Human-Robot Interaction
Module aims
Human-Robot Interaction is an exciting new field at the intersection of robotics and human-computer interaction. With the increasing presence of robots in our daily lives, it is important to understand both how robots impact humans, and how we can design robots to best suit people's needs. The module first motivates the importance of the field and presents relevant theoretical foundations. The module covers topics such as user-centric design, user study design, data analysis, and verbal and non-verbal robot behavior. Additionally, the module will cover several human-robot interaction applications such as healthcare, education, and in-home robots.
Learning outcomes
1. Rationalise about the different perceptions people have of humans, computers and robots.
2. Design a Human-Robot Interaction Study, control conditions and correct validation schemes.
3. Conduct Data analysis of interactions between people and robots.
4. Conduct end-user focused design.
5. Evaluate the impact of social robots on different sectors (such as education and healthcare), and consider their ethical implications.
6. Create action selection and planning algorithms, where a robot considers the best action given the current user.
Module syllabus
Theoretical Aspects of HRI: how robots are similar and different to people and computers, trust in HRI, Theory of Mind, etc
Design in HRI: user-centric design, user-study design and analysis, robot behavior design, etc
Computational aspects of HRI: human-robot collaboration, planning under uncertainty, imitation learning, etc
Application in HRI: education, healthcare, home robots, assistive robotics, etc
Teaching methods
The module consists of 7 weeks of timetabled sessions. Each week consists of a 2-hour lecture session, and of a 2 hour lab session. Each lecture involves a presentation of the day's topic, with in-class discussion of ethical implications, design considerations, and future directions. The labs will involve practical exercises of the lecture material, and time to work on the group project. The class is designed to be interactive with active student participation.
Assessments
70% of the final grade will come from the exam. 30% will be based on individual in‑class work, consisting of two exercises, a short programming assignment and a group project. As part of the group project, students will evaluate their teammates, and these peer evaluations will be incorporated into the final project grade.
There will be several in-class exercises during which students will be given feedback. I will also meet with each student group at least once to provide feedback on their project. Many aspects of the project will also be covered on the exam, therefore the student will have some clear feedback before the final exam. When marking student projects and the exam, a marking scheme will be used, and student's will be able to clearly see where they have lost marks.