Robot Mediated Communication
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UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND ROBOT MEDIATED COMMUNICATION: ENHANCING TELE-PRESENCE USING AN AVATAR HAMZAH ZIYAAD HOSSEN MAMODE 10/08/2015 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Environment and Technology University of the West of England, Bristol August 2015 Robot Mediated Communication: Enhancing Tele-presence using an Avatar “If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, then the general is to blame.” – Sun Tzu (c. 6th century BCE) P-2 Robot Mediated Communication: Enhancing Tele-presence using an Avatar Declaration I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. Signed: Date: P-3 Robot Mediated Communication: Enhancing Tele-presence using an Avatar Abstract In the past few years there has been a lot of development in the field of tele-presence. These developments have caused tele-presence technologies to become easily accessible and also for the experience to be enhanced. Since tele-presence is not only used for tele-presence assisted group meetings but also in some forms of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), these activities have also been facilitated. One of the lingering issues has to do with how to properly transmit presence of non-co-located members to the rest of the group. Using current commercially available tele-presence technology it is possible to exhibit a limited level of social presence but no physical presence. In order to cater for this lack of presence a system is implemented here using tele-operated robots as avatars for remote team members and had its efficacy tested. This testing includes both the level of presence that can be exhibited by robot avatars but also how the efficacy of these robots for this task changes depending on the morphology of the robot. Using different types of robots, a humanoid robot and an industrial robot arm, as tele-presence avatars, it is found that the humanoid robot using an appropriate control system is better at exhibiting a social presence. Further, when compared to a voice only scenario, both robots proved significantly better than with only voice in terms of both cooperative task solving and social presence. These results indicate that using an appropriate control system, a humanoid robot can be better than an industrial robot in these types of tasks and the validity of aiming for a humanoid design behaving in a human-like way in order to emulate social interactions that are closer to human norms. This has implications for the design of autonomous socially interactive robot systems. P-4 Robot Mediated Communication: Enhancing Tele-presence using an Avatar Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Paul Bremner, Prof. Anthony Graham Pipe and Dr. Brian Carse, from the University of the West of England, and Dr. Mike Fraser and Dr. Sriram Subramanian, from the University of Bristol for their invaluable support and guidance over the years. I would also like to thank my parents and sister for their unconditional moral support. P-5 Robot Mediated Communication: Enhancing Tele-presence using an Avatar Table of Contents Declaration ......................................................................................................................................3 Abstract ...........................................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................................5 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................6 Figures ......................................................................................................................................... 12 Tables .......................................................................................................................................... 15 Glossary ....................................................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 18 1.1 Chapter Introduction ..................................................................................................... 18 1.2 Tele-presence, Robotics and Tabletop Devices ........................................................... 22 1.3 Aim and Objectives ....................................................................................................... 24 1.3.1 Motivation ................................................................................................................ 24 1.3.2 Research Question .................................................................................................. 26 1.3.3 Aim........................................................................................................................... 26 1.3.4 Objectives ................................................................................................................ 26 1.4 Context and Scope ....................................................................................................... 28 1.5 Contribution and Publication ......................................................................................... 31 1.6 Thesis Structure............................................................................................................ 33 1.7 Chapter Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 35 Chapter 2 Background and Issues ........................................................................................... 36 2.1 Chapter Introduction ..................................................................................................... 36 2.2 Interaction and Related Topics ..................................................................................... 38 2.2.1 Human-Robot Interaction ........................................................................................ 40 2.2.2 Tele-presence Robotics........................................................................................... 42 2.2.3 Humanoid Robotics ................................................................................................. 43 P-6 Robot Mediated Communication: Enhancing Tele-presence using an Avatar 2.2.4 Gesturing ................................................................................................................. 47 2.2.5 Pointing Gestures .................................................................................................... 52 2.2.6 Computer Supported Cooperative Work ................................................................. 54 2.2.7 Section Conclusion .................................................................................................. 55 2.3 Related Previous Work ................................................................................................. 56 2.3.1 Distributed Group Interaction .................................................................................. 57 2.3.2 Robotic Tele-presence ............................................................................................ 60 2.3.3 Remote Gesturing ................................................................................................... 65 2.4 Chapter Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 69 2.4.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 69 2.4.2 Hypotheses .............................................................................................................. 70 2.4.3 Summary ................................................................................................................. 71 Chapter 3 Hardware ................................................................................................................. 72 3.1 Chapter Introduction ..................................................................................................... 72 3.2 Robot Platforms ............................................................................................................ 73 3.2.1 Humanoid Robots .................................................................................................... 75 3.2.2 Non-humanoid Robots............................................................................................. 99 3.3 Tabletop Interactive Devices ...................................................................................... 105 3.3.1 Microsoft Surface ................................................................................................... 106 3.3.2 Horizontal Screen .................................................................................................. 107