March 2007

Chapter Business

UPA Boston Mini-Conference: Potential presenters should be aware of the following dates:
  • Proposal submissions due: Midnight EST, Monday, March 26th
  • Proposal acceptance notification will be: Monday, April 2nd
  • Final Presentation materials due: Midnight EST, Monday April 30th
  • MiniUPA Conference: May 23, 9am-5pm, networking 5pm-7pm

Presentation

Aaron spoke first, giving us an introduction to the field of Human Robot Interaction (HRI); they recently held their second conference (more information is available at http://hri2007.org/).

Aaron posed many interesting questions, such as, "Do we want to make a human-like robot? (anthropomorphism) and if so, what should that robot be used for? Surely we wouldn't want a human-like robot chopping our vegetables - or would we?! We watched some videos of a Japanese android (available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7JiNb4Zmyk). Should robots be teammates, or tools, or something in between?

Aaron also talked about the various disciplines that go into HRI (social science, design, robotics) and gave us overviews of some studies, such as Jodi Forlizzi's "How Robotic Products Become Social Products: An Ethnographic Study of Robotics Products in the Home" (PDF). He then spoke to Jean Scholtz' collection of modified heuristics for developing robotic interfaces.

Lastly, Aaron showed us how at Carnegie Mellon University he was able to run sessions with participants and a prototype robot. Participants' interaction with the robot was tested while the robot was co-located, remote, and when the robot was put on a screen (i.e. acted more like an agent).

Mike took the stage and we were educated about the PackBot line of government and industrial robots. We learned how difficult it is to design both the robots and their associated devices (e.g. remote controls, laptops for analyzing data, etc.) for users who are working in such high stress environments. Mike described how situational awareness and wayfinding is important, and at one point nearly drove the PackBot Explorer off its table (good thing it's durable enough to withstand the impact)!

After the meeting, several people stayed to try to drive the PackBot and Roombas around the room!