Special issue on robots and autism: Conceptualization, technology, and methodology
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
Social robot deception and the culture of trust
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
Human beings are deeply social, and both evolutionary traits and cultural constructs encourage cooperation based on trust. Social robots interject themselves in human social settings, and they can be used for deceptive purposes. Robot deception is best understood by examining the effects of deception on the recipient of deceptive actions, and I arg...
Are robots perceived as good decision makers? A study investigating trust and preference of robotic and human linesman-r...
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
Increasingly, robots are decision makers in manufacturing, finance, medicine, and other areas, but the technology may not be trusted enough for reasons such as gaps between expectation and competency, challenges in explainable AI, users’ exposure level to the technology, etc. To investigate the trust issues between users and robots, the authors emp...
Impacts of using a social robot to teach music to children with low-functioning autism
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
This article endeavors to present the impact of conducting robot-assisted music-based intervention sessions for children with low-functioning (LF) autism. To this end, a drum/xylophone playing robot is used to teach basic concepts of how to play the instruments to four participants with LF autism during nine educational sessions. The main findings ...
The relevance of causation in robotics: A review, categorization, and analysis
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
In this article, we investigate the role of causal reasoning in robotics research. Inspired by a categorization of human causal cognition, we propose a categorization of robot causal cognition. For each category, we identify related earlier work in robotics and also connect to research in other sciences. While the proposed categories mainly cover t...
Toward enhancing the autonomy of a telepresence mobile robot for remote home care assistance
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
In health care, a telepresence robot could be used to have a clinician or a caregiver assist seniors in their homes, without having to travel to these locations. However, the usability of these platforms for such applications requires that they can navigate and interact with a certain level of autonomy. For instance, robots should be able to go to ...
User-centered feedback design in person-following robots for older adults
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
Feedback design is an important aspect in person-following robots for older adults. This paper presents a user-centered design approach to ensure the design is focused on users’ needs and preferences. A sequence of user studies with a total of 35 older adults (aged 62 years and older) was conducted to explore their preferences regarding feedback pa...
Upper limb exercise with physical and virtual robots: Visual sensitivity affects task performance
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
We investigated the influence of visual sensitivity on the performance of an imitation task with the robot R1 in its virtual and physical forms. Virtual and physical embodiments offer different sensory experience to the users. As all individuals respond differently to their sensory environment, their sensory sensitivity may play a role in the inter...
A soft, mobile, autonomous robot to develop skills through play in autistic children
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
Robots have been used for many years in therapeutic activities with people with Autism Spectrum Disorder. However, most robots presented in the literature have limited or no mobility, are made of rigid materials, or are too expensive for many care centers. We share the choices and the design rationale of the latest version of a soft, mobile, low-co...
Human vs computer: What effect does the source of information have on cognitive performance and achievement goal orienta...
Published in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
The increasing presence of computers in society calls for the need to better understand how differently the sociocognitive mechanisms involved in natural human relationships operate in human–robot interactions. In the present study, we investigated one fundamental aspect often neglected in the literatures on psychology and educational sciences: how...
