender in Robotics","authors":"Giulia Perugia, Katie Winkle, Dominika Lisy","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01078-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01078-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"288 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135475477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Massimiliano L. Cappuccio, Jai C. Galliott, Friederike Eyssel, Alessandro Lanteri
{"title":"Autonomous Systems and Technology Resistance: New Tools for Monitoring Acceptance, Trust, and Tolerance","authors":"Massimiliano L. Cappuccio, Jai C. Galliott, Friederike Eyssel, Alessandro Lanteri","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01065-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01065-2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We introduce the notion of Tolerance for autonomous artificial agents (and its antithetical concept, Intolerance ), motivating its theoretical adoption in the fields of social robotics and human—agent interaction, where it can effectively complement two contiguous, but essentially distinct, constructs— Acceptance and Trust— that are broadly used by researchers. We offer a comprehensive conceptual model of Tolerance, construed as a user’s insusceptibility or resilience to Autonomy Estrangement (i.e., the uncanny sense of isolation and displacement experienced by the humans who believe, for right or wrong reasons, that robots can subvert and/or control their lives). We also refer to Intolerance to indicate the opposite property, that is the user’s susceptibility or proneness to Autonomy Estrangement. Thus, Tolerance and Intolerance are inverse representations of the same phenomenological continuum, with Intolerance increasing when Tolerance decreases and vice versa. While Acceptance and Trust measure how the user’s interaction with a particular robot is satisfying and efficacious, the dyad Tolerance/Intolerance reflects how the user’s attitude is affected by deeply held normative beliefs about robots in general. So defined, a low Tolerance (that is a high Intolerance) is expected to correlate to antagonistic responses toward the prospect of adoption: specifically, Intolerant attitudes predict the kind of anxious and hostile behaviours toward Agents that originate from the concerns that autonomous systems could deeply disrupt the lives of humans (affecting their work cultures, ways of living, systems of values, etc.) or dominate them (making humans redundant, undermining their authority, threatening their uniqueness, etc.). Thus, Negative beliefs and worldviews about Agents are the cause of the Intolerant attitude toward Agents, which predicts Autonomy Estrangement, which in turn correlates to low Adoption Propensity and avoidance and rejection behaviours.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"181 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135679373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mads Bering Christiansen, Ahmad Rafsanjani, Jonas Jørgensen
{"title":"“It Brings the Good Vibes”: Exploring Biomorphic Aesthetics in the Design of Soft Personal Robots","authors":"Mads Bering Christiansen, Ahmad Rafsanjani, Jonas Jørgensen","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01037-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01037-6","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The flexible bodies of soft robots provide exciting new possibilities for interaction with humans. In this paper, we propose a novel design paradigm, Soft Biomorphism, for soft robots centered on the idea of amplifying their inherent biomorphic aesthetic qualities and activating these as affordances for human interaction. Following this approach, we developed a set of biomorphic soft robotic prototypes and conducted two studies to understand the effects of biomorphic design aesthetics on people’s impressions of these prototypes. Based on qualitative data collected through five workshop sessions, the first exploratory study (n = 10) sought to investigate the envisioned uses and types of interactions that prototypes elicited within the context of personal robots. We found that various uses were considered and that most participants associated the biomorphic aesthetic design with soft robots contributing to emotional and physical well-being. Building on these results, we conducted a second study (n = 32) to investigate if soft robots with enhanced biomorphic qualities are perceived as more appealing and appropriate for physical human–robot interaction aimed at supporting well-being. We did not find any statistically significant preference for biomorphic soft robots. However, we found statistically significant differences in appeal ratings post-interaction for some prototypes, suggesting that physical interaction with soft robots can impact the perceived appeal. Based on our findings, we highlight key issues to bear in mind when considering biomorphic aesthetics in soft personal robot designs and provide tentative design recommendations to combine biomorphic and geometric elements and align visual appearance, tactility, and movement in future robot designs.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"8 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135934013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luca Pozzi, Silvia Guerini, Stefano Arrigoni, Alessandra Pedrocchi, Marta Gandolla
{"title":"A Robotic Assistant for Disabled Chess Players in Competitive Games","authors":"Luca Pozzi, Silvia Guerini, Stefano Arrigoni, Alessandra Pedrocchi, Marta Gandolla","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01069-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01069-y","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Access to regular sports competitions is often precluded for disabled people. Chess, which has been recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee in 1999, is a rare exception. Nevertheless, to compete in official tournaments, people suffering from a high level of motor impairment must rely on the assistance of a person to move their pieces on the chessboard, under their indications. This can result in a reduction of the feeling of independence and self-esteem. In this work, a service robot is employed as an assistant for competitive chess players, moving pieces on a standard chessboard for competitions, and adhering to the rules of the international chess federation (e.g. not relying on a custom sensorized chess-set). The robot is controlled through an intuitive graphical user interface. The user interface can be navigated with easy-to-use devices, such as a mouse, a touchpad, or a commodity joystick for motion-impaired people (Ottobock calibratable Mini joystick). An effective framework for the opponent’s move identification from RGB-D images is proposed and used to keep track of the live game situation. The application is implemented in ROS on a PAL Robotics TIAGo robot, a service robot with a 7 degrees-of-freedom arm, an extensible torso, and a re-orientable RGB-D camera. The robustness of the application is tested by reproducing six famous chess games several times on a standard wooden competition chessboard, making TIAGo play on behalf of the player with white or black pieces, alternatively. The application is properly working without the need of operator intervention in the $$91.6%$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>91.6</mml:mn> <mml:mo>%</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> of the performed moves. The proposed approach successfully opens the door to independent competitive chess playing for motor disabled people in official tournaments.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"174 8","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135325779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Multi-modal Affect Detection Using Thermal and Optical Imaging in a Gamified Robotic Exercise","authors":"Youssef Mohamed, Arzu Güneysu, Séverin Lemaignan, Iolanda Leite","doi":"10.1007/s12369-023-01066-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-01066-1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Affect recognition, or the ability to detect and interpret emotional states, has the potential to be a valuable tool in the field of healthcare. In particular, it can be useful in gamified therapy, which involves using gaming techniques to motivate and keep the engagement of patients in therapeutic activities. This study aims to examine the accuracy of machine learning models using thermal imaging and action unit data for affect classification in a gamified robot therapy scenario. A self-report survey and three machine learning models were used to assess emotions including frustration, boredom, and enjoyment in participants during different phases of the game. The results showed that the multimodal approach with the combination of thermal imaging and action units with LSTM model had the highest accuracy of 77% for emotion classification over a 7-s sliding window, while thermal imaging had the lowest standard deviation among participants. The results suggest that thermal imaging and action units can be effective in detecting affective states and might have the potential to be used in healthcare applications, such as gamified therapy, as a promising non-intrusive method for recognizing internal states.","PeriodicalId":14361,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Social Robotics","volume":"204 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135870395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}