CRII: CHS: Human-Robot Collaboration in Special Education: A Robot that Learns Service Delivery from Teachers' Demonstrations

该项目的重点是通过使用机器人技术来提高有特殊需要的儿童的生活质量。2011年，美国有13%的入学儿童需要接受某种形式的特殊教育；2010年，美国每68名儿童中就有一人被诊断出患有某种形式的自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)，这种发育状况几乎总是引发对特殊教育的需求。过去十年的大量机器人学研究表明，许多患有自闭症的儿童对机器人玩具有着浓厚的兴趣，并表明机器人在这些儿童的特殊教育中可能是有价值的工具。但有权批准在特殊教育中使用这种设备的临床社区和教育工作者仍然不信服。造成这一差距的原因之一是，这一领域的机器人研究没有对有效性给予强烈的关注。PI最近完成了一项涉及ASD儿童的初步研究，该研究证实了通过人机交互(HRI)提供特殊教育服务的临床可行性。她在当前项目中的目标是在这些发现的基础上建立一个研究计划，以开发一个框架，包括方法和算法，用于向患有自闭症和其他类似性质障碍的儿童提供机器人中介的特殊教育服务。PI的愿景是为未来教育工作者与机器人合作提供服务奠定基础，从而通过提高特殊教育服务的有效性来产生重大影响，同时减轻教育工作者在服务交付过程中的负担。本研究提出了一种从示范中学习的方法，即机器人从真实的特殊教育场景中由人类教育者进行的一系列演示中学习服务交付。当人类教育者对机器人的能力有足够的信心时，S/他将启动协作服务交付场景，在该场景中，机器人自主地交付特定教育服务的某些步骤，但在对其感知和/或计划的行动缺乏信心的情况下，请求教育者的帮助。多模式活动识别框架将提供有关有特殊需要的儿童在与机器人接触时的反应和活动的信息。为了促进教育者/机器人的互动，将与教育者和临床医生组织一个焦点小组，以满足他们在设计特殊教育服务交付机器人的控制界面时的需求和期望。人权研究所的一项研究将在现实世界环境中测试拟议框架的有效性。机器人的设计和实现可以与人类教育工作者合作提供特殊教育服务，这将打开许多机会，推动机器人学习(特别是高级概念学习)、机器人视觉和活动识别以及HRI方面的最先进水平。

This project focuses on improving the quality of life for children with special needs through the use of robot technologies. In 2011, 13% of children enrolled in schools in the United States required some form of special education; in 2010, 1 in 68 children in the U.S. was diagnosed with some form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a developmental condition that almost always triggers the need for special education. A significant amount of robotics research over the past decade has indicated that many children with ASD have a strong interest in robotic toys, and suggested that robots are potentially valuable tools in special education for these children. But the clinical community and educators, who have the authority to approve the use of such devices in special education, remain unconvinced. One reason for this gap is that the robotics research in this domain has not had a strong focus on effectiveness. The PI recently completed a preliminary study involving children with ASD that confirmed the clinical feasibility of special education service delivery through human-robot interaction (HRI). Her goal in the current project is to establish a research program that builds on these findings to develop a framework, including methods and algorithms, for robot-mediated special education service delivery to children with ASD and other disorders of a similar nature. The PI's vision is to lay the foundations for a future where educators deliver services in collaboration with robots, thereby making a significant impact by increasing the effectiveness of special education services while reducing the burden on the educator during the service delivery process.This research proposes a "Learning from Demonstration" (LfD) approach where the robot learns service delivery from a series of demonstrations by human educators in real special education scenarios. When the human educator has sufficient confidence in the robot's ability, s/he will initiate a collaborative service delivery scenario in which the robot autonomously delivers some steps of a specific educational service but asks for the educator's assistances in cases where it has low confidence in its perception and/or planned actions. A multi-modal activity recognition framework will provide information about the responses and activities of children with special needs as they engage with the robot. To facilitate educator/robot interaction, a focus group will be organized with educators and clinicians to accommodate their needs and expectations in the design of the control interface for the special education service delivery robot. An HRI study will test the effectiveness of the proposed framework in real-world settings. The design and implementation of robots that can deliver special education services in collaboration with a human educator will open up many opportunities to advance the state of the art in robot learning (especially high-level concept learning), robot vision and activity recognition, and HRI.