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.

该学院早期职业发展计划（CAREER）奖项资助的研究旨在将人类和机器人之间的双向交流正式化为闭环动力系统。这项研究的灵感来自于对帮助老年人和残疾人执行日常任务的辅助机器人的需求。关键的挑战在于促进人类和机器人之间无缝且安全的交互。当人们依赖辅助机器人时，他们需要机器人能够了解用户想要什么（即机器人理解人类）并清楚地传达他们的意图（即人类理解机器人）。研究人员的团队将开发硬件和软件工具，以促进机器人和人类之间通过视觉、听觉和触觉界面进行交流。该项目还将通过以下方式支持机器人教育：i）教聋哑高中生建立与辅助机器人手臂通信的界面； ii) 指导大学高年级学生编写“学习和分享”机器人程序，以测试统一框架的极限； iii) 将传统包容群体之外的工程教师带入一个安全的空间来讨论他们的旅程。推动这项研究的见解是，有效的沟通可以促进学习，反之亦然。了解机器人学习的用户可以增强操作机器人的能力，而机器人的学习则决定了它应该交流的内容。考虑到这一点，与该职业奖相关的研究有三个主要目标：（从人类到机器人）学习以稳健和直观的方式帮助人类，（从机器人到人类）通过个性化和可解释的反馈来传达机器人学习，以及（共同适应）将学习和交流统一在一个相互关联的动力系统下，使机器人和人类能够互动和适应。用户研究将评估这些贡献，包括参与者在日常生活活动中控制机器人手臂。主要的科学贡献是统一的形式主义，其中学习和交流是同一数学框架的两个组成部分。通过结合这些元素，该项目超越了学习和交流单独发展轨道的限制，以以前无法实现的方式推进知识。该项目的教育和推广计划补充了这些研究目标，并教导下一代工程师深入考虑用户如何理解和共同适应新的自主技术。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的评估进行评估，被认为值得支持。智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。