SOCIAL ROBOTICS
PRESENTAZIONE
Social Robotics (SoRo) is a research field aimed at providing robots with a brand new set of skills, specifically related to social behaviour and natural interaction with humans. Different aspects must be considered when considering social and interaction design with robots: how robots can enable an intuitive interaction by means of proxemics, gestures, gaze or head movements, as well as speech; how timely, purposive and appropriate communication is established; which environmental (including human) cues must be detected, represented and considered to ground such interaction.
OBIETTIVI E CONTENUTI
OBIETTIVI FORMATIVI
The objective of the course is to make students aware about the most relevant issues in the fields of social robotics, including: verbal and non verbal human-robot interaction; cultural factors in the design of social robots; anthropomorphic and zoomorphic robots and robot behaviours; sensors for human-robot interaction; methodology and constraints in making experiments with robots and human participants; application scenarios. The student will face these problems both from a theoretical perspective and through practical assignments, by exploring in depth one of the topics above on real robots for social interaction.
OBIETTIVI FORMATIVI (DETTAGLIO) E RISULTATI DI APPRENDIMENTO
At the end of the class, the student will be able to:
- understand the most up to date paradigms in UX development in human-robot interaction;
- apply the acquired knowledge to design comprehensive interaction processes with social robots;
- evaluate such interaction processes in real-world conditions.
Practice classes will be carried out using a humanoid Pepper robot from SoftBanks Robotics, and a biomimetic robot Miro from Consequential Robotics, as well as other ancillary equipment.
PREREQUISITI
Students must know how to program in C/C++ and how to develop ROS-based applications. Knowledge about Java may be useful for certain tasks/assignments.
Modalità didattiche
All classes will involve both thematic frontal lectures and a series of practice classes related to the discussed topics.
PROGRAMMA/CONTENUTO
SoRo is organised as a series of thematic lectures:
- Introduction to the course, description of assignments and papers to read about the field of “Social Robotics”
- How to design experiments involving humans and social robots.
- Assistive Robotics and Smart Environments.
- Interaction with pet-like robots, robot design issues and the uncanny valley.
- Culturally-competent social robots.
- Speech-based human-robot interaction.
- Tactile-based human-robot interaction.
- The perception of natural behaviours in robots.
- “Sociality” in robots.
- Human-robot cooperation.
TESTI/BIBLIOGRAFIA
Relevant material (tech reports, slides, papers) will be distributed by the teachers during the lectures.
DOCENTI E COMMISSIONI
Ricevimento: Il docente riceve su appuntamento, previo accordo al termine della lezione o via email: antonio.sgorbissa@unige.it
Commissione d'esame
ANTONIO SGORBISSA (Presidente)
CARMINE RECCHIUTO
FULVIO MASTROGIOVANNI (Presidente Supplente)
LEZIONI
Modalità didattiche
All classes will involve both thematic frontal lectures and a series of practice classes related to the discussed topics.
ESAMI
Modalità d'esame
The SoRo final mark is based on assignments and a final discussion where assignments are presented and evaluated. Assignments work as follows:
- at the beginning of October, a number of assignments are proposed;
- students, self-organised in groups of 2/3 people, bid on assignments; each group is required to express 3 ordered preferences;
- we’ll try to satisfy the preferences at best and allocate assignments to groups accordingly;
- at that point, work on assignments can start;
- at the exam date of January/February, results are discussed.
Please note that:
- EMARO+ students have a strict deadline to complete their assignment;
- Ph.D. students attending the course do not have any specific deadline.
Properly carrying out an assignment means providing:
- a (possibly working, maybe with assumptions) solution to the given problem;
- properly commented code, and where appropriate a tutorial;
- a video showing how the developed solution work.
Modalità di accertamento
Assignments will be evaluated on the basis of:
- the exhibited group’s capability in applying the notions and insights discussed during classes;
- the quality of the provided documentation;
- the outcome of a discussion about the assignment.
Calendario appelli
Data | Ora | Luogo | Tipologia | Note |
---|---|---|---|---|
07/06/2021 | 09:00 | GENOVA | Scritto | EMARO students must attend this exam on: February 3rd, 2021 |
14/07/2021 | 09:00 | GENOVA | Scritto | EMARO students must attend this exam on: February 3rd, 2021 |
02/09/2021 | 09:00 | GENOVA | Scritto | EMARO students must attend this exam on: February 3rd, 2021 |
ALTRE INFORMAZIONI
Follow-ups:
- for successful assignments, we typically encourage students to co-author a scientific paper for Robotics-related conferences.