United States

In this paper, we introduce BabyNet, a light-weight (in
terms of trainable parameters) network structure to recognize
infant reaching action from off-body stationary cameras. We
develop an annotated dataset that includes diverse reaches
performed while in a sitting posture by different infants in
unconstrained environments (e.g., in home settings, etc.). 
BabyNet can attain solid performance in terms of (average)
testing accuracy that exceeds that of other larger networks,
and can hence serve as a light-weight data-driven framework
for video-based infant reaching action recognition.

IEEE RO-MAN 2021

Warmth and Competence to Predict Human Preference of Robot Behavior in Physical Human-Robot Interaction

pediatric rehabilitation

action recogniton

reaching

RO-MAN 2021's theme is trustworthiness and cooperation. We chose this term well before the pandemic put the world on edge and added a new reason for us to question our own personal safety when in the company of others. But what about in the company of social robots? What would cause us to trust, or not trust, them? How do we as researchers create that feeling, that critical component of any relationship? With social robots, it is of course largely in our power to design the physical form, the control code and the interface software to maximize trustworthiness, facilitate cooperation and enhance the quality of human-robot interaction. This theme also touches upon people's expectations and perceptions of robots, as well as other social, cognitive and cultural factors that will influence human-robot interactions. We will have a special session/track on this topic, invite targeted submissions and include plenary speakers who are specialist in this area. We sincerely hope that this focus will help enlighten the design-thinking of all of us as we fabricate and program our own various systems.

To access RO-MAN Virtual 2021, [please register here.](https://ro-man2021.org/registration/)

RO-MAN 2021's theme is trustworthiness and cooperation. We chose this term well before the pandemic put the world on edge and added a new reason for us to question our own personal safety when in the company of others. But what about in the company of social robots? What would cause us to trust, or not trust, them? How do we as researchers create that feeling, that critical component of any relationship? With social robots, it is of course largely in our power to design the physical form, the control code and the interface software to maximize trustworthiness, facilitate cooperation and enhance the quality of human-robot interaction. 

**31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication**
 This conference is a leading forum where state-of-the-art innovative results, the latest developments as well as future perspectives relating to robot and human interactive communication are presented and discussed.
 
 The conference covers a wide range of topics related to Robot and Human Interactive Communication, involving theories, methodologies, technologies, empirical and experimental studies. Papers related to the study of robotic technology, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, human factors, ethics and policies, interaction-based robot design and other topics related to human-robot interaction are welcome.
 
 **CONFERENCE THEME:**
 Social, asocial, and antisocial robots
 
 Robots are starting to populate our lives: at work, in our homes, hotels, shops. However, not everybody is comfortable with robots finding a place in society. For example, people may be afraid that robots will replace humans in their jobs. This belief is exacerbated by the media that, on one side, raise expectations of robots’ capabilities, while amplifying fears and worries on the other side.
 
 In the next years, due to the increasing request for interaction with people in social environments, academic research and market analyses predict that robots will become more and more “social”. But, at the same time, robots may incur the risk of being perceived as “asocial” as their pervasiveness in everyday environments may become an obstacle to social interaction between humans. Or they may even be rejected as “antisocial” if researchers do not take care to develop robots that behave according to the customs and habits of the communities where they are expected to operate.
 
 To prevent this from happening, robotic researchers can no longer take the luxury of being mere technicians. They must be capable of addressing all the challenges raised by future robot-populated communities in a multidisciplinary way. They need to share their knowledge with the public to make people aware of what robots really are, what expectations we can have from them, the risks we may incur, and the possible mitigation plans.
 
 While being open to any kind of contribution related to Human-Robot Interactive Communication, the RO-MAN 2022 conference will emphasize these aspects of robotic research. How can we create robots capable of being welcomed as our assistants and companions in society while, at the same time, not being perceived as “asocial” or “antisocial?” How can we create robots perceived as facilitators of the natural development of human beings and communities, rather than obstacles?
 
 Contributions from different disciplines, not exclusively related to technological development, will be welcomed as crucial to pave the way to global acceptance of future robots with an informed attitude.
 
 [![](https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/underline.prod/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/af259abe105b3791c498ae1552d75710.png)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/18w73BZPB_JVOgcrcdZDqYpEupwVt4CnU/view?usp=sharing)

A registration is required to access this event page. If you have not already done so, please use the below link to register for the event. 

[Register Here](http://www.smile.unina.it/ro-man2022/welcome-to-ieee-ro-man-2022/)

Registration Is Required

IEEE RO-MAN 2022

31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication
This conference is a leading forum where state-of-the-art innovative results, the latest developments as well as future perspectives relating to robot and human interactive communication are presented and discussed.

technical paper

In this paper, we report that how much the presence of a robot increases the rate of valid responses in a questionnaire survey. We conducted a field experiment in which two conditions were compared: one with a robot and one without a robot. 
The result shows the potential that a robot can attract people’s attention and increase the response rates. However, the effect was small and short-term.


Hierarchical Motion Planning Framework for Manipulators in Human-Centered Environments

While VR is a useful evaluation tool for HRI, it has been concerned that the human behavior may differ between VR and real environments due to the differences in cognitive characteristics. We investigated the differences of human behavior in real and VR condition for searching of hidden objects and precious manipulation. We found that precious manipulation task requires longer time in VR condition, and subjects tend to change their head posture during object search and manipulation. We also discuss the feasibility to use the findings in robot competitions.

A Two-Layered Approach to Adaptive Dialogues for Robotic Assistance

Faces are important in any interaction. It is the focal point of the interaction. In the experiment with interactive robotic art installation, we found no significant differences between distance mode, animacy, likeability, and safety before and after the interaction across the three conditions. The findings necessitate further consideration of the currently widely held belief on the utility of robot faces for successful HRI, particularly when the robot can generate attention-driven motion primitives.

Usability Test of Master Devices for Robotic Vascular Intervention Procedure

Novel framework to create legible movements in multi-party interactions

Human robot skill transfer systems for mobile robot based on multi sensor fusion

We present Cozmo behaviors that could function as the action space of a future robot learning strategy, evaluated via an online video-based study with N = 113 participants. Participants' ratings generally match the intended valence and energy level, and valence strongly affects interaction appeal, trustworthiness, and safety. Facial expression and loudness acted as important covariates, which may help generalize these results to other behaviors and robots. These results can benefit those who are interested in robot emotional expression and assistive robots.

Designing and Validating Expressive Cozmo Behaviors for Accurately Conveying Emotions

This study proposes a novel measurement of the perceived assertiveness of a robot using both objective assessment of a person’s compliance to a robot’s suggestions in a math quiz task and subjective assessments of a person’s perception and expectation of a robot in different hypothetical scenarios. The proposed measurement evaluates perceived assertiveness of a robot in three dimensions
inspired by social behavioral studies on human-human interaction, namely social assertiveness, directiveness, and independence.


Benchmarks for evaluating human-robot interaction: Lessons learned from human-animal interactions

Making an agent’s intentions clear from its observed behavior is crucial for seamless human-agent interaction and for increased transparency and trust in AI systems. Existing methods that address this challenge and maximize legibility of
behaviors are limited to deterministic domains. We develop a technique for maximizing legibility in stochastic environments and illustrate that using legibility as an objective improves interpretability of agent behavior in several scenarios. We provide initial empirical evidence that human subjects can better interpret legible behavior.

A Virtual Reality-Based Framework for Enhancing Walking Abilities Using Exoskeleton

This research proposed a remote conversation assisting system for those unbalanced condition by utilizing both physical and virtual aspects of sharing the nonverbal behavior of remote-paticipating interlocutor.
The proposed system is constructed with a rotatable screen which project the life-size avatar of remote interlocutor where the rotation of the screen alternate as body posture and projected avatar show the gesture.

A General Methodology for Teaching Norms to Social Robots

In this study, we aim to verify whether expanding a robot's embodiment influences the ease of inducing behavioral changes in passersby. We conducted a field experiment in a real shop using robots with various embodiments. The results show that expanding the robot's embodiment induces behavioral changes to the desired action, such as stopping in front of the robot and disinfecting their hands. These results indicate that expanding the robot's embodiment was an important factor in inducing behavioral changes in passersby.

Behavioral Changes in Passersby by Expanding Embodiment of a Calling Robot

With more social robots entering different industries such as educational systems, health-care facilities, and even airports, it is important to tackle problems that may hinder high quality interactions in a wild setting including group conversations. This paper presents an autonomous group conversational role coordinator system based on the proxemics of participants in the group with the robot including their distances and orientations. The system accordingly assigns to the group participants around the robot three different statuses: active, bystander, and overhearer. Once the statuses are estimated, the robot autonomously adjusts its gaze pattern in order to adapt to the group dynamics and attributes its attention in relation to the role the member in the group is playing. This system was evaluated through a pilot study (N=16), in which two participants at a time played a trivia game with the robot and had different roles to play within the interaction. The primary results imply that the participants interacting with a robot having this adaptive gaze behavior based on conversational role coordination are more likely to stand closer to the robot. In addition, the robot was perceived as more adaptable, sociable, and socially present as well as more likely to make the participants feel more attended to.

Warmth and Competence to Predict Human Preference of Robot Behavior in Physical Human-Robot Interaction

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