This paper defines the research area of socially assistive robotics, focused on assisting people through social interaction. While much attention has been paid to robots that provide assistance to people through physical contact (which we call contact assistive robotics), and to robots that entertain through social interaction (social interactive robotics), so far there is no clear definition of socially assistive robotics. We sum- marize active social assistive research projects and classify them by target populations, application domains, and interaction methods. While distinguishing these from socially interactive robotics endeavors, we discuss challenges and opportunities that are specific to the growing field of socially assistive robotics. I. INTRODUCTION The field of socially assistive robotics is growing but has not yet been properly defined and circumscribed. There has been significant attention given to and great progress made in contact assistive robotics. Yet it is crucial to note that hands- on assistive robotics is only part of the total composition of assistive robotics. Currently there is no clear definition of robots that provide assistance through interaction and without physical contact, namely socially assistive robotics. We begin by distinguishing these categories.

Socially assistive robotics (SAR) aims to address critical areas and gaps in care by automating supervision, coaching, motivation, and companion ship aspects of one-on-one interactions with individuals from various large and growing populations, including stroke survivors, the elderly and individuals with dementia, and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This article examines the ethical challenges of SAR from three points of view (user, caregiver, and peer) using core principles from medical ethics (autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice) to determine how intended and unintended effects of SAR can impact the delivery of care.

Autonomous robots are agents with physical bodies that share our environment. In this work, we test the hypothesis that physical embodiment has a measurable effect on performance and perception of social interactions. Support of this hypothesis would suggest fundamental differences between virtual agents and robots from a social standpoint and have significant implications for human-robot interaction. We measure task performance and perception of a robot's social abilities in a structured but open-ended task based on the Towers of Hanoi puzzle. Our experiment compares aspects of embodiment by evaluating: (1) the difference between a physical robot and a simulated one; (2) the effect of physical presence through a co-located robot versus a remote tele-present robot. We present data from a pilot study with 12 subjects showing interesting differences in perception of remote physical robot's and simulated agent's attention to the task, and task enjoyment

Although there is a great deal of success in rehabilitative robotics applied to patient recovery post stroke, most of the research to date has dealt with providing physical assistance. However, new rehabilitation studies support the theory that not all therapy need be hands-on. We describe a new area, called socially assistive robotics, that focuses on non-contact patient/user assistance. We demonstrate the approach with an implemented and tested post-stroke recovery robot and discuss its potential for effectiveness.

Wild-land fire fighting is a hazardous job. A key task for firefighters is to observe the “fire front” to chart the progress of the fire and areas that will likely spread next. Lack of information of the fire front causes many accidents. Using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to cover wildfire is promising because it can replace humans in hazardous fire tracking and significantly reduce operation costs. In this paper, we propose a distributed control framework designed for a team of UAVs that can closely monitor a wildfire in open space, and precisely track its development. The UAV team, designed for flexible deployment, can effectively avoid in-flight collisions and cooperate well with neighbors. They can maintain a certain height level to the ground for safe flight above fire. Experimental results are conducted to demonstrate the capabilities of the UAV team in covering a spreading wildfire.

In this work, we further test the hypothesis that physical embodiment has a measurable effect on performance and impression of social interactions. Support for this hypothesis would suggest fundamental differences between virtual agents and robots from a social standpoint and would have significant implications for human-robot interaction. We have refined our task-based metrics to give a measurement, not only of the participant's immediate impressions of a coach for a task, but also of the participant's performance in a given task. We measure task performance and participants' impression of a robot's social abilities in a structured task based on the Towers of Hanoi puzzle. Our experiment compares aspects of embodiment by evaluating: (1) the difference between a physical robot and a simulated one; and (2) the effect of physical presence through a co-located robot versus a remote, tele-present robot. With a participant pool (n=21) of roboticists and non- roboticists, we were able to show that participants felt that an embodied robot w as more appealing and perceptive of the world than non-embodied robots. A larger pool of participants (n=32) also demonstrated that the embodied robot was seen as most helpful, watchful, and enjoyable when compared to a remote tele-present robot and a simulated robot.