| 1. |
- Ekanayake, Hiran B., 1978-
(författare)
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Validating User Engagement and Effectiveness of Training Simulations : A mixed-methods approach informed by embodied cognition and psychophysiological measures
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Simulation-based training has gained widespread attention recently as a response to drawbacks associated with traditional training approaches, such as high training costs (instructors, equipment, etc.), high risks (e.g. pilot training), and ethical issues (e.g. medical training), as well as a lack of availability of certain training environments (e.g. space exploration). Apart from their target training domains, many of aspects of simulations differ, such as their degree of physical realism (fidelity), scenarios (e.g. story), and pedagogical aspects (e.g. after-action reviews and collaborative learning). Among those aspects, designers have mostly focused on developing high-fidelity simulations with the expectation of increasing the effectiveness of training. However, some authors suggest that the above belief is a myth as researchers have failed to identify a linear relationship between the (physical) fidelity and training effectiveness of simulations. Most researchers have therefore evaluated the correspondence between the behaviours of trainees in both real world and simulated contexts, however, the existing methods of simulation validation using behavioural measures have a number of drawbacks, such as the fact that they do not address certain complex phenomena of skills acquisition.Bridging the above knowledge gap, this research reports on empirical investigations using an improved methodology for validating training simulations. This research includes an investigation of the user experience of trainees, with respect to the acceptance of virtual scenarios provoking a similar psychophysiological response as in real world scenarios, and the training potential of simulations with respect to the positive transfer of training from a simulator to real world operational contexts. The most prominent features of the proposed methodology include the use of psychophysiological measures in addition to traditional behavioural measures and the use of natural (quasi-) experiments. Moreover, its conceptual framework was influenced by contemporary theories in cognitive science (e.g. constructivism and embodied cognition). The results of this research have several important theoretical and methodological implications, involving, for example, the dependency of the effectiveness of simulations on the perceived realism of trainees, which is more embodied than has been predicted by previous researchers, and the requirement of several different types/levels of adaptive training experience, depending on the type of trainee.
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| 2. |
- Riveiro, Maria, 1978-
(författare)
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Visual analytics for maritime anomaly detection
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The surveillance of large sea areas typically involves the analysis of huge quantities of heterogeneous data. In order to support the operator while monitoring maritime traffic, the identification of anomalous behavior or situations that might need further investigation may reduce operators' cognitive load. While it is worth acknowledging that existing mining applications support the identification of anomalies, autonomous anomaly detection systems are rarely used for maritime surveillance. Anomaly detection is normally a complex task that can hardly be solved by using purely visual or purely computational methods. This thesis suggests and investigates the adoption of visual analytics principles to support the detection of anomalous vessel behavior in maritime traffic data. This adoption involves studying the analytical reasoning process that needs to be supported, using combined automatic and visualization approaches to support such process, and evaluating such integration. The analysis of data gathered during interviews and participant observations at various maritime control centers and the inspection of video recordings of real anomalous incidents lead to a characterization of the analytical reasoning process that operators go through when monitoring traffic. These results are complemented with a literature review of anomaly detection techniques applied to sea traffic. A particular statistical-based technique is implemented, tested, and embedded in a proof-of-concept prototype that allows user involvement in the detection process. The quantitative evaluation carried out by employing the prototype reveals that participants who used the visualization of normal behavioral models outperformed the group without aid. The qualitative assessment shows that domain experts are positive towards providing automatic support and the visualization of normal behavioral models, since these aids may reduce reaction time, as well as increase trust and comprehensibility in the system. Based on the lessons learned, this thesis provides recommendations for designers and developers of maritime control and anomaly detection systems, as well as guidelines for carrying out evaluations of visual analytics environments.
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| 3. |
- Thunberg, Sofia, 1994-
(författare)
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Companion Robots for Older Adults : A Mixed-Methods Approach to Deployments in Care Homes
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores, through a mixed-methods approach, what happens when companion robots are deployed in care homes for older adults by looking at different perspectives from key stakeholders. Nine studies are presented with decision makers in municipalities, care staff and older adults, as participants, and the studies have primarily been carried out in the field in care homes and activity centres, where both qualitative (e.g., observations and workshops) and quantitative data (surveys) have been collected. The thesis shows that companion robots seem to be here to stay and that they can contribute to a higher quality of life for some older adults. It further presents some challenges with a certain discrepancy between what decision makers want and what staff might be able to facilitate. For future research and use of companion robots, it is key to evaluate each robot model and potential use case separately and develop clear routines for how they should be used, and most importantly, let all stakeholders be part of the process. The knowledge contribution is the holistic view of how different actors affect each other when emerging robot technology is introduced in a care environment.
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| 4. |
- Jonsson, Fatima, 1972-
(författare)
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Hanging out in the game café : Contextualising co-located computer game play practices and experiences
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- What social practices are people involved when staying in a game café? What kind of social setting is the game café? What are the attitudes towards playing computer games at home and in public among parents? What are the media representations of co-located game playing in public? What are the sensory experiences of playing co-located game play in public? This dissertation gives a descriptive and analytical account of the contexts and meanings of playing co-located computer games in public settings such as game cafés and LAN parties. The overall aim with the dissertation is to describe and investigate the social and cultural meanings and contexts of playing computer games in a game café. The research questions have been investigated in four empirical studies.The dissertation shows that people are involved in various social practices and activities aimed at supporting and maintaining social relationships among friends and peers. The game café can be seen as a third place, as it used by players for recreation and an escape from the pressure of home and school, a place which feels like home, is familiar and welcoming. However the game café is a limited third place used by young men who likes to play online and network games. The dissertation also shows how the social environment provides for specific sensory experiences. These sensory experiences involve sitting together side by side slapping each other’s shoulders and legs, eating candies and drinking sodas, listening to music. The representations of co-located game playing in public reproduce traditional gender roles where professional gamers are represented by men and causal gamers are represented by women (and men) as well as construct youth as party lovers. The study also suggests that parents’ attitudes towards their children playing games in public draw on traditional values and ideas about children’s play and social relationships.
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| 5. |
- Li, Cai
(författare)
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Reinforcement Learning of Locomotion based on Central Pattern Generators
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Locomotion learning for robotics is an interesting and challenging area in which the movement capabilities of animals have been deeply investigated and acquired knowledge has been transferred into modelling locomotion on robots. What modellers are required to understand is what structure can represent locomotor systems in different animals and how such animals develop various and dexterous locomotion capabilities. Notwithstanding the depth of research in the area, modelling locomotion requires a deep rethinking.In this thesis, based on the umbrella of embodied cognition, a neural-body-environment interaction is emphasised and regarded as the solution to locomotion learning/development. Central pattern generators (CPGs) are introduced in the first part (Chapter 2) to generally interpret the mechanism of locomotor systems in animals. With a deep investigation on the structure of CPGs and inspiration from human infant development, a layered CPG architecture with baseline motion generation and dynamics adaptation interfaces are proposed. In the second part, reinforcement learning (RL) is elucidated as a good method for dealing with locomotion learning from the perspectives of psychology, neuroscience and robotics (Chapter 4). Several continuous-space RL techniques (e.g. episodic natural actor critic, policy learning by weighting explorations with returns, continuous action space learning automaton are introduced for practical use (Chapter 3). With the knowledge of CPGs and RL, the architecture and concept of CPG-Actor-Critic is constructed. Finally, experimental work based on published papers is highlighted in a path of my PhD research (Chapter 5). This includes the implementation of CPGs and the learning on the NAO robot for crawling and walking. The implementation is also extended to test the generalizability to different morphologies (the ghostdog robot). The contribution of this thesis is discussed from two angles: the investigation of the CPG architecture and the implementation (Chapter 6).
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| 6. |
- Li, Jun
(författare)
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Learning reactive behaviors with constructive neural networks in mobile robotics
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates a learning system for acquiring robot behaviors by mapping sensor information directly to motor actions. It addresses the integration of three learning paradigms, namely unsupervised learning (UL), supervised learning (SL), and reinforcement learning (RL). The approach is characterized by the use of constructive artificial neural networks (ANNs). The sensor-motor mappings acquired by the learning system form part of a tight "sense-learn-act" cycle, as opposed to "sense-plan-act", thus allowing the robot to learn concepts within its own sensorimotor experience while avoiding anthropomorphic bias.Novel techniques for robot learning using constructive radial basis function (RBF) networks are introduced. This leads to a self-organizing, incremental and local construction of the sensorimotor space for learning different behaviors with the same basic architecture, thus a great simplification of the engineering design process of the ANN's structure. Integration of the different learning paradigms takes place in a two-layer learning architecture.The lower layer with the UL and SL paradigms is used to quickly construct a controller for the required behavior. The upper layer with the RL paradigm is used for tuning and refining of the controller resulting from the lower layer (or a controller obtained from other prior knowledge) to further improve the robustness and performance of the behavior. Both layers apply constructive RBF networks, taking into account the different requirements of the respective learning paradigms.The learning system is verified by a number of experiments on a real robot. We begin our experiments with the lower layer together with a teaching-by-demonstration approach for acquiring different behaviors. The experimental results show that the lower layer can learn a wide range of robot behaviors, thus demonstrating the task non-specific nature of the architecture. We then demonstrate the necessity of the layered learning architecture for more complex behaviors by a docking behavior requiring precise positioning at a goal location. The results obtained show that learning with only the lower layer can not obtain robust performance and optimal trajectories, while learning with only the upper layer is impractical and even infeasible on the real robot due to the slow learning process of the RL paradigm. With layered learning, however, the upper layer is speeded up by bootstrapping from the learnedcontroller in the lower layer, and a robust and time-optimal controller can be obtained.
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| 7. |
- Nilsson, Maria
(författare)
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Capturing semi-automated decision making : the methodology of CASADEMA
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis presents a new methodology named CASADEMA (CApturing Semi-Automated DEcision MAking) which captures the interaction between humans and the technology they use to support their decision-making within the domain of Information Fusion. We are particularly interested in characterising the interaction between human decision makers and artefacts in semi-automated fusion processes. In our investigation we found that the existing approaches are limited in their ability to capture such interactions in sufficient detail. The presented method is built upon a distributed-cognition perspective. The use of this particular theoretical framework from cognitive science enables the method to take into account not only the role of the data captured in the physical and digital artefacts of the fusion system (e.g., radar readings, information from a fax or database, a piece of paper, etc.), but also the cognitive support function of the artefacts themselves (e.g., as an external memory) as part of the fusion process. That is, the interdependencies between the fusion process and decision-making can be captured. This thesis thus contributes to two main fields. Firstly, it enables, through CASADEMA, a distributed-cognition perspective of fusion processes in the, otherwise, rather technology-oriented field of Information Fusion. This has important conceptual implications, since it views fusion processes as extending beyond the boundary of physical/computer systems, to include humans, technology, and tools, as well as the interactions between them. It is argued that a better understanding of these interactions can lead to a better design of fusion processes, making CASADEMA an important contribution to the information fusion field. Secondly, the thesis provides, again in the form of CASADEMA, a practical application of the distributed-cognition theoretical framework. Importantly, the notations and definitions introduced in CASADEMA structure the otherwise currently rather loosely defined concepts and approaches in distributed cognition research. Hence, the work presented here also contributes to the fields of cognitive science and human-computer interaction.
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| 8. |
- Rambusch, Jana
(författare)
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Mind Games Extended : Understanding Gameplay as Situated Activity
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis addresses computer gameplay activities in terms of the physical handling of a game, players’ meaning-making activities, and how these two processes are closely interrelated. It is examined in greater detail which role the body plays in gameplay, but also how gameplay is shaped by sociocultural factors outside the game, including different kind of tools and players’ participation in community practices. An important step towards an understanding of these key factors and their interaction is the consideration of gameplay as situated activity where players who actively engage with games are situated in both the physical world and the virtual in-game world. To analyse exactly how players interact with both worlds, two case studies on two different games have been carried out, and three different levels of situatedness are identifed and discussed in detail in this thesis, on the basis of existing theories within situated cognition research.
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| 9. |
- Svensson, Henrik
(författare)
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Simulations
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is concerned with explanations of embodied cognition as internal simulation. The hypothesis is that several cognitive processes can be explained in terms of predictive chains of simulated perceptions and actions.In other words, perceptions and actions are reactivated internally by the nervous system to be used in cognitive phenomena such as mental imagery.This thesis contributes by advancing the theoretical foundations of simulations and the empirical grounds on which they are based, including a review of the empiricial evidence for the existence of simulated perceptions and actions in cognition, a clarification of the representational function of simulations in cognition, as well as identifying implicit, bodily and environmental anticipation as key mechanisms underlying such simulations. The thesis also develops the ³inception of simulation² hypothesis, which suggests that dreaming has a function in the development of simulations by forming associations between experienced, non-experienced but realistic, and even unrealistic perceptions during early childhood. The thesis further investigates some aspects of simulations and the ³inception of simulation² hypothesis by using simulated robot models based on echo state networks. These experiments suggest that it is possible for a simple robot to develop internal simulations by associating simulated perceptions and actions, and that dream-like experiences can be beneficial for the development of such simulations.
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| 10. |
- Thellman, Sam
(författare)
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Social Robots as Intentional Agents
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Social robots are robots that are intended for social interaction with people. Because of the societal benefits that they are expected to bring, social robots are likely to become more common. Notably, social robots may be able to perform tasks that require social skills, such as communicating efficiently, coordinating actions, managing relationships, and building trust and rapport. However, robotic systems currently lack most of the technological preconditions for interacting socially. This means that until the necessary technology is developed, humans will have to do most of the work coordinating social interactions with robots. However, social robots are a phenomenon that might also challenge the human ability to interact socially. In particular, the actions of social robots may be less predictable to the ordinary people who will interact with them than the comparable actions of humans. In anticipating the actions of other people, we commonly employ folk-psychological assumptions about what others are likely to believe, want, and intend to do, given the situation that they are in. Folk psychology allows us to make instantaneous, unconscious judgments about the likely actions of others around us, and therefore, to interact socially. However, the application of folk psychology will be challenged in the context of social interaction with robots because of significant differences between humans and robots.This thesis addresses the scope and limits of people's ability to interact socially with robots by treating them as intentional agents, i.e., agents whose behavior is most appropriately predicted by attributing it to underlying intentional states, such as beliefs and desires. The thesis provides an analysis of the problem(s) of attributing behavior-congruent intentional states to robots, with a particular focus on the perceptual belief problem, i.e., the problem of understanding what robots know (and do not know) about objects and events in the environment based on their perception. The thesis presents evidence that people's understanding of robots as intentional agents is important to their ability to interact socially with them but that it may also be significantly limited by (1) the extendability of the rich folk-psychological understanding that people have gained from sociocultural experiences with humans and other social animals to interactions with robots, and (2) the integrability of new experiences with robots into a usable and reasonable accurate folk psychological understanding of them. Studying the formation and application of folk psychology in interactions with robots should therefore be a central undertaking in social robotics research.
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