Developing robots that are useful to older adults is more than simply creating robots that complete household tasks. To ensure that older adults perceive a robot to be useful, careful consideration of the users’ capabilities, robot autonomy, and task is needed (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct of perceived usefulness within the context of robot assistance. Mobile older adults (N = 12) and older adults with mobility loss (N=12) participated in an autonomy selection think aloud task, and a persona based interview. Findings suggest that older adults with mobility loss preferred an autonomy level where they command/control the robot themselves. Mobile older adults’ preferences were split between commanding/controlling the robot themselves, or the robot commands/controls itself. Reasons for their preferences were related to decision making, and were task specific. Additionally, findings from the persona base interview study support Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) constructs, as well as adaptability, reliability, and trust as positively correlated with perceptions of usefulness. However, despite the positive correlation, barriers and facilitators of acceptance identified in the interview suggest that perceived usefulness judgments are complex, and some questionnaire constructs were interpreted differently between participants. Thus, care should be taken when applying TAM constructs to other domains, such as robot assistance to promote older adult independence.

The nanoscale manipulation of soft-matter, such as biological tissues, in its native environment has promising applications in medicine to correct for defects (eg. eye cataracts) or to destroy malignant regions (eg. cancerous tumours). To achieve this we need the ability to first image and then do precise ablation with sub-micron resolution with the same setup. For this purpose, we designed and built a multiphoton microscope and tested it on goldfish gills and bovine cells. We then studied light-matter interaction on a hard polymer (PMMA) because the nature of ablation of soft-matter in its native environment is complex and not well understood. Ablation and modification thresholds for successive laser shots were obtained. The ablation craters revealed 3D nanostructures and polarization dependent orientation. The interaction also induced localized porosity in PMMA that can be controlled.

Over the past few decades the use of industrial robots has increased the efficiency as well as the competitiveness of several sectors. Despite this fact, in many cases robot automation investments are considered to be technically challenging. In addition, for most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) this process is associated with high costs. Due to their continuously changing product lines, reprogramming costs are likely to exceed installation costs by a large margin. Furthermore, traditional programming methods of industrial robots are too complex for most technicians or manufacturing engineers, and thus assistance from a robot programming expert is often needed. The hypothesis is that in order to make the use of industrial robots more common within the SME sector, the robots should be reprogrammable by technicians or manufacturing engineers rather than robot programming experts. In this thesis, a novel system for task-level programming is proposed. The user interacts with an industrial robot by giving instructions in a structured natural language and by selecting objects through an augmented reality interface. The proposed system consists of two parts: (i) a multimodal framework that provides a natural language interface for the user to interact in which the framework performs modality fusion and semantic analysis, (ii) a symbolic planner, POPStar, to create a time-efficient plan based on the user's instructions. The ultimate goal of this work in this thesis is to bring robot programming to a stage where it is as easy as working together with a colleague.This thesis mainly addresses two issues. The first issue is a general framework for designing and developing multimodal interfaces. The general framework proposed in this thesis is designed to perform natural language understanding, multimodal integration and semantic analysis with an incremental pipeline. The framework also includes a novel multimodal grammar language, which is used for multimodal presentation and semantic meaning generation. Such a framework helps us to make interaction with a robot easier and more natural. The proposed language architecture makes it possible to manipulate, pick or place objects in a scene through high-level commands. Interaction with simple voice commands and gestures enables the manufacturing engineer to focus on the task itself, rather than the programming issues of the robot. The second issue addressed is due to inherent characteristics of communication with the use of natural language; instructions given by a user are often vague and may require other actions to be taken before the conditions for applying the user's instructions are met. In order to solve this problem a symbolic planner, POPStar, based on a partial order planner (POP) is proposed. The system takes landmarks extracted from user instructions as input, and creates a sequence of actions to operate the robotic cell with minimal makespan. The proposed planner takes advantage of the partial order capabilities of POP to execute actions in parallel and employs a best-first search algorithm to seek the series of actions that lead to a minimal makespan. The proposed planner can also handle robots with multiple grippers, parallel machines as well as scheduling for multiple product types.

Software products are tools that find more uses in the society every day, both professionally and in daily lives of members of the society. This thesis focuses on the problems and possibilities related to current software products. By analysis of the problems and current issues in the software field, possible contribution of a design-oriented approach to software products is explored. The thesis is supported by a study in the form of a semi-structured observation.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stony Brook University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-82).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-78).

Des exporteurs « ATP-Binding Cassette » (ABC) sont connus pour être responsables de la résistance contre un large spectre d'agents antibiotiques ou chimiothérapeutiques chez les bactéries et les cellules de mammifères. L'échange hydrogène / deutérium associé à la spectrométrie de masse (HDX-MS) a été utilisé pour caractériser les changements conformationnels de deux exporteurs ABC bactériens, BmrA et BmrC/BmrD, en présence et en absence de nucléotide. Les cinétiques locales d'HDX ont montré la nature hautement dynamique des domaines intra-cellulaires (ICDs) dans la forme apo, ce qui n'était pas attendu d'après les structures cristallographiques aux rayons X des protéines homologues. Dans la conformation ouverte vers l'extérieur (« outward facing »), domaines fixant les nucléotides (NBDs) interagissant, le mouvement des ICDs sont largement réduits pour les deux transporteurs. Les cinétiques d'HDX MS dans la conformation « outward facing » ont été déterminées en appliquant cette technique sur des mutants incapables d'hydrolyser les nucléotides et sur la forme sauvage inhibée au vanadate. La dynamique des NBDs, en particulier pour les régions qui interagissent au cours de l'hydrolyse de l'ATP, a été aussi diminuée dans la conformation « outward facing » comparativement à celle ouverte vers l'intérieur. L'ajout de différents agents connus pour être transportés par des transporteurs ABC n'a pas affecté la dynamique des NBDs. Par ailleurs, nous avons aussi appliqué l'HDX MS à la protéine GLIC, un homologue procaryote d'un « ligand-gated ion channel » pentamérique (pLGIC). Les cinétiques locales d'HDX sont en plein accord avec la structure cristallographique disponible et le changement de pH révèle des différences de deutération dans les régions d'interaction des sous-unités. / Some ATP-Binding Cassette exporters are known to be responsible for resistance against a broad spectrum of antibiotics and chemotherapeutic drugs in bacteria and mammalian cells. Amide hydrogen deuterium exchange coupled to mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) was applied to investigate the conformational changes in two different bacterial ABC exporters, BmrA and BmrC/BmrD, in the presence and absence of nucleotide. Local H/D exchange kinetics showed highly dynamic nature of ICDs in apo form which was not anticipated from X-ray structure of the homologue proteins. In outward facing (closed form) conformation the movement of ICDs were largely reduced for both transporters. The H/D exchange kinetics of closed form were determined by applying H/D exchange on mutants unable to hydrolyze nucleotides or on wild-type inhibited by vanadate. The dynamics of NBDs particularly for those regions which interact during ATP hydrolysis were also reduced in closed form as compared to open one. The addition of different drugs which are known to be transported by ABC transporters did not affect dynamics of NBDs. We further applied H/D exchange kinetics on a prokaryotic homologue of pentameric ligandgated ion channel (pLGIC) GLIC. Local H/D exchange kinetics were in full agreement with the available structure and change in pH showed differences in deuterium level for interacting regions of the subunits.

Le but de ce travail de thèse est de rendre sincère un Agent Conversationnel Animé (ACA) pour, d'une part, améliorer sa crédibilité du point de vue de l'humain, et d'autre part contribuer à le rendre acceptable dans une relation privilégiée compagnon artificiel - humain. La première partie de ce travail consiste en la création d'un Langage de Conversation Multimodal (LCM) pour ACA, constitué d'Actes de Conversation Multimodaux (ACM) tels que promettre, s'excuser ou exiger : ces ACM permettent à l'agent d'être crédible dans sa sincérité, en exprimant multimodalement ses états mentaux de façon appropriée. Les états mentaux portés par les ACM sont formalisés en logique : la volonté de représenter des états mentaux issus de raisonnements complexes (basés d'une part sur le raisonnement contrefactuel et d'autre part sur les normes et les buts de l'agent), dont l'expression se fait avant tout par le langage (Oatley 1987), a amené à mettre en place le modèle BIGRE (Beliefs, Ideals, Goals, Responsibility, Emotions). Ce modèle, basé sur une logique de type BDI (Belief, Desire, Intention), permet de représenter également des émotions que nous appelons complexes, telles que la réjouissance, la gratitude ou le regret. La catégorie expressive des ACM contient les actes exprimant ces émotions complexes (e.g. remercier, regretter) : l'expression se fait par le langage, conjointement aux autres expressions multimodales appropriées. Le LCM est implémenté dans l'ACA Greta, ce qui permet une évaluation de ce langage en termes de crédibilité et de sincérité perçues par l'humain. La deuxième partie de ce travail porte sur les capacités de raisonnement de l'ACA : dans le but de permettre à l'agent de raisonner dans le dialogue, c'est-à-dire mettre à jour ses états mentaux et ses émotions et sélectionner son intention communicative, un moteur de raisonnement a été mis en place. Ce moteur de raisonnement est basé sur le cycle de comportement BDI - Perception, Décision, Action - et les opérateurs du modèle BIGRE, permettant ainsi la manipulation d'états mentaux issus de raisonnements complexes (dont les émotions complexes). Les ACM qui composent notre langage sont intégrés dans le moteur, et sont utilisés pour atteindre l'intention communicative de l'ACA : par exemple, si l'agent a l'intention d'exprimer sa gratitude, il construit un plan pour satisfaire son intention, formé des ACM remercier ou féliciter, selon le degré de l'émotion. Un type d'intention communicative, déclenché par des règles d'obligation du discours, participe à la régulation locale du dialogue. L'ACA étant de plus affectif, sa sincérité l'amène à exprimer toutes ses émotions. La généricité de ce moteur de raisonnement permet de l'implémenter dans l'ACA Greta (où il est en lien avec le LCM) et dans l'agent MARC. L'expression multimodale des ACM avec l'agent MARC a été rendue possible par l'intégration des checks de Scherer dans le moteur de raisonnement que nous avons adapté au contexte du dialogue. Une évaluation du moteur de raisonnement avec l'agent MARC montre que les états mentaux déduits par le moteur sont appropriés à la situation, et que leur expression (l'expression de la sincérité de l'agent) est également appropriée. / The aim of this thesis is to make an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) sincere in order to, on one hand, improve its believability from the human's point of view, and on the other hand make it acceptable in an affective relationship between an artificial companion and a human. The first part of this work consists in creating a Multimodal Conversation Language (MCL) for an ECA, made up of Multimodal Conversation Acts (MCA) such as promise, apologise or demand. These MCA allow the agent to appear believable in its sincerity, by multimodally expressing its mental states in an appropriate way. The mental states carried by the MCA are formalised in logics: our will to represent mental states stemming from complex forms of reasoning (based on counterfactual reasoning or on the agent's norms and goals) that are mainly expressed via language (Oatley 1987) led us to design the BIGRE model (Beliefs, Ideals, Goals, Responsibility, Emotions). This model, based on a BDI-like logic (Belief, Desire, Intention), allows us to also represent some particular emotions that we call complex emotions, such as rejoicing, gratitude or regret. The expressive category of MCA contains acts that express these complex emotions (e.g. thank, regret): they are expressed by the language, along with the other appropriate multimodal expressions. We implemented the MCL in the ECA Greta, which enabled an evaluation of this language in terms of believability and sincerity perceived by the human. The second part of this work is about the ECA's reasoning capabilities: in order to allow the agent to reason in the dialogue, that is to update its mental states and its emotions and select its communicative intention, we designed a reasoning engine. This reasoning engine is based on the BDI behaviour cycle of Perception - Decision - Action and on the operators from the BIGRE model, thus enabling the manipulation of mental states resulting from complex reasoning (including complex emotions). The MCA in our language are part of our reasoning engine, and are used to achieve the ECA's communicative intention: for example if the ECA intends to express its gratitude, it builds a plan to achieve this intention, that consists of the MCA thank or congratulate, depending on the intensity of the emotion. One type of communicative intention, triggered by discourse obligations rules, participates in the local regulation of dialogue. Further, since the ECA is emotional, its sincerity brings it to express all its emotions. The generic character of this reasoning engine allowed us to implement it in the ECA Greta (where it is linked with the MCL) as well as in the agent MARC. The multimodal expression of MCA by the agent MARC was made possible by integrating Scherer's checks in the reasoning engine that we adapted to the context of dialogue. An evaluation of the reasoning engine with the agent MARC shows that the mental states deduced by the engine are appropriate to the situation, and that their expression (the expression of the agent's sincerity) is also appropriate.