Learning Human Preferences for Physical Human-Robot Cooperation

Physical human-robot cooperation (pHRC) has the potential to combine human and robot strengths in a team that can achieve more than a human and a robot working on the task separately. However, how much of the potential can be realized depends on the quality of cooperation, in which awarenes of the partner’s intention and preferences plays an...

Investigating human altruism towards robots with a novel and reconfigurable interactive social robot

As robots become increasingly popular and co-inhabit spaces with people, there is a need for designing robots that people are comfortable interacting with. For robots to successfully integrate into human society, it is important to design robots in a way that enhances the quality of the human-robot interaction. While the human-robot relationship...

Framing a Guideline for Balancing Task Delegation of Human-Robot Collaboration in Automation processes: A Case Study on Automatic Passenger Boarding Bridge in Amsterdam-based Airport Autonomous Airside Operation

As automation technology continues to transform various industries, achieving both high operational reliability and high efficiency emerges as a critical challenge in task delegation between humans and Automated Systems (ASs). This project, conducted in collaboration with the Royal Schiphol Group (RSG), investigates the intricate dynamics of...

A Method for Embodied Co-Learning in Interdependent Human-Robot Teams

This paper addresses the research question: “How can a human-robot team achieve co-learning, and interdependence in physically embodied tasks?”<br/>A method has been developed that enables a human-robot team to co-learn the handover of an object from the robot to the human. Five design requirements were composed to address the challenges of...

Discrete Automation: Robotic Construction Workflow for Reconfigurable Timber Housing

The construction industry’s impact on carbon emissions, pollution, and resource depletion necessitates innovative approaches to reduce environmental harm. This research explores the use of computational design, digital fabrication, and timber as a renewable material to mitigate the construction industry’s environmental impact. Timber is...

Robotic Skill Mutation in Robot-to-Robot Propagation During a Physically Collaborative Sawing Task

Skill propagation among robots without human involvement can be crucial in quickly spreading new physical skills to many robots. In this respect, it is a good alternative to pure reinforcement learning, which can be time-consuming, or learning from human demonstration, which requires human involvement. In the latter case, there may not be...

Sustainable Timber Bridge Design with Design-to-Build Workflow Involving Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC)

Buiksloterham, situated on the northern banks of the IJ river, is undergoing massive urban redevelopment as it transits from an industrial town to a mix-use development. However the lack of connectivity within the neighbourhood has become an ever more prominent problem for its growing residents and workers. Gemeente Amsterdam has proposed the...

Human Aspects in Collaborative Order Picking - Letting Robotic Agents Learn about Human Discomfort

Human aspects in collaboration of humans and robots, as common in warehousing, are considered increasingly important objectives in operations management. This work aims to let robots learn about human discomfort in collaborative order picking of robotic mobile fulfillment systems. To this end, a multi-agent reinforcement (MARL) approach that...

Towards Circular Economy in Architecture by Means of Data-driven Design-to- Robotic-Production

While the global impact of plastic waste is increasingly concerning, the application of reused materials in the built environment remains little explored. This paper presents research into the reuse of plastic in architecture by means of computational design and robotic fabrication. Design possibilities using reclaimed plastic artefacts were...