CAREER: Closing the Loop between Learning and Communication for Assistive Robot Arms

职业：关闭辅助机器人手臂的学习和交流之间的循环

• 批准号: 2337884
• 负责人: Dylan Losey
• 金额: $ 68.74万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-08-01 至 2029-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2337884&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Closing; Loop; between; Learning

Research funded by this Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award intends to formalize bidirectional exchange between humans and robots as a closed-loop dynamical system. The research is inspired by the need for assistive robots that help elderly and disabled adults perform everyday tasks. The crucial challenge lies in fostering seamless and safe interaction between humans and robots. When people rely on assistive robots, they need robots that learn what the user wants (i.e., the robot understands the human) and clearly communicate their intent (i.e., the human understands the robot). The investigator's team will develop hardware and software tools to facilitate communication between robots and humans through visual, auditory, and haptic interfaces. This project will also support robotics education by i) teaching deaf and blind high school students to build interfaces that communicate with assistive robot arms; ii) mentoring college seniors as they program "learn & share" robots that test the limits of the unified framework; and by iii) bringing engineering faculty outside of traditional inclusion groups into a safe space to discuss their journeys. The insight driving this research is that effective communication informs learning and vice versa. Users with knowledge about their robot's learning enhance their ability to operate it, while the robot's learning dictates what it should communicate. With this insight in mind, research performed in association with this CAREER award has three main objectives: (from human to robot) learning to assist the human robustly and intuitively, (from robot to human) communicating robot learning with personalized and interpretable feedback, and (co-adaptation) unifying learning and communication under a single, interconnected dynamical system that allows the robot and the human to interact and adapt. User studies will evaluate these contributions, involving participants controlling a robot arm in daily living activities. A unified formalism where learning and communication are two components of the same mathematical framework is the main scientific contribution. By combining these elements, the project transcends the limitations of separate development tracks for learning and communication, advancing knowledge in previously unattainable ways. The project's educational and outreach plan complements these research objectives and teaches the next generation of engineers to deeply consider how users understand and co-adapt to new autonomous technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

由这项教师早期职业发展计划（Care Care）奖资助的研究旨在将人类和机器人之间的双向交流形式化为闭环动力系统。这项研究的灵感来自于有助于老年人和残疾人执行日常任务的辅助机器人。至关重要的挑战在于促进人与机器人之间的无缝和安全互动。当人们依靠辅助机器人时，他们需要机器人来了解用户想要的东西（即机器人了解人类）并清楚地传达其意图（即，人类了解机器人）。调查员的团队将开发硬件和软件工具，以通过视觉，听觉和触觉界面来促进机器人与人之间的通信。该项目还将通过i）教授聋人和盲人高中生建立与辅助机器人武器交流的界面； ii）指导大学前辈在编程“学习和分享”机器人，以测试统一框架的极限；并由iii）将工程教师置于传统包容小组之外的安全空间，讨论他们的旅程。推动这项研究的洞察力是有效的沟通能够使学习能力，反之亦然。有了解其机器人学习的用户增强了他们操作它的能力，而机器人的学习决定了它应该传达的内容。考虑到这个洞察力，与该职业奖联合进行的研究具有三个主要目标：（从人到机器人）学习以强大而直观地协助人类（从机器人到人类），以个性化和可解释的反馈来进行机器人学习，以及（共同适应）在单一相互联系的动力学系统下统一学习和互动，并允许机器人互动并允许机器人进行互动和适用。用户研究将评估这些贡献，涉及参与者控制机器人部门的日常生活活动。学习和交流是同一数学框架的两个组成部分的统一形式主义是主要的科学贡献。通过结合这些要素，该项目超越了学习和沟通的单独发展轨道的局限性，以先前无法实现的方式提高知识。该项目的教育和宣传计划补充了这些研究目标，并教会下一代工程师，深入考虑用户如何理解并共同适应新的自主技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准来通过评估来通过评估来支持的。