Nas ciências de computação, o estudo de emoções tem sido impulsionado pela construção de ambientes interativos, especialmente no contexto dos dispositivos móveis. Pesquisas envolvendo interação humano-robô têm explorado emoções para propiciar experiências naturais de interação com robôs sociais. Um dos aspectos a serem investigados é o das abordagens práticas que exploram mudanças na personalidade de um sistema artificial propiciadas por alterações em um estado emocional inferido do usuário. Neste trabalho, é proposto um ambiente para interação humano-robô baseado em emoções, reconhecidas por meio de análise de expressões faciais, para plataforma Android. Esse sistema consistiu em um agente virtual agregado a um aplicativo, o qual usou informação proveniente de um reconhecedor de emoções para adaptar sua estratégia de interação, alternando entre dois paradigmas discretos pré-definidos. Nos experimentos realizados, verificou-se que a abordagem proposta tende a produzir mais empatia do que uma condição controle, entretanto esse resultado foi observado somente em interações suficientemente longas. / In computer sciences, the development of interactive environments have motivated the study of emotions, especially on the context of mobile devices. Research in human-robot interaction have explored emotions to create natural experiences on interaction with social robots. A fertile aspect consist on practical approaches concerning changes on the personality of an artificial system caused by modifications on the users inferred emotional state. The present project proposes to develop, for Android platform, an environment for human-robot interaction based on emotions. A dedicated module will be responsible for recognizing emotions by analyzing facial expressions. This system consisted of a virtual agent aggregated to an application, which used information of the emotion recognizer to adapt its interaction strategy, alternating between two pre-defined discrete paradigms. In the experiments performed, it was found that the proposed approach tends to produce more empathy than a control condition, however this result was observed only in sufficiently long interactions.

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Robotics engineers' ongoing quest to create human-like robots has raised profound questions on their lack of ethical implications. The rapid progress and growth of humanoid robots is said to have a significant impact on society and human psychology in the near future. Interaction Design is a multidisciplinary field in which designers are often encouraged to engage in important conversations and find solutions to complex problems. On the other hand, animators often use animated videos as metaphors to reflect on important matters that are present in our cultural and societal spheres. This study investigates the use of animation in Speculative Design settings as material to bridge two communities together - the animators and roboticists, to foster ethical behaviors and impact future technology. The main result of the design process is a concept for a mobile platform that stimulates discussions on the ethical considerations of human relationships with humanoid robots, through speculative animation. Moreover, the interactive platform enhances imagination, creativity and learning processes between users.

Objectif de cette thèse est le développent de méthodes de planification pour la résolution de tâches jointes homme-robot dans des espaces publiques. Dans les espaces publiques, les utilisateurs qui coopèrent avec le robot peuvent facilement se distraire et abandonner la tâche jointe. Cette thèse se focalise donc sur les défis posés par l’incertitude et imprévisibilité d’une coopération avec un humain. La thèse décrit l’état de l’art sur la coopération homme-robot dans la robotique de service, et sur les modèles de planification. Elle présente ensuite une nouvelle approche théorique, basée sur les processus décisionnels de Markov partiellement observables, qui permet de garantir la coopération de l’humain tout au long de la tâche, de façon flexible, robuste et rapide. La thèse introduit une structure hiérarchique qui sépare l’aspect coopératif d’une activité jointe de la tâche en soi. L’approche a été appliquée dans un scénario réel, un robot guide dans un centre commercial. La thèse présente les expériences effectuées pour mesurer la qualité de l’approche proposée, ainsi que les expériences avec le robot réel. / This thesis presents a novel method for ensuring cooperation between humans and robots in public spaces, under the constraint of human behavior uncertainty. The thesis introduces a hierarchical and flexible framework based on POMDPs. The framework partitions the overall joint activity into independent planning modules, each dealing with a specific aspect of the joint activity: either ensuring the human-robot cooperation, or proceeding with the task to achieve. The cooperation part can be solved independently from the task and executed as a finite state machine in order to contain online planning effort. In order to do so, we introduce a belief shift function and describe how to use it to transform a POMDP policy into an executable finite state machine.The developed framework has been implemented in a real application scenario as part of the COACHES project. The thesis describes the Escort mission used as testbed application and the details of implementation on the real robots. This scenario has as well been used to carry several experiments and to evaluate our contributions.

This project explores the usability of Transformers for learning a model that canplay the drums and accompany a human pianist. Building upon previous workusing fuzzy logic systems three experiments are devised to test the usabilityof Transformers. The report also includes a brief survey of algorithmic musicgeneration.The result of the project are that in their current form Transformers cannoteasily learn collaborative music generation. The key insights is that a new wayto encode sequences are needed for collaboration between human and robot inthe music domain. This encoding should be able to handle the varied demandsand lengths of di erent musical instruments.

In the last decades research and development in the field of robotics has grown rapidly. This growth has resulted in the emergence of service robots that need to be able to physically interact with humans for different applications. One of these applications involves robots and humans cooperating in handling an object together. In such cases, there is usually an initial arrangement of how the robot and the humans hold the object and the arrangement stays the same throughout the manipulation task. Real-world scenarios often require that the initial arrangement changes throughout the task, therefore, it is important that the robot is able to recognize these changes and act accordingly. We consider a setting where a robot holds a large flat object with one or two humans. The aim of this research project is to detect the change in the number of agents grasping the object using only force and torque information measured at the robot's wrist. The proposed solution involves defining a transition sequence of four steps that the humans should perform to go from the initial scenario to the final one. The force and torque information is used to estimate the grasping point of the agents with a Kalman filter. While the humans are going from one scenario to the other, the estimated point changes according to the step of the transition the humans are in. These changes are used to track the steps in the sequence using a hidden Markov model (HMM). Tracking the steps in the sequence means knowing how many agents are grasping the object. To evaluate the method, humans that were not involved in the training of the HMM were asked to perform two tasks: a) perform the previously defined sequence as is, and b) perform a deviation of the sequence. The results of the method show that it is possible to detect the change between one human and two humans holding the object using only force and torque information.

Abstract How do we cope with technology today? We are surrounded by machines, computers and technological devices from mobile phones to automated check- outs. These types of machines are no longer exotic in Sweden where today the average person is usually fluent in their use. But do we really have an understanding of how these objects work, is understanding necessary and how do we cope when our knowledge is lacking? This thesis is intended as an introduction to an anthropological way of look- ing at strategies people develop for understanding, using and interacting with technological objects, specifically robots. Still an exotic object, robots are more widely known-about than experienced. Based on ethnographic data, primarily gathered in two distinct workplace environments as well as interviews and video documentation, my analysis aims to illustrate the implications of defining hu- mans and robots as equally significant agents within networks whilst disputing the traditional importance given to the dichotomy of technology (non-human) and human. Whilst robots are definitely less than we expect them to be, they are still so- cial artefacts, firmly situated within social networks and meaning which manifest through human–robot interactions. Perhaps little more than tools, an ambigu- ity exists in human–robot interactions which suggests that we form quasi-social relations that could, and have been exploited by designers and engineers to broaden the range of use for technological objects. Keywords: human-robot interaction, network theory, situated knowledges, agential realism, performativity, social contextualisation of technological objects

As the field of robotics advances, more robots are employed in our everyday environment. Thus, the implementation of robots that can actively engage in physical collaboration and naturally interact with humans is of high importance. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to study human interaction and social cognition and how these aspects can be implemented in robotic agents. The theory of social sensorimotor contingencies hypothesises that many aspects of human-human interaction depend on low-level signalling and mutual prediction. In this thesis, I give an extensive account of these underlying mechanisms and how research in human-robot interaction has incorporated this knowledge. I integrate this work in human-human and human-robot interaction into a coherent framework of social sensorimotor contingencies. Furthermore, I devise a generative model based on low-level latent features that allows inferences about other agent's behaviour. With this simulation experiment I demonstrate that embodied cognition can explain behaviour that is usually interpreted with help of high-level belief and mental state inferences. In conclusion, the implementation of these low-level processes in robots creates a more natural and intuitive interaction without the need of high-level representations.

Background: For several decades companies have had their focus on automation and to make the processes more effective. Today's companies are thinking about how to streamline and automate processes with upcoming new technology. A new way to automate processes is to use automation in combination with employees, this can be done with the help of HRC. At the moment HRC is something that Scania CV AB would like to have in order to be able to automate and improve its working methods. Scania CV AB want to investigate how HRC can be used most effectively as a step in their automation and digitization roadmap. Research questions: 1. What are the advantages, limitations and requirements for human robot collaboration to be able to be implemented in line feeding in the automotive industry's assembly process? 2. In which activity at Scania CV AB Oskarshamn truck cab assembly factory in line feeding could human robot collaboration be implemented and why? 3. What can an implementation process look like for human robot collaboration in the selected activity at Scania Oskarshamn's truck cab assembly factory? Purpose: The purpose of the work has been to discuss the advantages limitations and requirements of implementing human robot collaboration in line feeding in the automotive industry. Furthermore, a decision basis has been produced in the work to implement human robot collaboration as a step in that Scania CV AB wants to automate and improve its working methods. With the help of the decision basis, a suitable activity has emerged. An implementation model has been created for the selected activity at Scania CV AB Oskarshamn.  Implementation: This work is a case study at Scania CV AB in Oskarshamn. The authors have used goal-directed selection and snowball selection where semi-structured and unstructured interviews have been conducted. The work has used the deductive approach and used the qualitative research as method Conclusion: In this case study, three research questions have been analyzed. The first research question is aimed at the entire automotive industry, while the other two are aimed at Scania CV AB, however, all three research questions can provide value to stakeholders both internally at Scania CV AB and externally. The first research question has discussed the advantages, limitations and requirements for implementing HRC. Furthermore, in connection with the work’s second research question, a decision basis has been produced for the classification of suitable articles to be handled by HRC. Finally, the third research question has led to the development of an implementation model for activity for the selected article. Contributions/value: This work has contributed to both theoretical and contributions in the form of the authors having developed an implementation model that can be used by both Scania CV AB and other companies in the automotive industry. It also contributes by giving stakeholders a broader perspective, including benefits, limitations and requirements that should be borne in mind when implementing HRC.

The assembly process in Volvo Construction Equipment, in Braås, is fully hand-operated. The aim of this Master thesis project is to develop and evaluate different concepts of how the automation level could be increased. This study aims to find reliable technology/automation solutions that could be used in one or more operations in the assembly process and identify the benefits for Volvo Construction Equipment. The work will end up in concepts and recommendations on what areas of the assembly process would be most beneficial to automate first. Conversations, observations, and interviews took place in the assembly department to help in the selection of the station in which automation can be most easily introduced. Automated procedures at this station will have advantages since they will include robots. The robot can take over some of the assembly procedures, while the worker can be occupied with others. From an ergonomic perspective, these procedures will be improved; thus, the efficiency and the quality will be better, and this will be achieved because the human will focus on procedures where creativity and human hands are needed, and the robot will take over the most un-ergonomic and difficult operations.