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Social Robots and Applications
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Social Robots and Applications

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensors and Robotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 July 2023) | Viewed by 9142

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Juan Pedro Bandera

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Electronic Technology, University of Málaga, Campus de Teatinos, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Interests: social robotics; artificial vision; autonomous robots; human-robot interaction; social navigation; pose analysis; gesture recognition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Suna Bensch

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Computing Science, Umeå Universitet, 90187 Umea, Sweden
Interests: social robotics; human-robot interaction
Dr. Pedro Núñez Trujillo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Robotics and Artificial Vision, Department of Computer and Communication Technology, University of Extremadura, 10003 Cáceres, Spain
Interests: social robotics; robot navigation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing demands of society in terms of communication, monitorization and assistance, which have been recently exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, are driving the consolidation of a new social model. This model involves a strong presence of technology in daily life settings; thus, robotics is one of the disciplines most drastically affected by this shift. Robots working in a social context should incorporate social parameters in their behaviour in order to maximize adherence. Depending on the particular use case and application area, these social parameters affect navigation, interaction and task planning. Their implementation therefore requires a multidisciplinary approach, including new skills and procedures in the cognitive architecture of the robot, and an evaluation of the robot’s performance in terms of functionality, acceptability, utility and accessibility. This Special Issue will provide thorough use case specifications, a description of technical solutions and analysis of user experience in support of the application of social robots in different domains, including: education, telepresence, monitoring, security, assistance, healthcare, service, therapy, caregiving, small retail automation or industrial co-working.

Dr. Juan Pedro Bandera
Dr. Suna Bensch
Dr. Pedro Núñez Trujillo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • human–robot interaction
  • social robots
  • artificial intelligence
  • cognitive architectures
  • online learning and adaptation
  • assistive robots
  • humanoid robots
  • social navigation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 6061 KiB  
Article
Design Path for a Social Robot for Emotional Communication for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
by Sandra Cano, Jaime Díaz-Arancibia, Jeferson Arango-López, Julia Elena Libreros and Matías García
Sensors 2023, 23(11), 5291; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23115291 - 02 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2182
Abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in social interaction and expressing and understanding emotions. Based on this, robots for children with ASD have been proposed. However, few studies have been conducted about how to design a social robot for children with [...] Read more.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in social interaction and expressing and understanding emotions. Based on this, robots for children with ASD have been proposed. However, few studies have been conducted about how to design a social robot for children with ASD. Non-experimental studies have been carried out to evaluate social robots; however, the general methodology that should be used to design a social robot is not clear. This study proposes a design path for a social robot for emotional communication for children with ASD following a user-centered design approach. This design path was applied to a case study and evaluated by a group of experts in psychology, human–robot interaction, and human–computer interaction from Chile and Colombia, as well as parents of children with ASD. Our results show that following the proposed design path for a social robot to communicate emotions for children with ASD is favorable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Robots and Applications)
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28 pages, 5792 KiB  
Article
Non Linear Control System for Humanoid Robot to Perform Body Language Movements
by Juan Manuel Gomez-Quispe, Gustavo Pérez-Zuñiga, Diego Arce, Fiorella Urbina, Sareli Gibaja, Renato Paredes and Francisco Cuellar
Sensors 2023, 23(1), 552; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23010552 - 03 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3141
Abstract
In social robotics, especially with regard to direct interactions between robots and humans, the robotic movements of the body, arms and head must make an adequate displacement to guarantee an adequate interaction, both from a functional and social point of view. To achieve [...] Read more.
In social robotics, especially with regard to direct interactions between robots and humans, the robotic movements of the body, arms and head must make an adequate displacement to guarantee an adequate interaction, both from a functional and social point of view. To achieve this, the use of closed-loop control techniques that consider the complex nonlinear dynamics and disturbances inherent in these systems is required. In this paper, an implementation of a nonlinear controller for the tracking of trajectories and a profile of speeds that execute the movements of the arms and head of a humanoid robot based on the mathematical model is proposed. First, the design and implementation of the arms and head are initially presented, then the mathematical model via kinematic and dynamic analysis was performed. With the above, the design of nonlinear controllers such as nonlinear proportional derivative control with gravity compensation, Backstepping control, Sliding Mode control and the application of each of them to the robotic system are presented. A comparative analysis based on a frequency analysis, the efficiency in polynomial trajectories and the implementation requirements allowed selecting the non-linear Backstepping control technique to be implemented. Then, for the implementation, a centralized control architecture is considered, which uses a central microcontroller in the external loop and an internal microcontroller (as internal loop) for each of the actuators. With the above, the selected controller was validated through experiments performed in real time on the implemented humanoid robot, demonstrating proper path tracking of established trajectories for performing body language movements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Robots and Applications)
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28 pages, 7204 KiB  
Article
A Multirobot System in an Assisted Home Environment to Support the Elderly in Their Daily Lives
by Ramón Barber, Francisco J. Ortiz, Santiago Garrido, Francisco M. Calatrava-Nicolás, Alicia Mora, Adrián Prados, José Alfonso Vera-Repullo, Joaquín Roca-González, Inmaculada Méndez and Óscar Martínez Mozos
Sensors 2022, 22(20), 7983; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22207983 - 19 Oct 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3075
Abstract
The increasing isolation of the elderly both in their own homes and in care homes has made the problem of caring for elderly people who live alone an urgent priority. This article presents a proposed design for a heterogeneous multirobot system consisting of [...] Read more.
The increasing isolation of the elderly both in their own homes and in care homes has made the problem of caring for elderly people who live alone an urgent priority. This article presents a proposed design for a heterogeneous multirobot system consisting of (i) a small mobile robot to monitor the well-being of elderly people who live alone and suggest activities to keep them positive and active and (ii) a domestic mobile manipulating robot that helps to perform household tasks. The entire system is integrated in an automated home environment (AAL), which also includes a set of low-cost automation sensors, a medical monitoring bracelet and an Android application to propose emotional coaching activities to the person who lives alone. The heterogeneous system uses ROS, IoT technologies, such as Node-RED, and the Home Assistant Platform. Both platforms with the home automation system have been tested over a long period of time and integrated in a real test environment, with good results. The semantic segmentation of the navigation and planning environment in the mobile manipulator for navigation and movement in the manipulation area facilitated the tasks of the later planners. Results about the interactions of users with the applications are presented and the use of artificial intelligence to predict mood is discussed. The experiments support the conclusion that the assistance robot correctly proposes activities, such as calling a relative, exercising, etc., during the day, according to the user’s detected emotional state, making this is an innovative proposal aimed at empowering the elderly so that they can be autonomous in their homes and have a good quality of life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Robots and Applications)
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