@article {2016, title = {Towards Long-Term Social Child-Robot Interaction: Using Multi-Activity Switching to Engage Young Users}, journal = {Journal of Human-Robot Interaction}, volume = {5}, year = {2016}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {32{\textendash}67}, abstract = {Social robots have the potential to provide support in a number of practical domains, such as learning and behaviour change. This potential is particularly relevant for children, who have proven receptive to interactions with social robots. To reach learning and therapeutic goals, a number of issues need to be investigated, notably the design of an effective child-robot interaction (cHRI) to ensure the child remains engaged in the relationship and that educational goals are met. Typically, current cHRI research experiments focus on a single type of interaction activity (e.g. a game). However, these can suffer from a lack of adaptation to the child, or from an increasingly repetitive nature of the activity and interaction. In this paper, we motivate and propose a practicable solution to this issue: an adaptive robot able to switch between multiple activities within single interactions. We describe a system that embodies this idea, and present a case study in which diabetic children collaboratively learn with the robot about various aspects of managing their condition. We demonstrate the ability of our system to induce a varied interaction and show the potential of this approach both as an educational tool and as a research method for long-term cHRI.}, issn = {2163-0364}, doi = {10.5898/JHRI.5.1.Coninx}, url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5898/JHRI.5.1.Coninx}, author = {Coninx, Alexandre and Paul E. Baxter and Oleari, Elettra and Bellini, Sara and Bierman, Bert and Henkemans, Olivier Blanson and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Cosi, Piero and Valentin Enescu and Espinoza, Raquel Ros and Antoine Hiolle and Remi Humbert and Kiefer, Bernd and Kruijff-Korbayov{\'a}, Ivana and Looije, Rosmarijn and Mosconi, Marco and Mark A. Neerincx and Giulio Paci and Patsis, Georgios and Pozzi, Clara and Sacchitelli, Francesca and Hichem Sahli and Alberto Sanna and Sommavilla, Giacomo and Tesser, Fabio and Yiannis Demiris and Tony Belpaeme} } @inproceedings {2015, title = {Let{\textquoteright}s Be Friends: Perception of a Social Robotic Companion for children with T1DM}, booktitle = {Proc. New Friends 2015}, year = {2015}, note = {Download full proceedings (PDF)}, month = {10/2015}, pages = {32{\textendash}33}, address = {Almere, The Netherlands}, abstract = {We describe the social characteristics of a robot developed to support children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) in the process of education and care. We evaluated the perception of the robot at a summer camp where diabetic children aged 10-14 experienced the robot in group interactions. Children in the intervention condition additionally interacted with it also individually, in one-to-one sessions featuring several game-like activities. These children perceived the robot significantly more as a friend than those in the control group. They also readily engaged with it in dialogues about their habits related to healthy lifestyle as well as personal experiences concerning diabetes. This indicates that the one-on-one interactions added a special quality to the relationship of the children with the robot.}, url = {https://mheerink.home.xs4all.nl/pdf/ProceedingsNF2015-3.pdf}, author = {Kruijff-Korbayov{\'a}, Ivana and Oleari, Elettra and Pozzi, Clara and Sacchitelli, Francesca and Bagherzadhalimi, Anahita and Bellini, Sara and Kiefer, Bernd and Racioppa, Stefania and Coninx, Alexandre and Paul E. Baxter and Bierman, Bert and Henkemans, Olivier Blanson and Mark A. Neerincx and Rosemarijn Looije and Yiannis Demiris and Espinoza, Raquel Ros and Mosconi, Marco and Cosi, Piero and Remi Humbert and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Hichem Sahli and Joachim de Greeff and James Kennedy and Robin Read and Lewis, Matthew and Antoine Hiolle and Giulio Paci and Sommavilla, Giacomo and Tesser, Fabio and Athanasopoulos, Georgios and Patsis, Georgios and Verhelst, Werner and Alberto Sanna and Tony Belpaeme} } @article {2014, title = {Arousal Regulation and Affective Adaptation to Human Responsiveness by a Robot that Explores and Learns a Novel Environment}, journal = {Frontiers in Neurorobotics}, volume = {8}, year = {2014}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {17}, abstract = {In the context of our work in developmental robotics regarding robot-human caregiver interactions, in this paper we investigate how a "baby" robot that explores and learns novel environments can adapt its affective regulatory behavior of soliciting help from a "caregiver" to the preferences shown by the caregiver in terms of varying responsiveness. We build on two strands of previous work that assessed independently (a) the differences between two "idealized" robot profiles {\textendash} a "needy" and an "independent" robot {\textendash} in terms of their use of a caregiver as a means to regulate the "stress" (arousal) produced by the exploration and learning of a novel environment, and (b) the effects on the robot behaviors of two caregiving profiles varying in their responsiveness {\textendash} "responsive" and "non-responsive" {\textendash} to the regulatory requests of the robot. Going beyond previous work, in this paper we (a) assess the effects that the varying regulatory behavior of the two robot profiles has on the exploratory and learning patterns of the robots; (b) bring together the two strands previously investigated in isolation and take a step further by endowing the robot with the capability to adapt its regulatory behavior along the "needy" and "independent" axis as a function of the varying responsiveness of the caregiver; and (c) analyze the effects that the varying regulatory behavior has on the exploratory and learning patterns of the adaptive robot.}, issn = {1662-5218}, doi = {10.3389/fnbot.2014.00017}, url = {http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbot.2014.00017}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lewis, Matthew and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2014, title = {Natural Emotion Elicitation for Emotion Modeling in Child-Robot Interactions}, booktitle = {Proc. 4th Workshop on Child Computer Interaction (WOCCI 2014)}, year = {2014}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {51{\textendash}56}, publisher = {ICSA}, organization = {ICSA}, address = {Singapore}, abstract = {Obtaining spontaneous emotional expressions is the very first and vital step in affective computing studies, for both psychologists and computer scientists. However, it is quite challenging to record them in real life, especially when certain modalities are required (e.g. 3D representation of the body). Traditional elicitation and capturing protocols either introduce the awareness of the recording, which may impair the naturalness of the behaviors, or cause too much information loss. In this paper, we present natural emotion elicitation and recording experiments, which were set in child-robot interaction scenarios. Several state-of-the-art technologies were employed to acquire the multi-modal expressive data that will be further used for emotion modeling and recognition studies. The obtained recordings exhibit the expected emotional expressions.}, url = {https://www.isca-speech.org/archive/wocci_2014/wc14_051.html}, author = {Wang, Weiyi and Athanasopoulos, Georgios and Yilmazyildiz, Selma and Patsis, Georgios and Valentin Enescu and Hichem Sahli and Verhelst, Werner and Antoine Hiolle and Lewis, Matthew and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2014, title = {Pleasure, Persistence and Opportunism in Action Selection}, booktitle = {Proc. 14th Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE 2014)}, year = {2014}, note = {Download}, pages = {932{\textendash}933}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {New York, NY}, abstract = {An autonomous robot must show appropriate levels of persistence and opportunism to survive. We address this problem by using a mechanism akin to pleasure that modulates exteroception as a function of need satisfaction, rather than based on internal deficits and external threats as in previous work. The different context in which the modulating hormone is released has important consequences on persistence and opportunism.}, isbn = {978-0-262-32621-6}, doi = {10.7551/978-0-262-32621-6-ch151}, url = {https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/978-0-262-32621-6-ch151}, author = {Lewis, Matthew and Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2014, title = {A Robot that Uses Arousal to Detect Learning Challenges and Seek Help}, booktitle = {Proc. 14th Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE 2014)}, year = {2014}, note = {Download}, pages = {864{\textendash}871}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {New York, NY}, abstract = {In the context of our work on dyadic robot-human (caregiver) interaction from a developmental robotics perspective, in this paper we investigate how an autonomous robot that explores and learns novel environments can make use of its arousal system to detect situations that constitute learning challenges, and request help from a human at points where this help is most needed and can be most beneficial. In a set of experiments, our robot learns to classify and recognize the perceptual properties of various objects placed on a table. We show that the arousal system of the robot permits it to identify and react to incongruent and novel features in the environment. More specifically, our results show that the robot identifies perceived outliers and episodic perceptual anomalies. As in the case of young infants, arousal variations trigger regulatory behaviours that engage caregivers in helping behaviors. We conclude that this attachment-based architecture provides a generic process that permits a robot to request interventions from a human caregiver during relevant events.}, isbn = {978-0-262-32621-6}, doi = {10.7551/978-0-262-32621-6-ch142}, url = {https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/978-0-262-32621-6-ch142}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lewis, Matthew and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @article {2013, title = {Interpretation of Emotional Body Language Displayed by a Humanoid Robot: A Case Study with Children}, journal = {International Journal of Social Robotics}, volume = {5}, year = {2013}, note = {Download}, pages = {325{\textendash}334}, abstract = {The work reported in this paper focuses on giving humanoid robots the capacity to express emotions with their body. Previous results show that adults are able to interpret different key poses displayed by a humanoid robot and also that changing the head position affects the expressiveness of the key poses in a consistent way. Moving the head down leads to decreased arousal (the level of energy) and valence (positive or negative emotion) whereas moving the head up produces an increase along these dimensions. Hence, changing the head position during an interaction should send intuitive signals. The study reported in this paper tested children{\textquoteright}s ability to recognize the emotional body language displayed by a humanoid robot. The results suggest that body postures and head position can be used to convey emotions during child-robot interaction.}, keywords = {emotion, emotional body language, perception, Social robotics}, issn = {1875-4791}, doi = {10.1007/s12369-013-0193-z}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12369-013-0193-z}, author = {Aryel Beck and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Antoine Hiolle and Luisa Damiano and Cosi, Piero and Tesser, Fabio and Sommavilla, Giacomo} } @inproceedings {2013, title = {Using Perlin Noise to Generate Emotional Expressions in a Robot}, booktitle = {Proc. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2013)}, year = {2013}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {1845{\textendash}1850}, publisher = {Cognitive Science Society}, organization = {Cognitive Science Society}, address = {Berlin, Germany}, abstract = {The development of social robots that convey emotion with their bodies---instead of or in conjunction with their faces---is an increasingly active research topic in the field of human-robot interaction (HRI). Rather than focusing either on postural or on dynamics aspects of bodily expression in isolation, we present a model and an empirical study where we combine both elements and produce expressive behaviors by adding dynamic elements (in the form of Perlin noise) to a subset of static postures prototypical of basic emotions, with the aim of creating expressions easily understandable by children and at the same time lively and flexible enough to be believable and engaging. Results show that the noise increases the recognition rate of the emotions portrayed by the robot.}, isbn = {978-0-9768318 -9-1}, url = {https://mindmodeling.org/cogsci2013/papers/0343/index.html}, author = {Aryel Beck and Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @article {2012, title = {Eliciting Caregiving Behavior in Dyadic Human-robot Attachment-like Interactions}, journal = {ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems}, volume = {2}, year = {2012}, note = {Download (Open Access)}, pages = {3:1{\textendash}3:24}, publisher = {ACM}, address = {New York, NY}, abstract = {We present here the design and applications of an arousal-based model controlling the behavior of a Sony AIBO robot during the exploration of a novel environment: a children{\textquoteright}s play mat. When the robot experiences too many new perceptions, the increase of arousal triggers calls for attention towards its human caregiver. The caregiver can choose to either calm the robot down by providing it with comfort, or to leave the robot coping with the situation on its own. When the arousal of the robot has decreased, the robot moves on to further explore the play mat. We gathered results from two experiments using this arousal-driven control architecture. In the first setting, we show that such a robotic architecture allows the human caregiver to influence greatly the learning outcomes of the exploration episode, with some similarities to a primary caregiver during early childhood. In a second experiment, we tested how human adults behaved in a similar setup with two different robots: one {\textquotedblleft}needy{\textquotedblright}, often demanding attention, and one more independent, requesting far less care or assistance. Our results show that human adults recognise each profile of the robot for what they have been designed, and behave accordingly to what would be expected, caring more for the needy robot than for the other. Additionally, the subjects exhibited a preference and more positive affect whilst interacting and rating the robot we designed as needy. This experiment leads us to the conclusion that our architecture and setup succeeded in eliciting positive and caregiving behavior from adults of different age groups and technological background. Finally, the consistency and reactivity of the robot during this dyadic interaction appeared crucial for the enjoyment and engagement of the human partner.}, issn = {2160-6455}, doi = {10.1145/2133366.2133369}, url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2133366.2133369}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Davila-Ross, Marina and Kim A. Bard} } @inproceedings {2011, title = {Grounding Synthetic Knowledge: An Epistemological Framework and Criteria of Relevance for the Scientific Exploration of Life, Affect and Social Cognition}, booktitle = {Advances In Artificial Life, ECAL 2011 (Proc. 11th European Conference on Artificial Life)}, year = {2011}, note = {Download (PDF)}, pages = {200{\textendash}207}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {Paris, France}, abstract = {In what ways can artificial life contribute to the scientific exploration of cognitive, affective and social processes? In what sense can synthetic models be relevant for the advancement of behavioral and cognitive sciences? This article addresses these questions by way of a case study {\textemdash} an interdisciplinary cooperation between developmental robotics and developmental psychology in the exploration of attachment bonds. Its main aim is to show how the synthetic study of cognition, as well as the synthetic study of life, can find in autopoietic cognitive biology more than a theory useful to inspire the synthetic modelling of the processes under inquiry. We argue that autopoiesis offers, not only to artificial life, but also to the behavioural and social sciences, an epistemological framework able to generate general criteria of relevance for synthetic models of living and cognitive processes. By {\textquotedblleft}criteria of relevance{\textquotedblright} we mean criteria (a) valuable for the three main branches of artificial life (soft, hard, and wet) and (b) useful for determining the significance of the models each branch produces for the scientific exploration of life and cognition. On the basis of these criteria and their application to the case study presented, this article defines a range of different ways that synthetic, and particularly autopoiesis-based models, can be relevant to the inquiries of biological, behavioural and cognitive sciences.}, isbn = {978-0-262-29714-1}, url = {https://mitpress-request.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/alife/0262297140chap33.pdf}, author = {Luisa Damiano and Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Tom Lenaerts and Mario Giacobini and Hugues Bersini and Paul Bourgine and Marco Dorigo and Ren{\'e} Doursat} } @inproceedings {2011, title = {Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction with Young Users}, booktitle = {Proc. ACM/IEEE Human-Robot Interaction conference (HRI-2011) (Robots with Children Workshop)}, year = {2011}, note = {Downlaod}, address = {Lausanne, Switzerland}, abstract = {Artificial companion agents have the potential to combine novel means for effective health communication with young patients support and entertainment. However, the theory and practice of long-term child-robot interaction is currently an underdeveloped area of research. This paper introduces an approach that integrates multiple functional aspects necessary to implement temporally extended human-robot interaction in the setting of a paediatric ward. We present our methodology for the implementation of a companion robot which will be used to support young patients in hospital as they learn to manage a lifelong metabolic disorder (diabetes). The robot will interact with patients over an extended period of time. The necessary functional aspects are identified and introduced, and a review of the technical challenges involved is presented.}, url = {https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228470784_Long-term_human-robot_interaction_with_young_users}, author = {Paul E. Baxter and Tony Belpaeme and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Cosi, Piero and Yiannis Demiris and Valentin Enescu and Antoine Hiolle and Kruijff-Korbayov{\'a}, Ivana and Rosemarijn Looije and Nalin, Marco and Mark A. Neerincx and Hichem Sahli and Giocomo Sommavilla and Tesser, Fabio and Rachel Wood} } @inbook {2010, title = {Emotion et cognition: les robots comme outils et mod{\`e}les}, booktitle = {Syst{\`e}mes d{\textquoteright}interaction {\'e}motionnelle}, year = {2010}, publisher = {Lavoisier Hermes Science}, organization = {Lavoisier Hermes Science}, chapter = {9}, address = {Paris, France}, isbn = {978-2-7462-2115-4}, author = {Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Philippe Gaussier and C Hasson and Antoine Hiolle}, editor = {Catherine Pelachaud} } @inproceedings {2010, title = {Interpretation of Emotional Body Language Displayed by Robots}, booktitle = {Proc. 3rd International Workshop on Affective Interaction in Natural Environments, AFFINE{\textquoteright}10}, year = {2010}, pages = {37{\textendash}42}, publisher = {ACM}, organization = {ACM}, address = {Firenze, Italy}, abstract = {In order for robots to be socially accepted and generate empathy they must display emotions. For robots such as Nao, body language is the best medium available, as they do not have the ability to display facial expressions. Displaying emotional body language that can be interpreted whilst interacting with the robot should greatly improve its acceptance. This research investigates the creation of an "Affect Space" for the generation of emotional body language that could be displayed by robots. An Affect Space is generated by "blending" (i.e. interpolating between) different emotional expressions to create new ones. An Affect Space for body language based on the Circumplex Model of emotions has been created. The experiment reported in this paper investigated the perception of specific key poses from the Affect Space. The results suggest that this Affect Space for body expressions can be used to improve the expressiveness of humanoid robots. In addition, early results of a pilot study are described. It revealed that the context helps human subjects improve their recognition rate during a human-robot imitation game, and in turn this recognition leads to better outcome of the interactions.}, isbn = {978-1-4503-0170-1}, doi = {10.1145/1877826.1877837}, author = {Aryel Beck and Antoine Hiolle and Alexandre Mazel and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inproceedings {2010, title = {Using the Interaction Rhythm as a Natural Reinforcement Signal for Social Robots: A Matter of Belief}, booktitle = {Proc. International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR 2010}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, volume = {6414}, year = {2010}, pages = {81{\textendash}89}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, address = {Singapore}, abstract = {In this paper, we present the results of a pilot study of a human robot interaction experiment where the rhythm of the interaction is used as a reinforcement signal to learn sensorimotor associations. The algorithm uses breaks and variations in the rhythm at which the human is producing actions. The concept is based on the hypothesis that a constant rhythm is an intrinsic property of a positive interaction whereas a break reflects a negative event. Subjects from various backgrounds interacted with a NAO robot where they had to teach the robot to mirror their actions by learning the correct sensorimotor associations. The results show that in order for the rhythm to be a useful reinforcement signal, the subjects have to be convinced that the robot is an agent with which they can act naturally, using their voice and facial expressions as cues to help it understand the correct behaviour to learn. When the subjects do behave naturally, the rhythm and its variations truly reflects how well the interaction is going and helps the robot learn efficiently. These results mean that non-expert users can interact naturally and fruitfully with an autonomous robot if the interaction is believed to be natural, without any technical knowledge of the cognitive capacities of the robot.}, isbn = {978-3-642-17247-2}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-17248-9_9}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Peirre Andry and Arnaud J Blanchard and Philippe Gaussier}, editor = {Shuzhi Sam Ge and Haizhou Li and John-John Cabibihan and Yeow Kee Tan} } @inproceedings {2009, title = {Assessing Human Responses to Different Robot Attachment Profiles}, booktitle = {Proc. 18th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE RO-MAN 2009)}, year = {2009}, month = {09/2009}, pages = {251{\textendash}256}, publisher = {IEEE Press}, organization = {IEEE Press}, address = {Toyama, Japan}, abstract = {Emotional regulation is believed to be crucial for a balanced emotional and cognitive development in infants. Furthermore, during the first year of a child{\textquoteright}s life, the mother is playing a central role in shaping the development, through the attachment bond she shares with her child. Based on previous work on our model of arousal modulation for an autonomous robot, we present an experiment where human adults were interacting visually and via tactile contact with a SONY Aibo robot exploring a children playmat. The robots had two different attachment profiles: one requiring less attention then the other. The subjects answered one questionnaire per robot, describing how they would rate their experience with each robot. The analysis of the subjects{\textquoteright} responses allow us to conclude that this setting was sufficient to elicit positive and active caretaking-like behaviours from the subjects, according to the profile of the robot they interacted with.}, isbn = {978-1-4244-5081-7}, issn = {1944-9445}, doi = {10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326216}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5326216/}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Kim A. Bard and Lola Ca{\~n}amero} } @inbook {2009, title = {Emotion Modelling and Facial Affect Recognition in Human-Computer and Human-Robot Interaction}, booktitle = {Affective Computing, Emotion Modelling, Synthesis and Recognition}, year = {2009}, publisher = {InTechOpen Publishers}, organization = {InTechOpen Publishers}, chapter = {12}, isbn = {978-3-902613-42-4}, doi = {10.5772/6648}, url = {http://www.intechopen.com/books/state_of_the_art_in_face_recognition/emotion_modelling_and_facial_affect_recognition_in_human-computer_and_human-robot_interaction}, author = {Lori Malatesta and John C Murray and Amaryllis Raouzaiou and Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Kostas Karpouzis}, editor = {Mario I. Chacon-M.} } @inproceedings {2009, title = {Learning Affective Landmarks}, booktitle = {Proc. 9th International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems (EpiRob 2009)}, series = {Lund University Cognitive Studies}, volume = {146}, year = {2009}, month = {11/2009}, pages = {211{\textendash}212}, publisher = {Lund University}, organization = {Lund University}, address = {Venice, Italy}, abstract = {This poster presents early work on the effects of arousal and its regulation on learning about the environment, particularly affective memories associated with places that can be used to safely guide exploration.}, isbn = {978-91-977-380-7-1}, issn = {1101-8453}, url = {http://www.lucs.lu.se/LUCS/146/epirob09.pdf}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Pierre-Yves Oudeyer and Christian Balkenius} } @inproceedings {2009, title = {Towards a Model of Emotion Expression in an Interactive Robot Head}, booktitle = {Proc. 18th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE RO-MAN 2009)}, year = {2009}, month = {09/2009}, pages = {627{\textendash}632}, publisher = {IEEE Press}, organization = {IEEE Press}, address = {Toyama, Japan}, abstract = {In this paper we present a robotic head designed for interaction with humans, endowed with mechanisms to make the robot respond to social interaction with emotional expressions, allowing the emotional expression of the robot to be directly influenced by the social interaction process. We look into how emotionally expressive visual feedback from the robot can enrich the interaction process and provide the participant with additional information regarding the interaction, allowing the user to better understand the intentions of the robot. We discuss some of the interactions that are possible with ERWIN and how this can effect the response of the system. We show experimental scenarios where the interaction processes influences the emotional expressions and how the participants interpret this. We draw our conclusions from the feedback from experiments, showing that indeed emotional expression can have an influence on the social interaction between a robot and human.}, isbn = {978-1-4244-5081-7}, issn = {1944-9445}, doi = {10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326131}, author = {John C Murray and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Antoine Hiolle} } @inproceedings {2008, title = {Conscientious Caretaking for Autonomous Robots: An Arousal-Based Model of Exploratory Behavior}, booktitle = {Proc. 8th International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems (EpiRob 2008)}, series = {Lund University Cognitive Studies}, volume = {139}, year = {2008}, pages = {45{\textendash}52}, publisher = {Lund University}, organization = {Lund University}, address = {Brighton, UK}, abstract = {The question of how autonomous robots could be part of our everyday life is gaining increasing interest. We present here an experiment in which an autonomous robot explores its environment and tries to familiarize itself with its novel elements using a neural-network-based architecture. When confronted with novelty, the lack of stability of its learning structures increases the arousal level of the robot, pushing it to look for comfort from its caretaker in order to reduce this arousal. In this paper, we studied how the behavior of the caretaker{\textemdash}and in particular the amount of comfort it provides to the robot during its exploration of the environment{\textemdash}influences the course of the robot{\textquoteright}s exploration and learning experience. This work takes inspiration from early mother-infant interactions and the impact that the primary caretaker has on the development of children{\textemdash}at least in mainstream Western culture. The underlying hypothesis is that the behavior of a caregiver, and particularly his/her role in modulating arousal, will influence the development of an autonomous robot, and that arousal regulation will also depend on how accurately the robot signals its internal state and how the caretaker (or human user) responds to these signals.}, isbn = {978-91-977-380-1-9}, issn = {1101-8453}, url = {http://www.lucs.lu.se/LUCS/139/hiolle.pdf}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Matthew Schlesinger and Luc Berthouze and Christian Balkenius} } @inproceedings {2008, title = {Why Should You Care? An Arousal-Based Model of Exploratory Behavior for Autonomous Robots}, booktitle = {Artificial Life XI: Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems}, year = {2008}, month = {08/2008}, pages = {242{\textendash}248}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {Winchester, UK}, abstract = {The question of how autonomous robots could be part of our everyday life is of a growing interest. We present here an experiment in which an autonomous robot explores its environment and tries to familiarize itself with the features available using a neural-network-based architecture. The lack of stability of its learning structures increases the arousal level of the robot, pushing the robot to look for comfort from its caretaker to reduce the arousal. In this paper, we studied how the behavior of the caretaker influences the course of the robot exploration and learning experience by providing certain amount of comfort during this exploration. We then draw some conclusions on how to use this architecture together with related work, to enhance the adaptability of autonomous robots development.}, isbn = {978-0-262-75017-2}, url = {https://mitpress-request.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/alife/0262287196chap32.pdf}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Seth Bullock and Jason Noble and Richard A. Watson and Mark A Bedau} } @inproceedings {2007, title = {Developing Sensorimotor Associations Through Attachment Bonds}, booktitle = {Proc. 7th International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (EpiRob 2007)}, series = {Lund University Cognitive Studies}, volume = {134}, year = {2007}, pages = {45{\textendash}52}, publisher = {Lund University}, organization = {Lund University}, address = {Piscataway, NJ, USA}, abstract = {Attachment bonds and positive affect help cognitive development and social interactions in infants and animals. In this paper we present a neural architecture to enable a robot to develop an attachment bond with a person or an object, and to discover the correct sensorimotor associations to maintain a desired affective state of well-being using a minimum amount of prior knowledge about the possible interactions with this object. We also discuss how our research on attachment bonds could further developmental robotics in the near future.}, isbn = {91-974741-8-5}, issn = {1101-8453}, url = {https://www.lucs.lu.se/LUCS/135/Hiolle.pdf}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero}, editor = {Luc Berthouze and C G Prince and M Littman and Hideki Kozima and Christian Balkenius} } @inproceedings {2007, title = {Learning to Interact with the Caretaker: A Developmental Approach}, booktitle = {Proc. Second International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2007)}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, volume = {4738}, year = {2007}, month = {09/2007}, pages = {422{\textendash}433}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, abstract = {To build autonomous robots able to live and interact with humans in a real-world dynamic and uncertain environment, the design of architectures permitting robots to develop attachment bonds to humans and use them to build their own model of the world is a promising avenue, not only to improve human-robot interaction and adaptation to the environment, but also as a way to develop further cognitive and emotional capabilities. In this paper we present a neural architecture to enable a robot to develop an attachment bond with a person or an object, and to discover the correct sensorimotor associations to maintain a desired affective state of well-being using a minimum amount of prior knowledge about the possible interactions with this object.}, isbn = {978-3-540-74888-5}, issn = {0302-9743}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-74889-2_37}, author = {Antoine Hiolle and Lola Ca{\~n}amero and Arnaud J Blanchard}, editor = {Ana C R Paiva and Rui Prada and Rosalind W Picard} }