Events 4

Past Events

Date/Time Event Description
29 Oct – 31 Oct 2018
9:00 am – 5:00 pm 		Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL 2018) CoRL 2018 will take place on October 29-31 2018 in Zurich. The conference focuses on the intersection of robotics and machine learning. CoRL aims at being a selective, top-tier venue...
15 Jun – 16 Jun 2017
All Day 		Building Bodies for Brains & Brains for Bodies & 3rd Japan-EU Workshop on Neurorobotics
Geneva, Geneva 		Building Bodies for Brains & Brains for Bodies & 3rd Japan-EU Workshop on Neurorobotics Registration for both events now open.
4 Nov 2016
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm 		Talk: Designing and Controlling Robots for Direct Interaction with Humans by Prof. Alin Albu-Schaeffer, German Aerospace Center, Germany.
ETH Zurich, HG G3, Zurich
9 Oct – 12 Oct 2016
All Day 		WORKSHOP ON BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACES (SMC 2016)
Intercontinental Hotel, BUDAPEST, 1052 Budapest 		Please see: https://documents.epfl.ch/users/c/ch/chavarri/www/IEEESMC2016_BMI/BMI-IEEESMC2016.html
In the Media 27
1 2 3
People 13
Prof. Dario Floreano NCCR Director & Professor Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS) and Management Team, EPFL dario.floreano@epfl.ch +41 21 693 52 30
Prof. Robert Riener NCCR Co-Director & Professor Management Team and Sensory-Motor Systems Lab (SMS), ETH Zurich riener@hest.ethz.ch +41 44 632 66 79
Prof. David Atienza Professor Embedded Systems Laboratory (ESL), EPFL david.atienza@epfl.ch  +41 21 693 11 31
Dr. Jaime Duarte Postdoctoral Researcher Sensory-Motor Systems Lab (SMS), ETH Zurich jaime.duarte@hest.ethz.ch +41 44 632 57 95
Dr. Wafa Johal Postdoctoral Researcher Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction (CHILI) and Robotic Systems Lab (LSRO), EPFL wafa.johal@epfl.ch +41 21 693 26 11
Iason Batzanioulis Doctoral Student Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA), EPFL iason.batzianoulis@epfl.ch +41 21 693 29 63
Boris Gromov Doctoral Student IDSIA, IDSIA boris@idsia.ch +41 58 666 67 12
Prof. Laura Marchal-Crespo Professor ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, UNIBE laura.marchal@artorg.unibe.ch +41 31 632 93 44
Jenifer Miehlbradt Doctoral Student Translational Neural Engineering Laboratory (TNE), EPFL jenifer.miehlbradt@epfl.ch +41 21 693 57 35
Ayberk Özgür Doctoral Student Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction (CHILI), EPFL ayberk.ozgur@epfl.ch +41 21 693 29 83
Carine Rognon Doctoral Student Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS), EPFL carine.rognon@epfl.ch +41 21 693 73 54
Stefan Schrade Doctoral Student Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory (RELab), ETH Zurich stefan.schrade@hest.ethz.ch +41 44 510 72 31
PhD Ismael Seanez Gonzalez Postdoctoral Researcher Chair in Spinal Cord Repair (IRP), EPFL ismael.seanezgonzalez@epfl.ch

Can't see who you were looking for? You might want to try browsing by lab or looking in the A-Z people list.

Publications 27

Looking for publications? You might want to consider searching on the EPFL Infoscience site which provides advanced publication search capabilities.

Keep on Moving! Exploring Anthropomorphic Effects of Motion during Idle Moments

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    Asselborn, Thibault Lucien Christian; Johal, Wafa; Dillenbourg, Pierre

In this paper, we explored the effect of a robot’s subconscious gestures made during moments when idle (also called adaptor gestures) on anthropomorphic perceptions of five year old children. We developed and sorted a set of adaptor motions based on their intensity. We designed an experiment involving 20 children, in which they played a memory game with two robots. During moments of idleness, the first robot showed adaptor movements, while the second robot moved its head following basic face tracking. Results showed that the children perceived the robot displaying adaptor movements to be more human and friendly. Moreover, these traits were found to be proportional to the intensity of the adaptor movements. For the range of intensities tested, it was also found that adaptor movements were not disruptive towards the task. These findings corroborate the fact that adaptor movements improve the affective aspect of child-robot interactions (CRI) and do not interfere with the child’s performances in the task, making them suitable for CRI in educational contexts.

Posted on: September 19, 2017
Keywords: , , ,

Lessons Learned from Robotic Vacuum Cleaners Entering in the Home Ecosystem

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    Vaussard, Florian Christopher; Fink, Julia; Bauwens, Valérie; Rétornaz, Philippe; Hamel, David; Dillenbourg, Pierre; Mondada, Francesco

This article considers the suitability of current robots designed to assist humans in accomplishing their daily domestic tasks. With several million units sold worldwide, robotic vacuum cleaners are currently the figurehead in this field. As such, we will use them to investigate the following key question: How does a service cleaning robot performs in a real household? One must consider not just how well a robot accomplishes its task, but also how well it integrates inside the user’s space and perception. We took a holistic approach to addressing these topics by combining two studies in order to build a common ground. In the first of these studies, we analyzed a sample of seven robots to identify the influence of key technologies, like the navigation system, on technical performance. In the second study, we conducted an ethnographic study within nine households to identify users’ needs. This innovative approach enables us to recommend a number of concrete improvements aimed at fulfilling users’ needs by leveraging current technologies to reach new possibilities.

Posted on: June 28, 2013
Keywords: , , , , ,

Lessons learned from robotic vacuum cleaners entering the home ecosystem

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    Vaussard, F.; Fink, J.; Bauwens, V.; Retornaz, P.; Hamel, D.; Dillenbourg, P.; Mondada, F.

This article considers the suitability of current robots designed to assist humans in accomplishing their daily domestic tasks. With several million units sold worldwide, robotic vacuum cleaners are currently the figurehead in this field. As such, we will use them to investigate the following key question: How does a service cleaning robot perform in a real household? One must consider not just how well a robot accomplishes its task, but also how well it integrates inside the user’s space and perception. We took a holistic approach to addressing these topics by combining two studies in order to build a common ground. In the first of these studies, we analyzed a sample of seven robots to identify the influence of key technologies, such as the navigation system, on technical performance. In the second study, we conducted an ethnographic study within nine households to identify users’ needs. This innovative approach enables us to recommend a number of concrete improvements aimed at fulfilling users’ needs by leveraging current technologies to reach new possibilities. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Posted on: May 2, 2014
Keywords: , , , ,

Living With a Vacuum Cleaning Robot – A 6-month Ethnographic Study

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    Fink, Julia; Bauwens, Valérie; Kaplan, Frédéric; Dillenbourg, Pierre

Little is known about the usage, adoption process and long-term effects of domestic service robots in people’s homes. We investigated the usage, acceptance and process of adoption of a vacuum cleaning robot in nine households by means of a six month ethnographic study. Our major goals were to explore how the robot was used and integrated into daily practices, whether it was adopted in a durable way, and how it impacted its environment. We studied people’s perception of the robot and how it evolved over time, kept track of daily routines, the usage patterns of cleaning tools, and social activities related to the robot. We integrated our results in an existing framework for domestic robot adoption and outlined similarities and differences to it. Finally, we identified several factors that promote or hinder the process of adopting a domestic service robot and make suggestions to further improve human-robot interactions and the design of functional home robots toward long-term acceptance.

Posted on: May 2, 2013
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Motivating Children to Tidy up their Toys with a Robotic Box

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    Fink, Julia; Vaussard, Florian Christopher; Rétornaz, Philippe; Berthoud, Alain; Wille, Florian; Mondada, Francesco; Dillenbourg, Pierre

The poster presents the evaluation of our prototype, called “Ranger”, which is a robotic box that aims to motivate young children to tidy up their room. The robot was tested in 14 families with 31 children (2-10 years) using the Wizard-of-Oz technique. We found that the way in which children interacted with the robotic box was impacted by how active it behaved. Significantly more toys were put in the box in the passive robot condition compared to children’s more playful and explorative behavior in the active robot condition. Our results hold important implications for the design of interactive robots for children.

Posted on: March 13, 2013
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Online Modulation of the Level of Assistance in Shared Control Systems

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    Carlson, Tom; Leeb, Robert; Chavarriaga, Ricardo; Millán, José del R.

In this paper we propose a method to modulate the level of assistance provided by a shared controller, not only given the environmental context, but also according to the context of the user’s current behaviour. We show that the enhanced situational context can be adequately captured by using online performance metrics (such as those more usually found in the evaluation of shared control systems). The resultant controller not only allows the user to perform better in the primary task (like many shared control systems), but has also has increased the level of user acceptance, due to the personalised dynamics of the control policy.

Posted on: August 15, 2012
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People"s Perception of Domestic Service Robots: Same Household, Same Opinion?

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    Fink, Julia; Bauwens, Valérie; Mubin, Omar; Kaplan, Frédéric; Dillenbourg, Pierre

The study presented in this paper examined people’s perception of domestic service robots by means of an ethnographic study. We investigated initial reactions of nine households who lived with a Roomba vacuum cleaner robot over a two week period. To explore people’s attitude and how it changed over time, we used a recurring questionnaire that was filled at three different times, integrated in 18 semi-structured qualitative interviews. Our findings suggest that being part of a specific household has an impact how each individual household member perceives the robot. We interpret that, even though individual experiences with the robot might differ from one other, a household shares a specific opinion about the robot. Moreover our findings also indicate that how people perceived Roomba did not change drastically over the two week period.

Posted on: November 28, 2011
Keywords: , ,

Permanent Magnet-Assisted Omnidirectional Ball Drive

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    Ozgur, Ayberk; Johal, Wafa; Dillenbourg, Pierre

We present an omnidirectional ball wheel drive design that utilizes a permanent magnet as the drive roller to generate the contact force. Particularly interesting for novel human-mobile robot interaction scenarios where the users are expected to physically interact with many palm-sized robots, our design combines simplicity, low cost and compactness. We first detail our design and explain its key parameters. Then, we present our implementation and compare it with an omniwheel drive built with identical conditions and similar cost. Finally, we elaborate on the main advantages and drawbacks of our design.

Posted on: August 2, 2016
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Ranger, an Example of Integration of Robotics into the Home Ecosystem

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    Mondada, Francesco; Fink, Julia; Lemaignan, Séverin; Mansolino, David; Wille, Florian; Franinović, Karmen

This paper presents the concept and an example of robject, a robotic entity embedded in an everyday object. Robjects use the affordance of the original object to ensure an efficient interaction and a high acceptance. The example of the ranger robot shows that this approach can be applied to the domestic environment. We explore the integration of a robot (robject) into a family household, by regarding the home as a ecosystem, which consists of people, parts, products, activities, and interactions. A test of the ranger robot in families validates this holistic approach and shows the impact of this type of design in respect to the complexity of the robotic system.

Posted on: September 3, 2014
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Robots for Learning – R4L: Adaptive Learning

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    Johal, Wafa; Sandygulova, Anara; de Wit, Jan; de Haas, Mirjam; Scassellati, Brian

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Posted on: November 5, 2019
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