ABSTRACT
A service (social) robot is defined as the Internet of Things (IoT) consisting of a physical robot body that connects to one or more Cloud services to facilitate human-machine interaction activities to enhance the functionality of a traditional robot. Many studies found that anthropomorphic designs in robots resulted in greater user engagement. Humanoid service robots usually behave like natural social interaction partners for human users, with emotional features such as speech, gestures, and eye-gaze, referring to the users’ cultural and social background. During the COVID-19 pandemic, service robots play a much more critical role in helping to safeguard people in many countries nowadays. This paper gives an overview of the research issues from technical and social-technical perspectives, especially in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), emotional expression, and cybersecurity issues, with a case study of gamification and service robots. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
One of the important requirements for service robots is attracting people by attractiveness and to be able to exchange messages with people. With reference to the traditional Japanese puppet show, Ningyo Joruri, we have independently developed OSONO, which is a physical robot, with high-quality choreography. In this paper, we report questionnaire evaluations on OSONO targeting a puppeteer expert group and compare with existing questionnaire results targeting the ordinary person. This shows that the method of creating OSONO and its choreography is effective in widely general. Additionally, we develop a remote evaluations system so that we can conduct questionnaires of OSONO in a short time for more evaluators. We also verify the effectiveness of this remote evaluation system. This system can be expected as a substitute for the conventional face-to-face evaluation, which is becoming difficult to conduct it due to the pandemic of COVID-19. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
In the last few decades, robots have fostered unique possibilities for musical performance and composition, allowing novel interactions with musicians and memorable experiences for the audience. Robotic musicians can be built in many shapes and have diverse functionalities, making robot musicianship a fertile research field. However, building physical robots requires access to electrical and mechanical components, as well as laboratory equipment, which can make them financially unfeasible in peripheral countries. Moreover, building physical experimental devices quickly raises the problem of disposing of broken or outdated parts. Finally, the COVID-19 crisis has decreased access to laboratories and forced social isolation, which further harms physical robots’ development. In this position paper, we argue that the current technology for robot simulation can be used to provide most aspects of physical robots, with considerable advantages related to the financial cost, the environmental impact, and the possibility of testing and sharing robots using the Internet. We also discuss previous work on virtual presence, which indicates that both the performers and the audience can feel being present in the same space as the virtual robots. Lastly, we anticipate challenges and research opportunities in this field of research. Copyright: © 2021 the Authors.