ERI: An Emotion-Based Robotic Behavior Optimization System for Comfortable and Friendly Human-Robot Collaboration

ERI：基于情感的机器人行为优化系统，实现舒适友好的人机协作

• 批准号: 2301678
• 负责人: Rui Li
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: Montclair State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2301678&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ERI; Emotion; Based; Robotic; Behavior

This Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) award will support research that will contribute new knowledge related to comfortable and friendly human-robot collaboration in manufacturing, promoting the development progress of robotics and advancing human-robot interaction technologies. Collaborative robots in manufacturing work with humans on repetitive and dangerous tasks to improve efficiency and productivity. However, stiff and mechanical interaction behaviors of the current robots lower the naturalness and flexibility of the collaboration process. Prolonged exposure to working with such robots will cause significant stress among human workers. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the interaction behaviors of the collaborative robot. This award supports fundamental research to provide needed knowledge for the development of an emotion-based robotic behavior optimization system. It aims to turn the current collaborative robot into an empathetic and friendly working companion that can adaptively adjust its interaction behaviors for facilitating comfortable and friendly collaboration processes. Results from this research can further benefit the U.S. economy and society by bringing humans back to manufacturing automation. The interdisciplinary research activities in this project will help broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering research and positively impact engineering education.To realize a human-centered, comfortable, and friendly collaboration between the human and the robot in manufacturing, this project will develop an emotion-based robotic behavior optimization system. The system can turn the current collaborative robot into a smart companion which can not only understand and respond to human intentions and emotions but also adaptively optimize its actions to facilitate comfortable and friendly collaboration in manufacturing tasks. This project will: (1) develop a new computational model to let the robot understand human intentions and measure human emotions, (2) develop an interaction system to enable the collaborative robot to intelligently respond to human emotions and optimize its actions for a natural and flexible human-robot collaboration, and (3) conduct real-world experiments to validate and assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and human acceptance of the developed system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该工程研究启动（ERI）奖将支持研究，将有助于在制造业中舒适和友好的人机协作，促进机器人技术的发展进步和推进人机交互技术的新知识。制造业中的协作机器人与人类一起完成重复和危险的任务，以提高效率和生产力。然而，目前机器人的刚性和机械的交互行为降低了协作过程的自然性和灵活性。长时间接触这些机器人会给人类工人带来巨大的压力。因此，提高协作机器人的交互行为是至关重要的。该奖项支持基础研究，为开发基于情感的机器人行为优化系统提供所需的知识。它旨在将当前的协作机器人变成一个有同情心和友好的工作伙伴，可以自适应地调整其交互行为，以促进舒适和友好的协作过程。这项研究的结果可以通过将人类带回制造自动化来进一步造福美国经济和社会。本项目的跨学科研究活动将有助于扩大工程研究中代表性不足的群体的参与，并对工程教育产生积极影响。为了实现以人为本的、舒适的、友好的人与机器人在制造业中的协作，本项目将开发基于情感的机器人行为优化系统。该系统可以将当前的协作机器人转变为智能伴侣，不仅可以理解和响应人类的意图和情感，还可以自适应地优化其动作，以促进制造任务中舒适友好的协作。该项目将：（1）开发一个新的计算模型，让机器人理解人类的意图和衡量人类的情绪，（2）开发一个交互系统，使协作机器人能够智能地响应人类的情绪，并优化其行动，实现自然和灵活的人机协作，以及（3）进行真实世界的实验，以验证和评估有效性，效率，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。