Development of a control system for robot mediated social interaction

This project seeks to advance the state-of-the art of human-robot interaction through the development of a robot control interface that facilitates intuitive and multi-modal tele-presence. The primary aim of the research is to create (and evaluate) a tele-presence system that enables a remotely located human operator to simultaneously control robot modalities such as navigation, gesture, speech, facial expression and eye gaze on a humanoid robot platform.

Project Objectives
It is expected that completing the project will involve meeting some of the following technical objectives:
1. Development of an immersive sensor interface that enables the operator to experience the robot’s first person viewpoint.
2. Development of a gesture-based control system for mapping the limb movement of the human operator to the limb movement of the robot.
3. Using eye-tracking technology, development of a system for mapping the gaze of the operator to the eye movement of the robot.
4. Construction of a program that can capture speech from the operator, and make it instantly reproducible (content and prosody) by the robot.
5. Development of a manual controller that enables the operator to control facial expressions and emotional states in real-time.
6. Formulation and instantiation of a framework for integrating objectives (1-5) in a real-time control system involving a physical robot.
7. Demonstration of the performance of the system through live experiments, and utilization of quantitative and qualitative methods for analysis.

Methodology Proposed
The project will be conducted in four phases. These phases roughly map to:
Phase 1: Literature review & knowledge acquisition (Month 0-12)
Phase 2: Subsystem and framework development (Month 8-36)
Phase 3: Testing and analysis (Month 30-42)
Phase 4: Thesis write-up and follow on (Month 42-46)

Expected outcomes
It is expected that the research will result in at least four publications at leading robotics conferences (HRI, ICRA, IROS, etc.) and/or journals (AURO, IJSR, IEEE Trans on Man-Machine Systems, etc.). There is also a good possibility that the research will lead to one (or several) patents.

The research is also closely aligned with commercialization activity being undertaken by the group. It is anticipated that research output from this project will be utilized by this commercialization activity.

Application closing date
Applications will close 1 June 2018. As we expect great interest in this funded PhD studentship early application is advised.

Application Requirements:
Candidates must have a minimum 2.1 grade in an honours degree (GPA of 3.2/4) to be considered for entry to Trinity College Dublin. Individual PI's may have additional specific entry requirements. General information on entry to Trinity College Dublin is available at: www.tcd.ie/courses/postgraduate/faculty

How to Apply:
Interested candidates should contact the PI for this project directly, Prof. Conor McGinn E: [Email Address Removed] in the first instance. Additional information on how to apply to our PhD programmes is available at: www.tcd.ie/courses/postgraduate/research/az.php