Collaborative Research: DHB: Human Dynamics of Robot-Supported Collaborative Work

这是一个了解和测试人机交互如何独立和交互地影响协同工作的三个方面的理论的项目：机器人的社会行为，人机交流中的相互理解，以及机器人助手对群体动力学的影响。随着计算技术和人工智能的进步，自主机器人在搜索和救援、军事战斗、地雷和炸弹探测、科学探索、执法和医院护理等关键领域变得可行。从博物馆导览员到林业侦察兵，各种机器人助手正在被开发出来，作为与工作团队合作的代理人，与人们“面对面”或远程互动。这个项目的目标是机器人支持的协作工作中鲜为人知但又至关重要的方面。研究包括三种类型的研究：(1)机器人执行社会任务的行为特征的基础实验室研究，特别是因为这些特征反映了逼真性；(2)机器人与人之间的人际沟通和相互理解的发展的控制实验和实地研究；(3)机器人在工作小组中的研究。这些研究旨在激励和测试理论，以及探索机器人支持的协作工作的直接和次要或间接的社会影响。实地工作将在医院和科学探索环境中进行。这项研究将促进我们对人机交互中相互适应的可能性和问题的理解，并将帮助我们预测协作工作中群体动态的变化。它还将扩展我们在包含机器人技术的环境中交流和群体动力学的基本知识。它将提高我们对与人合作的机器人做出原则性设计决策的能力，并更好地理解机器人的社会影响。特别是，这项研究将为我们理解和设计机器人在关键环境下的协作工作奠定基础，例如矿山，医院，有老年人或残疾人的家庭，具有挑战性的科学环境，以及机器人远程的情况。这项工作还将有助于提高公众和学生对机器人人性的认识，并有助于激发学生对科学和工程的兴趣。

This is a project to understand and test theories of how three aspects of human-robot interaction independently and interactively affect collaborative work: robot social behavior, mutual understanding in human-robot communication, and the impact of robotic assistants on group dynamics. With advances in computing technology and artificial intelligence, autonomous robots are becoming viable in such critical domains as search and rescue, military battle, mine and bomb detection, scientific exploration, law enforcement, and hospital care. Robotic assistants ranging from museum guides to forestry scouts are being developed to interact with people "in person" or remotely, as agents that collaborate with the work team. This project is targeted at little understood but critical aspects of robot-supported collaborative work. The research involves three kinds of studies: (1) fundamental laboratory research on behavioral characteristics of robots performing social tasks, especially as these characteristics reflect lifelikeness, (2) controlled experiments and field studies of interpersonal communication and the development of mutual understanding between robot and human, and (3) studies of robots in work groups. The studies are designed to motivate and test theory, as well as to explore both direct and secondary or indirect social effects of robot-supported collaborative work. The fieldwork will be carried out in hospitals and scientific exploration settings. This research will advance our understanding of the possibilities and problems of mutual adaptation in human-robot interaction over time, and will help us anticipate changes in the group dynamics of collaborative work. It also will extend our basic knowledge of communication and group dynamics in environments that incorporate robotic technology. It will improve our ability to make principled design decisions about robots that work with people, and better understand the societal impact of robots. In particular, this research will give us a foundation for understanding and designing collaborative work with robots in critical environments like mines, hospitals, households with elderly or disabled residents, in challenging scientific settings, and in situations in which the robot is remote. The work also will contribute to public and student awareness of the human side of robotics, and help motivate students' interests in science and engineering.