Project description
A closer look at how robots get along with humans
Today’s robots are interacting with people when completing numerous tasks. This is often troublesome, as our perception of the world depends both on the incoming sensory information and our prior knowledge. We need to better comprehend the complexity of these dynamics in social interaction and their influence on our affective understanding. With this in mind, the EU-funded wHiSPER project will conduct a study researching for the first time how basic mechanisms of spatial and temporal perceptual inference change during such interactions. It will apply psychophysical methods and Bayesian modelling to explain the role of novel interactive contexts between humans and robots. The results will allow developers to create technology for effective and adaptive human-robot collaboration that has at its core caring for human well-being.
Objective
Perception is a complex process, where prior knowledge is incorporated into the current percept to help the brain cope with sensory uncertainty. A crucial question is how this mechanism changes during interaction, when the brain is faced with two conflicting goals: either optimizing individual perception by using internal priors, or maximizing perceptual alignment with the partner, by limiting the reliance on individual priors. wHiSPER proposes to study for the first time how visual perception of space and time is modified during interaction, by moving the investigation to an interactive shared context, where two agents dynamically influence each other. To allow for scrupulous and systematic control during interaction, wHiSPER will use a humanoid robot as a controllable interactive agent. The research will be articulated along five main objectives: i) determine how being involved in an interactive context influences perceptual inference; ii) assess how perceptual priors generalize to the observation of other’s actions; iii) understand whether and how individual perception aligns to others’ priors; iv) assess how is it possible to enable shared perception with a robot and v) determine whether perceptual inference during interaction is modified with aging, when lowered sensory acuity could increase priors relevance. To these aims wHiSPER will exploit rigorous psychophysical methods, Bayesian modeling and human-robot interaction, by adapting well-established paradigms in the study of visual perception to a novel interactive context. In several experiments the humanoid robot and the participants will be shown simple temporal or spatial perceptual stimuli that they will have to perceive either to reproduce them or to perform a coordinated joint action (as passing an object). The measures of the reproduced intervals and of the kinematics of the actions will allow to quantify through Bayesian modeling how social interaction influences visual perception.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2018-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
16163 GENOVA
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.