Human-robot interdependence and robot-robot interdependence

Abstract

The first aspect of understanding interaction between robots and human beings in the context of unrestrained environments is to detect the position of acting parties as well as discern the needed activities and actions. Various studies exist focusing on pattern identification and environment intelligence. Interdependence focuses on two folds: human-robot interdependence and robot-robot interdependence. It is ideal for the robots to have adequate understanding of new activities as well as refreshing existing ones through human encounters. This research will focus on examination of sensors and communication between robot and children. This is through addressing two critical questions. The first question will focus on evaluation whether communication between robots and children will be more complex in comparison to communication between robots and adults. In addition, the research will examine whether there are precedence for robot nannies. The first chapter will focus on introducing human interaction and robotics. The second chapter will explore main contact points in relation to robotics as well as understanding behavior of adults and children with reference to robotic interaction. The next section of the research will focus on the provision of an overview of sensors systems and pervasive systems as well as actions and activities vital for detection. In addition, the research explores social traits and affective elements of human behavior from robotics perspective (Nanny Works in Mysterious Ways 21).

Chapter 1: Introduction

Various researchers and studies have focused on the robotics field in the recent decades. This research develops under the influence of increasing need for workforces or labor in the context of various spheres in relation to national economies. There is great need for labor in industries, businesses, homes, and relevant sectors. In spite of this increased demand for labor, there is shortage in its supply. In order to address this need, scientists have been essential in the development of robots to subsidies the roles and duties of men and women in diverse sectors within the economy. This research will seek to address the shortage of nannies at various residential homes as one of the challenges facing the modern society. Robots have the ability to teach and keep children busy. This is through utilization of human intelligence and interaction behavior by the essence of personal robots (Technology and Human Vulnerability 45).

Personal robots have been essential in enhancing human beings to develop cognitively, socially, and physically. There is high possibility that robots will become an integral part of humanity, more so in the lives of children and people with disabilities. Robots have the ability to help the elderly maintain good as well as independent life in their homes without the need for the family members being around. In addition, robots are drawing closer to human beings in the context of industries. In such industries, human robots undergo reprogramming with workers. This is vital to enable robots work with workers towards addressing manufacturing and maintenance needs. There is a challenge when robots encounter untrained users. This relates to the increase in the application of robots and the prospect of robots earning some interdependence. One of the critical issues requiring vital evaluation is the understanding of human behavior (Technology and Human Vulnerability 45). Utilization of robots in teaching and entertaining children indicates that robots must understand human behavior. In addition, robots need to avoid human-robot conflicts through integration of human behavior into its systems.

There is need for the personal robots to act in a relevant and socially acceptable as well as useful manner through internationalization of human behavior at various abstraction levels. This relates to identification of the current behavior of human beings as well as looking for expectations and aims in diverse individuals. In addition, robots must understand human behavior at various time scales. This relates to spanning seconds, minutes, days, and hours.

Background Information

This research aims to identify technological and scientific responses to challenges in the robotic field. Most robots fail to understand human behavior thus limiting the effectiveness and efficiency of robot interaction. Human beings who encounter robots behave in ways that are completely different from human-human interaction. It is vital for the scientists to come up with robot schemes with the ability to understand human behavior in relation to the human-robot encounters. Robots are specific in comparison to the past intelligent systems because of their surplus motor actions as well as behaviors. For the robots to act appropriately with kids, these technologies should act in a proper manner. This is an indication that human behavior schemes programmed into robots must be compatible as well as reusable to the action system of the robotic technology (Broek et al., 276).

This research also presents another challenge in understanding how robots might learn and adapt to human beings. Every child assigned a robot might have their own habits as well as preferences that robots require to make inferences. It is ideal to note that learning and understanding human behavior is applicable in two directions. These include the tendency of robots learning to infer towards understanding human behaviors. This must incorporate linguistic learning techniques and concepts by children. In addition, robots must learn to infer various emotional states of children of language especially through utilization of nonverbal cues, grouping of traits interaction or learning how to project intention as well as combination of structures of goals in relation to an overt behavior. Robots have the capacity to understand new activities as well as refreshing the current activities through human encounters and interactions. For example, application of mimicry by robots is vital in learning through demonstration (Bryson et al., 196).

It is impossible to deny that technology plays a crucial role in the daily lives of human beings. In addition, technology has been essential in achieving beyond expectations and predicted limits. One of the essential technological developments in the modern society is the essence of the robot nannies. The only question arising in relation to this technological development is whether it has a future or it is just a fictional technology. Do the robot nannies have adequate ability and technique to be as perfect and effective as human nannies? Are there any advantages and disadvantages of the robot nannies in comparison to the human nannies? This research will also seek to address the current capabilities of the robot nannies. This is because the above questions are vital in understanding and applying robot nannies

Research Questions

This research seeks to address the following research questions:

1. Will communication between robots and children be more or less complex than communication between robots and adults? Why?
2. Is there precedence for robot nannies?
3. What are sensors? How important are sensors towards enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of the robots in understanding human behavior and interacting with the environment?

Research Objectives

1. To examine the influence of sensors in enhancing the ability of the robots to understand human behavior
2. To evaluate the extent to which robots understand and interact with the environment
3. To evaluate robots and children communication
4. To evaluate aspects of robot-adults communication
5. To determine the level of complexities between robot-children and robot-adults communication in relation to technological advancements in the modern society

Research Significance

This research is vital towards understanding the importance of robots in the modern society aiming to enhance the growth and development of economies across the globe. In addition, this research will bridge the gap between the available literature and concepts to be examined in relation to robots.  The research will also be essential in understanding the role of robots in acting as nannies for children whose parents are busy executing roles and duties with reference to economic development.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Childcare robots or personal robots undergo manufacturing and development with the long-term goal of generating surrogate carers. In spite of the fact that the total childcare is not yet being developed, various indicators demonstrate that the approach is on the cards. This review focused on examination of the recent literature and studies as well as developments in childcare robots with rapid speculation on the progress in the coming years. Speculation will relate to technological developments and innovation in relation to the ongoing robotics work. This review focused on examination of the ethical issues with reference to full-time or part-time replacement of the human nannies with the robots in the modern society. According to a critical evaluation of the previous studies and development, various questions arise in the context of robots as nannies for children. These questions relate to privacy, restraint use of robots, deception of children, human rights, privacy, and accountability (Denning et al., 100).

The most crucial ethical issues in relation to this literature review include emotional and psychological well-being of children. Various studies indicate robots are similar to standard toys, medicine, and video games. This is because of the presence of the usage regulations as well as some guidance. It is ideal to note that robots are intelligent machines causing no physical harm. They also have the ability to protect children from any physical harm. In addition, it is difficult to avoid emotional or psychological harm because of the tendency of such aspects to depend on other various factors. Some of these factors include insensitive parenting and predispositions. Moreover, children under 5 years could experience psychological damage under the influence of extended use of robots in caring. This occurs when the robot operates as the main caregiver. Unfortunately, most parents decide to subject their children to extended care of the robots thus unbalanced social and emotional development of the young ones (John et al., 22)

Chapter 3: Methodology

This research focused on utilization of qualitative research design towards answering the research questions and addressing the relevant objectives. This is because the main component of the research will focus on exploitation of the past studies. It is vital to note that this research design would facilitate realization of the goals and objectives of the research questions in relation communication between robots and children as well as robots and adults. Literature review focused on examination of the critical information concerning the research questions such as concepts of sensors in enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of communication between children and robots. In addition, the research design will incorporate ethical issues affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of the robot nannies towards providing care to the children (Kubinyi et al., 215).

Findings and Discussion

Sensors

Sensors refer to devices within the ability to notice the presence or absence of a body of certain elements and traits of a body as well as providing adequate feedback. Robotic technologies have been essential in exploitation of sensors towards interacting with and understanding the environment. The exploitation of the sensors by robots has been a revelation in relation to improved creativity of robots. It is vital to note that the application of sensors have been essential in enhancing the performance of robots to a great level. This is because of the ability of the sensors to enable robots generate intelligence in the context of an environment. This is through development of visual sensors towards assisting robots in reacting to the various situations. Machine vision systems undergo classification in subspecialties such as sensing, prepossessing, recognition, interpretation, description, and segmentation. Robotics technology utilizes different types of sensors (Lamb et al., 25). These types include range sensors, tactile sensors, and proximity sensors. Proximity sensors have the ability to point out the presence of an object. These sensors exist in the motion parts of robots such as end effectors. In addition, such sensors are switched on at specified distances meted out by means of millimeter or feet. Moreover, proximity sensors undergo exploitation in the presence of human beings with the aim of minimizing accidents.

Another crucial group of sensors is ranger sensors placed at the end effectors of the robot. This group operates to work out the distance between the sensor and the work part. Workers on visual data provide the essential distance values. In addition, sensors have the ability to evaluate the image sizes as well as analyze common objects. It is ideal to note that the range sensors undergo meting through sonar transmitters and receivers or two TV cameras. Tactile sensors have the ability to specify the contact between the sensor and the relevant object. This is because of their division into two sensors: force and touch sensors. The touch sensors have the role of sensing as well as detecting the touching of an object as well as the sensor. On the other hand, sensor calculates the forces of many operations such as machine uploading and loading, handling of material, and vital functions under the influence of a robot (Lamb et al., 25).

Sensors vs. human behavior

The first objective in interaction between the robot and the unrestrained environment is the detection of the position of the acting parities as well as discerning of the various activities and actions. It is vital to note many pattern detection tasks coincide with the ability of the operator and the robot to extract much information from examination of the interaction. Pervasive systems

These systems are vital in illustrating a paradigm in which intelligence of environments as well as interaction objects become enhanced under the influence of computational elements. Many sensors have the ability to collect data with the aim of guiding the pervasive systems. This is because of the role of the sensors in providing the greatest data amount as visual sensors. Computer vision functioning has five stages: detection, localization, tracking, recognition, and understanding. Vision based sensor for localization have the tendency of providing the best quality of accuracy for allowed convenience levels. In the recent past, accurate as well as fast tracking of objected has developed under the influence of RGB-D camera technologies. These technologies have the ability to work and operate in limited ranges as well as under restrained conditions of illumination (Petersen et al., 50).

The cameras are also effective in the context of mobile robots. This is because of the ability of the robots to enhance face-to-face interaction with individuals over small instances. Depth cameras are vita in addressing computational needs of the traditional vision-based solutions. Most established cameras in relation to the smart environment possess static properties as well as maximum check for the area of interest. Most of these cameras have the ability to operate together with the aim of providing answers to difficulties of viewing angle and occlusions arising from the given instance. In spite of this approach, most cameras require complex algorithms in order to combine as well as discern data emanating from diverse camera. Consequently, these cameras are difficult to establish thus generating complexities in their utilization by robots. It is ideal to note that most cameras are fused for the prose presentation, representation, and action detection.

The process of installing sensors on a robot proves to be different in comparison to rolling out of the sensors with reference to uncontrolled environment. It is flexible to install sensors on relevant robot. The main shortcoming of this aspect is inadequacy of the robot in relation to relevant resources. The best approach towards eliminating such problems is integration of sensors in the smart environment in accordance with the ones of the robot. For example, when a camera is mounted on a ceiling, it has the ability to detect as well as track people while utilizing the laser range finder in the context of the mobile robot (Petersen et al ., 50).

Action and Recognition of tasks

In order to discern the behavior of kids, it is ideal to develop effective and proper manifestation of the sensed primitives. The selected manifestations must have the ability and capability to differentiate between various actions classes under the influence of relevant applications. This is because extensive manifestations require complex training processes, training samples for learning, and extended computation during the functioning process. In addition, the achievement of refinement such as representation, it is idea to add more nodes in the context of a routed layout. This is vital towards enhancing the effectiveness of the body parts experiencing modeling action. Moreover, interest points do not have to conform to landmarks, similar recognized points, and space-time corners undergoing discerning representations of actions. Point set matching issues is eliminated through generation of a conformation between actions illustrated by robot understanding and interpreting human behavior for the interest points to act as a guide (Petters et al., 250).

Child Robot Interaction

One of the main objectives of robot designers since the onset of the technology is to have robots adapt to the daily interactions of human beings as well as relevant activities and actions. This makes it ideal for the robots to have or possess the ability to recognize, interpret, and understand human behavior. It is critical for the designers to adopt and integrate diverse skills and techniques t.............