MRI Development: Enabling Research in Natural Communication with Virtual Tutors, Therapists, and Robotic Companions

MRI 开发：实现与虚拟导师、治疗师和机器人伴侣的自然交流研究

• 批准号: 1427872
• 负责人: Mohammad Mahoor
• 金额: $ 130万
• 依托单位: University of Denver
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1427872&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; Enabling; Research; Natural

This project, developing SocioBot-SDS (SocioBot-Spoken Dialog System), an instrument in the form of a robotic character with an emotional response, is expected to advance research involving next generation human-machine interactions. The robotic instrument will be used for therapeutic and educational purposes. Its development will specifically contribute to the research area of perceived speech and visual behaviors. The components of the instrument integrate a unique level of programmability and robustness to the display of human- and non-human-like emotive gestures with conventional orientation control through an articulated neck. The work is expected to accelerate research and development of social robots that can accurately model the dynamics of face-to-face communication with a sensitive and effective human tutor, clinician, or caregiver to a degree unachievable with current instrumentation. The robotic agent builds on advances in computer vision, spoken dialogue systems, character animation and effective computing to conduct dialogues that establish rapport with users producing rich, emotive facial gestures synchronized with prosodic speech generations in response to users' speech and emotions. The instrument represents a new level of integration of emotive capabilities that enable researchers to study socially emotive/robots/agents that can understand spoken language and show emotions and interact, speak, and communicate effectively with people in a natural way (as humans do).The instrument provides an exciting platform for research and training supporting cross-discipline technology. Since the research community would have access to the instrument, research in how to optimize communication among people and avatars might be accelerated through the perception of speech patterns and visual behaviors of those interacting. The instrument represents a new level of integration of emotive capabilities and serves as a platform for designing a new generation of more immersive and effective intelligent tutoring and therapy systems, and robot-assisted therapeutic treatments for human disabilities that include infants at risk for sensory, attention and language delays, as well as adults with mental disabilities. From an educational perspective, the proposed activities will enhance inter-disciplinary education by involving students at all levels, during and beyond the development of the instrument. The resulting instrument will be freely distributed for researchers to investigate robotic behaviors that lead to immersive and effective applications across a variety of task domains such as teaching students to read, tutoring students in science, conducting speech and language therapy sessions, or providing companionship to elderly individuals in their homes. Moreover, the activities initiated by this development enhance interdisciplinary education, involving students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, during and beyond the development of the instrument.

该项目开发了Social Bot-SDS(Social Boot-Speech Dialog System)，这是一种具有情感反应的机器人角色形式的仪器，预计将推动涉及下一代人机交互的研究。这种机器人仪器将用于治疗和教育目的。它的发展将特别有助于感知言语和视觉行为的研究领域。该仪器的部件将独特的可编程性和显示人类和非人类的情感手势的稳健性与通过铰接式颈部的传统方向控制结合在一起。这项工作预计将加快社交机器人的研究和开发，这些机器人可以准确地模拟与敏感而有效的人类导师、临床医生或照顾者面对面交流的动态，达到目前仪器无法实现的程度。该机器人代理建立在计算机视觉、口语对话系统、角色动画和有效计算的进步基础上，以进行对话，与用户建立融洽的对话，产生丰富、情绪化的面部手势，并与韵律语音同步，以响应用户的语音和情感。该仪器代表了情感能力的新水平的整合，使研究人员能够研究社交情感/机器人/代理，这些情感/机器人/代理可以理解口语并显示情感，并以自然的方式(像人类一样)有效地与人互动、说话和沟通。该仪器为支持跨学科技术的研究和培训提供了一个令人兴奋的平台。由于研究界将可以使用该工具，因此可以通过对交互人员的言语模式和视觉行为的感知来加速研究如何优化人与化身之间的交流。该仪器代表了情感能力整合的新水平，并成为设计新一代更身临其境、更有效的智能教学和治疗系统的平台，以及机器人辅助的人类残疾治疗，包括有感觉、注意力和语言延迟风险的婴儿以及智力残疾的成年人。从教育的角度来看，拟议的活动将加强跨学科教育，让各级学生参与，无论是在工具的开发过程中还是开发过程中。由此产生的仪器将被免费分发，供研究人员调查机器人行为，这些行为导致在各种任务领域实现身临其境的有效应用，例如教学生阅读、辅导学生科学、进行言语和语言治疗课程，或在家中为老年人提供陪伴。此外，这一发展所发起的活动加强了跨学科教育，使本科生和研究生在开发过程中和开发过程之外都参与进来。