Social robotics

Ongoing project. Research into social robots for the realisation of accepted applications in various fields of application.

Background

Robots are regarded as a future core technology in both the industrial and private sectors. In social robotics, which is characterised by the ability of social interaction with humans adapted to the situation, research is being conducted into intuitive and human-like communication. There are research approaches to the development of social robots for support in the home environment as well as in the care, industrial and retail context. Despite the research activities to date, the actual use of social robots is still very limited. Only a few social robots are currently available for purchase and are actually in use (e.g. Paro to support dementia patients).

Task

The aim of the joint project FORSocialRobots is to extract and structure social skills and to create a way of transferring these to various robots. Furthermore, social skills are to be simulated in the virtual world in order to accelerate the development of social robots. The focus is on the tasks set by the industrial partners in five exemplary fields of application. Emphasis is placed on easy adaptability of the results in different scenarios and environments. This should enable robot systems to be used more quickly and cost-effectively in the future. The project addresses the application areas of therapy/care, mobile robots, industrial robots, service robots and flying robots and investigates these within the five scientific fields of social skills architecture, social situational communication, social situational interaction, development in virtual reality and technical-social co-design.
 

SPONSOR:

Bavarian Research Foundation (BFS)

PROJECT PARTNER:

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS

Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU)

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg - Chair of Manufacturing Automation and Production Systems (FAPS)

University of Augsburg