Robotics Commons^™

The Self-Aware Room: A Framework For Operational Self-Awareness In Evolvable Blended Environments, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

The Self-Aware Room (SAR) is a room-scale research environment developed within the larger Balanced Blended Space and Blended Reality Performance System research trajectory. Rather than treating the room as a conventional “smart” environment composed of fixed automation technologies, SAR approaches it as an evolvable blended environment made from physical, virtual, conceptual, sensory, computational, and performative relationships. Its defining feature is not any particular sensor, model, or output device, but the set of transformations through which physical activity becomes structured observation, bounded representation, interpreted state, governed decision, and mediated response.

This paper develops the conceptual and methodological foundations of SAR as …

Behavioral-Centric Team Evaluation Via Consistent Rewards, Clement Kudakwashe Nyanhongo

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Across human domains ranging from sports to business and organizational settings, complex tasks are often solved by teams rather than individuals, leveraging benefits such as interaction, mutual support, complementary skills, cohesion, and task allocation. Evaluating team effectiveness, however, is inherently challenging due to the subjectivity of many existing techniques and the limitations of outcome-driven metrics that primarily focus on performance scores while overlooking the team processes that generated the scores. To address these challenges, this dissertation proposes a behavioral-centric, end-to-end framework for team evaluation grounded in reward functions that model sequential team behavior. Reward functions offer compact and interpretable representations …

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 12

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 12.

Whole Earth Machines: Human-Machine Communication For A Green Transition, Klaus Bruhn Jensen

Human-Machine Communication

The climate crisis of the 21st century represents an existential risk to humanity and biodiversity, posing essential questions of how communication may serve to coordinate mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. One recent response has been massive investments by governments and corporations in systems providing feedback on the state of Earth— Whole Earth Machines (WEMs). For human-machine communication (HMC) studies, WEMs invite sustained engagement with communication infrastructures as a key constituent of research agendas, beyond the interface encounters at the center of many HMC studies to date. The article presents a conceptualization and operationalization of WEMs as critical infrastructures …

Trustworthy Ai: Prohibited Practices, Ethical Principles, And The Identification Of Problems, Anna Karmańska

Journal of Global Awareness

The following considerations arise from the study of texts of documents of a legal nature and from the author’s judgments. They do not present the results of the author’s own empirical research; however, they constitute a factual study that is important for their undertaking in the next step. Having given concern but also hopes for AI, the author focuses her attention on issues that, not only in her opinion, have a strong bearing on the preservation of humanity in a digital environment and at the same time with technocratic features. These issues (prohibited practices, high-risk systems, and ethics) related to …

Use Matters: How Different Ways Of Using Chatgpt Drive Ai Acceptance And Solutionism, Florian Golo Flaßhoff, Fabian Anicker, Frank Marcinkowski

Human-Machine Communication

Artificial intelligence is central to solutionism—the vision of a world where all major problems are solved through technology. This study theorizes about how human–AI communication shapes attitudes toward AI and influences the formation of public opinion, sparking solutionist imaginaries. We empirically examine the attitude formation resulting from the non-simulated use of an unmanipulated conversational model in a controlled laboratory experiment. Using a between-subjects design, participants engaged in three semi-structured 20-minute sessions with ChatGPT, providing a novel perspective on the effects of its use. The findings reveal that mere use of ChatGPT causally increases AI acceptance; however, its impact significantly depends …

Generative Ai: Another Chapter Of Human-Machine Communication, Seungahn Nah, Patric R. Spence

Human-Machine Communication

This editorial introduces a special issue of Human-Machine Communication that explores how generative AI reshapes the communicative relationship between humans and machines. It highlights emerging research on technology use, education, interpersonal dynamics, and trust in AI-generated content, emphasizing that generative AI’s significance lies not in novelty but in the social negotiations it provokes around meaning, authority, and credibility.

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 10

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 10.

Re-Engaging Driver Attention Using Chatgpt: A Multimodal Study On Stress Impact And Driving Performance, Alaa Zaki Elfiqi

Theses and Dissertations

Driving is considered a complex task that requires continuous focus and attention from the driver. Driving performance can also be impacted by changes in the driver’s stress level. However, limited research explores methods to address this challenge. With the current advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) and their ability to engage in human-like interaction, this study investigates the potential of using ChatGPT, designed to speak Egyptian Arabic, in re-engaging driver attention under different driving scenarios for low-stress and high-stress conditions within a virtual reality (VR) environment driving simulator. Drivers were asked to follow a leading car into two scenarios with …

Ai Questions; "The Ai Tea", Sally Brown

Artificial Intelligence Exhibit

This section includes a series of questions related to AI and the exhibit content, as well as button designs by WVU students and Art in the Libraries committee members, a list of the exhibition sponsors, and information on the exhibition launch panel.

Artificial Intelligence In Surveillance And Privacy, Elizabeth D. Brasher

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

This paper attempts to provide insight into the new and developing world of artificial intelligence and its integration into surveillance technologies. These technologies being implemented by the government, retail companies, healthcare organizations, and more, all raise ethical questions and implications addressed in this article; other topics, such as the integration of Christian ethics and responsibilities, are also explored.

Exploring Instruction Generation For Uavs: Dataset Adaptation, Model Behavior, And Diagnostic Insights, Seyedarman Vaziri Bozorg

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis explores the development of an answering agent capable of generating natural language instructions for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), grounded in a limited, real-world dialogue dataset. The objective is to adapt a static dataset into a training pipeline that can support instruction generation and serve as a foundation for future interactive systems involving question-asking agents and internal dialogue. A hybrid architecture is implemented using a semantic teacher model (MPNet) and a T5-base encoder-decoder trained with contrastive and supervised objectives. The adapted training process yields statistically acceptable performance across standard evaluation metrics. However, qualitative analysis reveals a mismatch between metric …

Towards Human-Machine Collaboration In Autonomous Material Handling On Construction Sites, Jyrki Oraskari, Lukas Kirner, Marit Zöcklein, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan

Human-Machine Communication

In the contemporary construction industry, the shortage of skilled labor has prompted the exploration of automation as a remedy and machine autonomy as a potential solution to the environmental conditions at the site. This research explores the balance between human oversight and the independent decision-making capabilities of robots for material delivery on construction sites. Using a scenario-based approach, autonomy in construction robotics is evaluated across four human-machine interaction cases with spatial and temporal dimensions. The expected outcomes revolve around improved safety through better human-machine communication and establishing an interoperable data model to enhance robot autonomy. This aims to automate tasks …

If Androids Dream, Are They More Than Sheep?: Westworld, Robots And Legal Rights, Amanda J. Dipaolo

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The robot protagonists in HBO’s Westworld open the door to several philosophical and ethical questions, perhaps the most complex being: should androids be granted similar legal protections as people? Westworld offers its own exploration of what it means to be a person and places emphasis on one’s ability to feel and understand pain. With scientists and corporations actively working toward a future that includes robots that can display emotion in a way that can convincingly pass as that of a person’s, what happens when androids pass the Turing test, feel empathy, gain consciousness, are sentient, or develop free will? The …

Authentic Impediments: The Influence Of Identity Threat, Cultivated Perceptions, And Personality On Robophobia, Kate K. Mays

Human-Machine Communication

Considering possible impediments to authentic interactions with machines, this study explores contributors to robophobia from the potential dual influence of technological features and individual traits. Through a 2 x 2 x 3 online experiment, a robot’s physical human-likeness, gender, and status were manipulated and individual differences in robot beliefs and personality traits were measured. The effects of robot traits on phobia were non-significant. Overall, subjective beliefs about what robots are, cultivated by media portrayals, whether they threaten human identity, are moral, and have agency were the strongest predictors of robophobia. Those with higher internal locus of control and neuroticism, and …

What’S In A Name And/Or A Frame? Ontological Framing And Naming Of Social Actors And Social Responses, David Westerman, Michael Vosburg, Xinyue Liu, Patric R. Spence

Human-Machine Communication

Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally a communication field. Thus, the study of how AI interacts with us is likely to be heavily driven by communication. The current study examined two things that may impact people’s perceptions of socialness of a social actor: one nonverbal (ontological frame) and one verbal (providing a name) with a 2 (human vs. robot) x 2 (named or not) experiment. Participants saw one of four videos of a study “host” crossing these conditions and responded to various perceptual measures about the socialness and task ability of that host. Overall, data were consistent with hypotheses that whether …

Bridging Design And Perception: Novel Tools And Technologies For Creating Effective Human-Robot Interactions, Benjamin Dossett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores human perception of robots through the use of novel tools and technologies. First, the impact of Augmented Reality (AR) data presentation on human perception of robots is investigated. A study conducted with the AR human-robot teaming system found that robot performance significantly influenced participants’ perceptions, overshadowing the impact of matching or mismatching robot confidence feedback. Second, the DU Want to Build-A-Bot platform is presented, which enables participatory robot design and opens the door for novel research of how robot design affects human perception. The Build-A-Bot platform enables the collection of diverse robot designs, facilitating machine learning analysis …

Technocene, Vir Joseph Naidu

Masters Theses

Embodied human communication within the Anthropocene. Existing at the intersection of technology, and the body.

The design industry has developed technology that is, paradoxically, isolating. The exposure to a vast audience in the digital sphere has introduced new societal pressures, leading to a disconnection from our immediate surroundings, detached, and donning metaphorical masks. Technocene lives on the fringes of the discipline by blending conceptual thinking with practical application. Through curious, experimental artifacts, it prompts us to shed our masks and embrace vulnerability. Technocene endeavors to reimagine the human experience by acting as a discursive design project. It probes the boundaries …

Smart Robot Design And Implementation To Assist Pedestrian Road Crossing, Hovannes Kulhandjian

Mineta Transportation Institute

This research focuses on designing and developing a smart robot to assist pedestrians with road crossings. Pedestrian safety is a major concern, as highlighted by the high annual rates of fatalities and injuries. In 2020, the United States recorded 6,516 pedestrian fatalities and approximately 55,000 injuries, with children under 16 being especially vulnerable. This project aims to address this need by offering an innovative solution that prioritizes real-time detection and intelligent decision-making at intersections. Unlike existing studies that rely on traffic light infrastructure, our approach accurately identifies both vehicles and pedestrians at intersections, creating a comprehensive safety system. Our strategy …

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 7 Special Issue: Mediatization

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 7. Special Issue on Mediatization

Artificial Sociality, Simone Natale, Iliana Depounti

Human-Machine Communication

This article proposes the notion of Artificial Sociality to describe communicative AI technologies that create the impression of social behavior. Existing tools that activate Artificial Sociality include, among others, Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, voice assistants, virtual influencers, socialbots and companion chatbots such as Replika. The article highlights three key issues that are likely to shape present and future debates about these technologies, as well as design practices and regulation efforts: the modelling of human sociality that foregrounds it, the problem of deception and the issue of control from the part of the users. Ethical, social and cultural …

Mediatization And Human-Machine Communication: Trajectories, Discussions, Perspectives, Andreas Hepp, Göran Bolin, Andrea L. Guzman, Wiebke Loosen

Human-Machine Communication

As research fields, mediatization and Human-Machine Communication (HMC) have distinct historical trajectories. While mediatization research is concerned with the fundamental interrelation between the transformation of media and communications and cultural and societal changes, the much younger field of HMC delves into human meaning-making in interactions with machines. However, the recent wave of “deep mediatization,” characterized by an increasing emphasis on general communicative automation and the rise of communicative AI, highlights a shared interest in technology’s role within human interaction. This introductory article examines the trajectories of both fields, demonstrating how mediatization research “zooms out” from overarching questions of societal and …

Examining The Externalities Of Highway Capacity Expansions In California: An Analysis Of Land Use And Land Cover (Lulc) Using Remote Sensing Technology, Serena E. Alexander, Bo Yang, Owen Hussey, Derek Hicks

Mineta Transportation Institute

There are over 590,000 bridges dispersed across the roadway network that stretches across the United States alone. Each bridge with a length of 20 feet or greater must be inspected at least once every 24 months, according to the Federal Highway Act (FHWA) of 1968. This research developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based framework for bridge and road inspection using drones with multiple sensors collecting capabilities. It is not sufficient to conduct inspections of bridges and roads using cameras alone, so the research team utilized an infrared (IR) camera along with a high-resolution optical camera. In many instances, the IR camera …

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 6

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 6.

Valenced Media Effects On Robot-Related Attitudes And Mental Models: A Parasocial Contact Approach, Jan-Philipp Stein, Jaime Banks

Human-Machine Communication

Despite rapid advancements in robotics, most people still only come into contact with robots via mass media. Consequently, robot-related attitudes are often discussed as the result of habituation and cultivation processes, as they unfold during repeated media exposure. In this paper, we introduce parasocial contact theory to this line of research— arguing that it better acknowledges interpersonal and intergroup dynamics found in modern human–robot interactions. Moreover, conceptualizing mediated robot encounters as parasocial contact integrates both qualitative and quantitative aspects into one comprehensive approach. A multi-method experiment offers empirical support for our arguments: Although many elements of participants’ beliefs and attitudes …

Triggered By Socialbots: Communicative Anthropomorphization Of Bots In Online Conversations, Salla-Maaria Laaksonen, Kaisa Laitinen, Minna Koivula, Tanja Sihvonen

Human-Machine Communication

This article examines communicative anthropomorphization, that is, assigning of humanlike features, of socialbots in communication between humans and bots. Situated in the field of human-machine communication, the article asks how socialbots are devised as anthropomorphized communication companions and explores the ways in which human users anthropomorphize bots through communication. Through an analysis of two datasets of bots interacting with humans on social media, we find that bots are communicatively anthropomorphized by directly addressing them, assigning agency to them, drawing parallels between humans and bots, and assigning emotions and opinions to bots. We suggest that socialbots inherently have anthropomorphized characteristics and …

Disentangling Two Fundamental Paradigms In Human-Machine Communication Research: Media Equation And Media Evocation, Margot J. Van Der Goot, Katrin Etzrodt

Human-Machine Communication

In this theoretical paper, we delineate two fundamental paradigms in how scholars conceptualize the nature of machines in human-machine communication (HMC). In addition to the well-known Media Equation paradigm, we distinguish the Media Evocation paradigm. The Media Equation paradigm entails that people respond to machines as if they are humans, whereas the Media Evocation paradigm conceptualizes machines as objects that can evoke reflections about ontological categories. For each paradigm, we present the main propositions, research methodologies, and current challenges. We conclude with theoretical implications on how to integrate the two paradigms, and with a call for mixed-method research that includes …

Chatgpt As Metamorphosis Designer For The Future Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai): A Conceptual Investigation, Amarjit Kumar Singh (Library Assistant), Dr. Pankaj Mathur (Deputy Librarian)

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to explore ChatGPT’s potential as an innovative designer tool for the future development of artificial intelligence. Specifically, this conceptual investigation aims to analyze ChatGPT’s capabilities as a tool for designing and developing near about human intelligent systems for futuristic used and developed in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Also with the helps of this paper, researchers are analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT as a tool, and identify possible areas for improvement in its development and implementation. This investigation focused on the various features and functions of ChatGPT that …

Reference Frames In Human Sensory, Motor, And Cognitive Processing, Dongcheng He

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reference-frames, or coordinate systems, are used to express properties and relationships of objects in the environment. While the use of reference-frames is well understood in physical sciences, how the brain uses reference-frames remains a fundamental question. The goal of this dissertation is to reach a better understanding of reference-frames in human perceptual, motor, and cognitive processing. In the first project, we study reference-frames in perception and develop a model to explain the transition from egocentric (based on the observer) to exocentric (based outside the observer) reference-frames to account for the perception of relative motion. In a second project, we focus …

Designing A Loving Robot: A Social Construction Analysis Of A Sex Robot Creator’S Vision, Annette Masterson

Human-Machine Communication

In 2018, one of the world’s first sex robots was released by CEO Matt McMullen and his company, RealDoll. With artificial intelligence capabilities, the Harmony model is meant to support and converse with users. Using a social construction of technology theory lens, this study develops the theory’s fourth level of analysis, emphasizing mass media’s construction abilities. A critical discourse analysis of 38 publicity interviews found a tendency to emphasize the companionship of sex robots while envisioning a future where integration is normalized, and a sentient robot is possible. As the creator, McMullen’s vision could determine the future of robotic design, …