All Outputs (32)

The ballad of the bots: Sonification using cognitive metaphor to support immersed teleoperation of robot teams (2024)
Journal Article

As an embodied and spatial medium, virtual reality is proving an attractive proposition for robot teleoperation in hazardous environments. This paper examines a nuclear decommissioning scenario in which a simulated team of semi-autonomous robots are... Read More about The ballad of the bots: Sonification using cognitive metaphor to support immersed teleoperation of robot teams.

Multimodal immersive digital twin platform for cyber–physical robot fleets in nuclear environments (2024)
Journal Article

The nuclear energy sector can benefit from mobile robots for remote inspection and handling, reducing human exposure to radiation. Advances in cyber–physical systems have improved robotic platforms in this sector through digital twin (DT) technology.... Read More about Multimodal immersive digital twin platform for cyber–physical robot fleets in nuclear environments.

Lessons learned: Symbiotic autonomous robot ecosystem for nuclear environments (2023)
Journal Article

AbstractNuclear facilities have a regulatory requirement to measure radiation levels within Post Operational Clean Out (POCO) around nuclear facilities each year, resulting in a trend towards robotic deployments to gain an improved understanding duri... Read More about Lessons learned: Symbiotic autonomous robot ecosystem for nuclear environments.

Hear here: Sonification as a design strategy for robot teleoperation using virtual reality (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This paper introduces a novel methodology for the sonification of data, and shares the results of a usability study, putting the method- ology into practice within an industrial use case. Working with partners at Sellafield nuclear facility, we explo... Read More about Hear here: Sonification as a design strategy for robot teleoperation using virtual reality.

Impact of resolution, colour, and motion on object identification in digital twins from robot sensor data (2022)
Journal Article

This paper makes a contribution to research on digital twins that are generated from robot sensor data. We present the results of an online user study in which 240 participants were tasked to identify real-world objects from robot point cloud data. I... Read More about Impact of resolution, colour, and motion on object identification in digital twins from robot sensor data.

User requirements for a robot teleoperation system for general medical examination (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Thailand, as well as many other countries world-wide, is facing a shortage of medical staff. We purpose a solution to improve medical services in health centres: a robot teleoperation system to allow patients to consult with doctors from public hospi... Read More about User requirements for a robot teleoperation system for general medical examination.

Usability of an immersive control system for a humanoid robot surrogate (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Social isolation is an issue that effects many people, especially those from ethic minorities, LGBTQIA+ communities, the elderly, those in long-term healthcare, and those living with life-limiting illnesses. It has become increasingly evident during... Read More about Usability of an immersive control system for a humanoid robot surrogate.

The impact of data sonification in virtual reality robot teleoperation (2022)
Journal Article

Virtual Reality (VR) is being increasingly used to provide a more intuitive and embodied approach to robotic teleoperation, giving operators a sense of presence in the remote environment. Prior research has shown that presence can be enhanced when ad... Read More about The impact of data sonification in virtual reality robot teleoperation.

Assessing and addressing ethical risk from anthropomorphism and deception in socially assistive robots (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

In this paper we apply the recent concept of robot Ethical Risk Assessment to an exemplar Socially Assistive Robot (SAR); specifically considering ethical risks posed by anthropomorphism in this context. We draw on two complimentary studies to demons... Read More about Assessing and addressing ethical risk from anthropomorphism and deception in socially assistive robots.

Immersive control of a robot surrogate for users in palliative care (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Quality of life (QoL) is especially important for palliative care patients, who can be at risk of mental health issues. This project aims to design and implement an immersive control system for a robotic surrogate, that allows users to interact as na... Read More about Immersive control of a robot surrogate for users in palliative care.

The effect of virtual reality control of a robotic surrogate on presence and social presence in comparison to telecommunications software (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Telecommunication software is often used to tackle social isolation in those with restricted mobility, but lacks high-level interactions found in face-to-face conversation. This study investigated the use of an immersive control system for a robotic... Read More about The effect of virtual reality control of a robotic surrogate on presence and social presence in comparison to telecommunications software.

Audio-driven robot upper-body motion synthesis (2020)
Journal Article

Body language is an important aspect of human communication, which an effective human-robot interaction interface should mimic well. Human beings exchange information and convey their thoughts and feelings through gaze, facial expressions, body langu... Read More about Audio-driven robot upper-body motion synthesis.

In-situ learning from a domain expert for real world socially assistive robot deployment (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

The effectiveness of Socially Assistive Robots (SAR) relies on their ability to motivate particular user behaviours, e.g. engagement with a task, requiring complex social interactions tailored to the needs and motivations of the user. Professionals f... Read More about In-situ learning from a domain expert for real world socially assistive robot deployment.

On proactive, transparent and verifiable ethical reasoning for robots (2019)
Journal Article

Previous work on ethical machine reasoning has largely been theoretical, and where such systems have been implemented it has in general been only initial proofs of principle. Here we address the question of desirable attributes for such systems to im... Read More about On proactive, transparent and verifiable ethical reasoning for robots.

Social robots for engagement in rehabilitative therapies: Design implications from a study with therapists (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

In this paper we present the results of a qualitative study with therapists to inform social robotics and human robot interaction (HRI) for engagement in rehabilitative therapies. Our results add to growing evidence that socially assistive robots (SA... Read More about Social robots for engagement in rehabilitative therapies: Design implications from a study with therapists.

Personality perception of robot avatar teleoperators in solo and dyadic tasks (2017)
Journal Article

© 2017 Bremner, Celiktutan and Gunes. Humanoid robot avatars are a potential new telecommunication tool, whereby a user is remotely represented by a robot that replicates their arm, head, and possible face movements. They have been shown to have a nu... Read More about Personality perception of robot avatar teleoperators in solo and dyadic tasks.

Humanoid robot avatars: An 'in the wild' usability study (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

In this paper, we report a breaching study to explore the use of a tele-operated humanoid avatar from both the perspective of the robot operator and the perspective of interlocutors. Humanoid robot avatars provide capabilities that video conferencing... Read More about Humanoid robot avatars: An 'in the wild' usability study.

Personality perception of robot avatar tele-operators (2016)
Book Chapter

Nowadays a significant part of human-human interaction
takes place over distance. Tele-operated robot avatars,
in which an operator’s behaviours are portrayed by a robot proxy, have the potential to improve distance interaction, e.g., improving soc... Read More about Personality perception of robot avatar tele-operators.

Overcoming the uncanny valley: Displays of emotions reduce the uncanniness of humanlike robots (2016)
Book Chapter

In this paper we show empirically that highly humanlike robots make thoughts of death more accessible, leading to perceptions of uncanniness and eeriness of such robots. Rather than reducing the humanlikeness of robots, our research suggests the addi... Read More about Overcoming the uncanny valley: Displays of emotions reduce the uncanniness of humanlike robots.

Iconic gestures for robot avatars, recognition and integration with speech (2016)
Journal Article

© 2016 Bremner and Leonards. Co-verbal gestures are an important part of human communication, improving its efficiency and efficacy for information conveyance. One possible means by which such multi-modal communication might be realized remotely is t... Read More about Iconic gestures for robot avatars, recognition and integration with speech.