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--- lirec_notes [2009-01-06 15:00] – davegriffiths
+++ lirec_notes [2009-01-12 17:45] – davegriffiths
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-LIving with Robots and InteractivE Companions
+====== LIving with Robots and InteractivE Companions ======
-LIREC aims to establish a multi-faceted theory of artificial long-term companions (including memory, emotions, cognition, communication, learning, etc.), embody this theory in robust and innovative technology and experimentally verify both the theory and technology in real social environments. Whether as robots, social toys or graphical and mobile synthetic characters, interactive and sociable technology is advancing rapidly. However, the social, psychological and cognitive foundations and consequences of such technological artefacts entering our daily lives - at work, or in the home - are less well understood.
+<blockquote>LIREC aims to establish a multi-faceted theory of artificial long-term companions (including memory, emotions, cognition, communication, learning, etc.), embody this theory in robust and innovative technology and experimentally verify both the theory and technology in real social environments. Whether as robots, social toys or graphical and mobile synthetic characters, interactive and sociable technology is advancing rapidly. However, the social, psychological and cognitive foundations and consequences of such technological artefacts entering our daily lives - at work, or in the home - are less well understood.</blockquote>
-Key areas of the research will focus on are:
+http://www.lirec.org
-==Long term companions==
+=====Theory=====
-Robots and agents which build up a long term relationship with their users.
-==Agent migration==
+[[Models of Social Intelligence]]
-In order to maintain a long term companionship, the agent will be required to move between different forms. Forms currently under investigation are:
-  * Mobile robot
-  * Fixed robot
-  * Handheld device
-  * Fixed graphical system
-This migration between these devices, and how people relate to this migration is a core element of the research.
+====Agent platforms====
-===Scenarios===
+The platforms currently under consideration for long term companions are:
+  * Mobile robots
+  * Fixed robots
+  * Handheld devices
+  * Fixed graphical systems
-The scenarios are to be considered preliminary ideas for showcases for the technology developed for lirec, and are designed partly to exhibit ways in which
+=====Migration=====
+An interesting feature of the research is migration between these platforms. Agents which need to build up a long term relationship with their users will have to switch forms depending on the needs of the user at different times. The migration of an agent between devices, and how people relate to it, is a core element of the research.
-==Heriot Watt==
+======Scenarios======
+In order to test and showcase the technology developed for Lirec, several scenarios have been designed to promote companionship. These scenarios are shared between three of the research partners.
+====Heriot Watt====
 Spirit of the building:
-  - Team buddy, mobile robot, collective memory for a lab team
+  - Team buddy, a mobile robot/collective memory for a team working in a lab
-  - Personal guide - for navigating around a university campus, remember appointments etc
+  - Personal guide - for navigating around a university campus, remembering appointments, telling you where to go
-  - In the wild - a gossip/chat robot - appears on a large screen in social area
+  - In the wild - a gossip/chat robot - appears on a large screen in a social area
-==INESC-ID==
+====INESC-ID====
   - Game companion for young children
-  - Personal trainer (migrate to mobile robot for jogging exercises etc)
+  - Personal trainer - which can migrate to mobile robot for jogging exercises
-  - Welcome to the jungle - talk to game characters through a robot, robot can alternate
+  - Welcome to the jungle - talk to game characters through a robot which can alternate between real and game world
-    between real and game world
-==University of Hertfordshire==
+====The University of Hertfordshire====
-  - Fetch and carry, help with physical impairment or convenience
+  - Fetch and carry, to help with physical impairment or provide convenience
-  - Cognitive prosthetic - memory aid for tasks etc
+  - Cognitive prosthetic - memory aid for tasks
-  - Telepresence card player - robot mediates play
+  - Telepresence card player - a robot mediates play between two people
-  - Teaching Proxemic preferences - robot learns where to be relative to the user in different situations
+  - Teaching proxemic preferences - a robot learns where to be relative to the user in different situations
-  - Travelling companion - agent migration, to stay with user during home, work, shopping.
+  - Travelling companion - agent migration, to stay with user during home, work, shopping
-===Architecture===
+======Experimental testing======
-Has to:
+All scenarios developed are to be experimentally tested and showcased to the public.
+======Architecture======
+The technology developed for Lirec is shared between the research partners, and has to:
   - Run on very different platforms
   - Reuse code across these platforms
   - Support migration at runtime between platforms
-Platforms can consist of 4 main types, mobile robot, fixed robot, handheld device or fixed graphical system. Each has it's inherent restrictions.
+====Existing robot architectures====
+In the whole, there has historically been a lack of sharing of this kind of technology. This is partly because generalising is hard, considering all types of robots and implementations possible. However, Lirec has to generalise as it's using a wide variety of platforms and needs to share as much as possible.
-==Existing robot architectures==
+While some existing architectures are available, none of them address the needs of Lirec, given the focus is:
-In the whole, there is a lack of sharing of this kind of technology. This is partly because generalising is hard in this field, considering all types of robots possible. However, Lirec has to generalise as it's using a wide variety of architectures.
+  - Long term companionship rather than solving a purely technical problem
+  - Working across different platforms
-NASREM/NIST RCS - NASA + ESA use a generic system with their subcontractors.
+====Methodology====
+In the past there have been 2 broad approaches to [[robot design]]:
+  * Hierarchical, model based planning = expensive/difficult to maintain an accurate world state model
+  * Behavioural approach = less state, local decisions, but liable to local minima and opaque to program
+This can be summed up as "predictive vs reactive".
-==Methodology==
+The plan is to use a hybrid approach, example [[http://www.techfak.net/ags/ai/projects/BIRON/welcome.html|BIRON]]. Where the high level predictive element constrains the reactive in order to combine local decisions with a world model.
-In the past there have been 2 broad approaches to robot design:
-  * Heirarchical, model based planning = expensive to maintain accurate world state model
-  * Behavioural approach = less state, local decisions, liable to local minima, opaque to program
-This can be summed up as predictive vs reactive.
-Current thinking is to use a hybrid approach, example BIRON. Where the predictive constrains the reactive to combine local decisions with a world model.
 The architecture will consist of 3 layers of abstraction:
-  * Level 1 - device layer, architecture dependant
+  * Level 1 - The device api layer, hardware drivers
-  * Level 2 - architecture dependant -> logical mappings
+  * Level 2 - Logical mappings of devices into competencies
-  * Level 3 - ION, device independant
+  * Level 3 - ION, platform independent
+Level 2 will provide a reference architecture with modular capabilities called competencies. Not all competencies will make sense for all platforms, and different implementations of the same competency will be needed for different platforms.
+====Competencies table====
+^ Actuation ^^^^ Sensing ^^^^^^
+| **Speech/Sound** | **Visual** | **Movement** | **Object Manipulation** | **Identification** | **Vision** | **Sounds** | **Positioning** | **Distance** | **Internal State** |
+| Text to speech | Gesture execution | Move limb | Grasp/Place object | User recognition | Face detection | Speech recogn | Localization | Obstacle avoidance | Battery status |
+| Non-verbal sounds | Lip sync | Follow person | | Obj recognition | Gesture recognition (simple set) | Non-verbal sounds | Locate person | Locate obj | Competence execution monitoring |
+| | Facial expression | Path planning | | | Emotion recognition (simple set) | | | User proximic distance sensing/control | |
+| | | Gaze/head movement | | | Body tracking | | | | |
+| | | Expressive behaviour | | | | | | | |
+Some competencies are dependant on others, such as facial expression which will require a face detection competency to operate. The computer vision competencies are to be concentrated on at first.
+=====Level 3 Architecture=====
+====Appraisal====
+====Coping/Reasoning/Planning====
+====Affective State====
+====Social Relations====
+====Models of others (Theory of Mind)====
+====Long term memory====
+  * Forgetting
+====Short term memory====
-Level 2 will provide a reference architecture with modular capabilities called competencies. Not all competencies will make sense for all architectures, and different implementations of the same competency may exist.
+======Links======
-Example competencies:
+[[Lirec Work Packages]]
-  * Face finding
+[[http://eris.liralab.it/yarp/|YARP]] is a good example of sharing code in this way on a Linux platform.
-  * Expression recognition
-  * Text to speech
-  * Obstacle avoidance
-YARP