Adaptive socio-context awareness mechanism for human-robot interaction [Self-Funded Students Only]

Project Highlights:

• Follow a user-centred design approach to understand human-robot interactions in everyday contexts, identifying social cues affecting social robot engagement.
• Apply multiple interaction design techniques such as co-creative design, scenario design, and cultural probes for eliciting information that will help to develop a socio-context awareness system for human-robot interaction
• Develop a socio-context awareness system for human-robot interaction for human-likeness and behaviour change.

As emerging technologies integrate into our society, we will interact even more frequently with IoT devices, autonomous systems, and robots; thus, new challenges and questions will arise. In real-life environments like home, there are multiple challenges to overcome to situate these emerging technologies in the social structure of daily life. One of these emerging technologies are robots, particularly social robots. Latest investigations have shown the potential that social robots could help support. For example, as companions of older adults or even supporting therapies within healthcare contexts, but still is unclear how robots will overcome and repair when human-likeness decrease. This project will explore the complexities that emerge when people interact with robots in unstructured environments to identify social cues that affect robot engagement. In addition, this project will explore how to design and prototype a social awareness framework that guides human-robot social interactions. One unexplored area of research that this project will focus on is household scenarios where social robots will be required to integrate socio-context understanding to deal with human-likeness and behaviour change when operating in domestic situations. We aim to explore the gap in knowledge of the challenges of human-centred robot interactions when engagement with robots is affected by a lack of contextual understanding.

Keywords: Human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction, human-centred robot interaction, multimodal interaction, psychology

If you have any questions about the project, please contact

Carolina Fuentes – FuentestToroC@cardiff.ac.uk

Katarzyna Stawarz - StawarzK@cardiff.ac.uk

Academic criteria: A 2:1 Honours undergraduate degree or a master's degree, in computing or a related subject. Applicants with appropriate professional experience are also considered. Degree-level mathematics (or equivalent) is required for research in some project areas.

Applicants for whom English is not their first language must demonstrate proficiency by obtaining an IELTS score of at least 6.5 overall, with a minimum of 6.0 in each skills component.

How to apply:

• Step 1: Complete the Student Application Form Template (located on this page under Application Documents) and send to ipoch@cardiff.ac.uk
• Step 2: Complete the online Cardiff University Post-Graduate Application Form at  Engineering - Study - Cardiff University
• Step 3: Submit two academic or professional Letters of Reference by using the Referee Report Form (located on this page under Application Documents) to be sent to ipoch@cardiff.ac.uk . Transcripts of degrees and additional supportive documents can be provided at the interview stage.

If you have any questions or need more information, please contact COMSC-PGR@cardiff.ac.uk