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Dr. Hoang-Long Cao
Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

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Research Keywords & Expertise

0 Human-robot Interaction
0 Mechatronics
0 Robotics
0 Social robotics
0 Cognitive Robotics

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Human-robot Interaction
Humanoid Robots
Autonomous robot

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Earlycite article
Published: 27 May 2021 in International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the role of the placement (i.e. location) of humanoid service robots (HSRs) for entertainment applications in retailing by inspecting a multitude of performance metrics along the point-of-sale conversion funnel. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted using unobtrusive observations at a Belgian chocolate store. In total, 42 h of video observation material was collected and analyzed, with an even spread over three conditions: (1) an HSR placed outside, (2) an HSR inside the store and (3) a control condition (no robot stimuli). All passersby and their interactions with the robot and the store were systematically coded and compared. Findings The study found that the better placement of HSRs (inside or outside the store) is contingent on the goals the retailer prioritizes. When the goal is to create awareness and interest toward the store, the HSR should be placed outside, as it has double the stopping power. To induce consumers to enter the store, placement of the HSR inside the store is the better option. Ultimately, however, in terms of the number of transactions and total amount spent, outside placement of the HSR outperforms inside placement. Research limitations/implications This study was not able to verify the internal emotional/cognitive state of the passersby, as the method relied on unobtrusive camera observations. A longitudinal research design would be desirable to exclude potential bias due to the novelty effect. Originality/value While research on robots in retail services is emerging, this study is the first to provide insights on how retailers can decide on the placement of robots inside or outside the store, depending on the particular goals they are aiming to reach at the point of purchase.

ACS Style

Laurens De Gauquier; Malaika Brengman; Kim Willems; Hoang-Long Cao; Bram Vanderborght. In or out? A field observational study on the placement of entertaining robots in retailing. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 2021, ahead-of-p, 1 .

AMA Style

Laurens De Gauquier, Malaika Brengman, Kim Willems, Hoang-Long Cao, Bram Vanderborght. In or out? A field observational study on the placement of entertaining robots in retailing. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. 2021; ahead-of-p (ahead-of-p):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Laurens De Gauquier; Malaika Brengman; Kim Willems; Hoang-Long Cao; Bram Vanderborght. 2021. "In or out? A field observational study on the placement of entertaining robots in retailing." International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management ahead-of-p, no. ahead-of-p: 1.

Journal article
Published: 14 December 2020 in IEEE Access
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Robots have been used in joint attention (JA) tasks with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, very few studies compared JA performance of children with ASD with typically developing children (TD) when interacting with a robotic partner and a traditional human partner. This study aims to: (a) to explore whether there are differences in response to and initiation of JA between ASD and TD children with two interactive partners: an adult and a social robot (NAO); and (b) to explore which characteristics of ASD children predicting their performance in robot-assisted JA tasks. Twenty-seven ASD and forty TD children were involved in this study in which they were exposed to diffident JA tasks. Mixed results were found per type of JA behavior over groups and conditions. Our results show that both ASD and TD children performed better with the human partner than with the robot in response to JA tasks. Among the characteristics of ASD children, ADOS total score is associated with response to JA performance. No significant result related to initiation of JA was found.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Ramona Elena Simut; Naomi Desmet; Albert De Beir; Greet Van De Perre; Bram Vanderborght; Johan Vanderfaeillie. Robot-Assisted Joint Attention: A Comparative Study Between Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Children in Interaction With NAO. IEEE Access 2020, 8, 223325 -223334.

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Ramona Elena Simut, Naomi Desmet, Albert De Beir, Greet Van De Perre, Bram Vanderborght, Johan Vanderfaeillie. Robot-Assisted Joint Attention: A Comparative Study Between Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Children in Interaction With NAO. IEEE Access. 2020; 8 (99):223325-223334.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Ramona Elena Simut; Naomi Desmet; Albert De Beir; Greet Van De Perre; Bram Vanderborght; Johan Vanderfaeillie. 2020. "Robot-Assisted Joint Attention: A Comparative Study Between Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Children in Interaction With NAO." IEEE Access 8, no. 99: 223325-223334.

Journal article
Published: 20 November 2020 in ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems
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Successful social robot services depend on how robots can interact with users. The effective service can be obtained through smooth, engaged, and humanoid interactions in which robots react properly to a user’s affective state. This article proposes a novel Automatic Cognitive Empathy Model, ACEM, for humanoid robots to achieve longer and more engaged human-robot interactions (HRI) by considering humans’ emotions and replying to them appropriately. The proposed model continuously detects the affective states of a user based on facial expressions and generates desired, either parallel or reactive, empathic behaviors that are already adapted to the user’s personality. Users’ affective states are detected using a stacked autoencoder network that is trained and tested on the RAVDESS dataset. The overall proposed empathic model is verified throughout an experiment, where different emotions are triggered in participants and then empathic behaviors are applied based on proposed hypothesis. The results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed model in terms of related social and friendship concepts that participants perceived during interaction with the robot.

ACS Style

Elahe Bagheri; Pablo G. Esteban; Hoang-Long Cao; Albert De Beir; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. An Autonomous Cognitive Empathy Model Responsive to Users’ Facial Emotion Expressions. ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems 2020, 10, 1 -23.

AMA Style

Elahe Bagheri, Pablo G. Esteban, Hoang-Long Cao, Albert De Beir, Dirk Lefeber, Bram Vanderborght. An Autonomous Cognitive Empathy Model Responsive to Users’ Facial Emotion Expressions. ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems. 2020; 10 (3):1-23.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elahe Bagheri; Pablo G. Esteban; Hoang-Long Cao; Albert De Beir; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. 2020. "An Autonomous Cognitive Empathy Model Responsive to Users’ Facial Emotion Expressions." ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems 10, no. 3: 1-23.

Article
Published: 20 September 2020 in International Journal of Social Robotics
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Robots that express human’s social norms, like empathy, are perceived as more friendly, understanding, and caring. However, appropriate human-like empathic behaviors cannot be defined in advance, instead, they must be learned through daily interaction with humans in different situations. Additionally, to learn and apply the correct behaviors, robots must be able to perceive and understand the affective states of humans. This study presents a framework to enable cognitive empathy in social robots, which uses facial emotion recognition to perceive and understand the affective states of human users. The perceived affective state is then provided to a reinforcement learning model to enable a robot to learn the most appropriate empathic behaviors for different states. The proposed framework has been evaluated through an experiment between 28 individual humans and the humanoid robot Pepper. The results show that by applying empathic behaviors selected by the employed learning model, the robot is able to provide participants comfort and confidence and help them enjoy and feel better.

ACS Style

Elahe Bagheri; Oliver Roesler; Hoang-Long Cao; Bram Vanderborght. A Reinforcement Learning Based Cognitive Empathy Framework for Social Robots. International Journal of Social Robotics 2020, 1 -15.

AMA Style

Elahe Bagheri, Oliver Roesler, Hoang-Long Cao, Bram Vanderborght. A Reinforcement Learning Based Cognitive Empathy Framework for Social Robots. International Journal of Social Robotics. 2020; ():1-15.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elahe Bagheri; Oliver Roesler; Hoang-Long Cao; Bram Vanderborght. 2020. "A Reinforcement Learning Based Cognitive Empathy Framework for Social Robots." International Journal of Social Robotics , no. : 1-15.

Research article
Published: 21 August 2020 in PLOS ONE
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We present a dataset of behavioral data recorded from 61 children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The data was collected during a large-scale evaluation of Robot Enhanced Therapy (RET). The dataset covers over 3000 therapy sessions and more than 300 hours of therapy. Half of the children interacted with the social robot NAO supervised by a therapist. The other half, constituting a control group, interacted directly with a therapist. Both groups followed the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) protocol. Each session was recorded with three RGB cameras and two RGBD (Kinect) cameras, providing detailed information of children’s behavior during therapy. This public release of the dataset comprises body motion, head position and orientation, and eye gaze variables, all specified as 3D data in a joint frame of reference. In addition, metadata including participant age, gender, and autism diagnosis (ADOS) variables are included. We release this data with the hope of supporting further data-driven studies towards improved therapy methods as well as a better understanding of ASD in general.

ACS Style

Erik Billing; Tony Belpaeme; Haibin Cai; Hoang-Long Cao; Anamaria Ciocan; Cristina Costescu; Daniel David; Robert Homewood; Daniel Hernandez Garcia; Pablo Gómez Esteban; Honghai Liu; Vipul Nair; Silviu Matu; Alexandre Mazel; Mihaela Selescu; Emmanuel Senft; Serge Thill; Bram Vanderborght; David Vernon; Tom Ziemke. The DREAM Dataset: Supporting a data-driven study of autism spectrum disorder and robot enhanced therapy. PLOS ONE 2020, 15, e0236939 .

AMA Style

Erik Billing, Tony Belpaeme, Haibin Cai, Hoang-Long Cao, Anamaria Ciocan, Cristina Costescu, Daniel David, Robert Homewood, Daniel Hernandez Garcia, Pablo Gómez Esteban, Honghai Liu, Vipul Nair, Silviu Matu, Alexandre Mazel, Mihaela Selescu, Emmanuel Senft, Serge Thill, Bram Vanderborght, David Vernon, Tom Ziemke. The DREAM Dataset: Supporting a data-driven study of autism spectrum disorder and robot enhanced therapy. PLOS ONE. 2020; 15 (8):e0236939.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Erik Billing; Tony Belpaeme; Haibin Cai; Hoang-Long Cao; Anamaria Ciocan; Cristina Costescu; Daniel David; Robert Homewood; Daniel Hernandez Garcia; Pablo Gómez Esteban; Honghai Liu; Vipul Nair; Silviu Matu; Alexandre Mazel; Mihaela Selescu; Emmanuel Senft; Serge Thill; Bram Vanderborght; David Vernon; Tom Ziemke. 2020. "The DREAM Dataset: Supporting a data-driven study of autism spectrum disorder and robot enhanced therapy." PLOS ONE 15, no. 8: e0236939.

Review
Published: 17 July 2020 in Sensors
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Fast and accurate gait phase detection is essential to achieve effective powered lower-limb prostheses and exoskeletons. As the versatility but also the complexity of these robotic devices increases, the research on how to make gait detection algorithms more performant and their sensing devices smaller and more wearable gains interest. A functional gait detection algorithm will improve the precision, stability, and safety of prostheses, and other rehabilitation devices. In the past years the state-of-the-art has advanced significantly in terms of sensors, signal processing, and gait detection algorithms. In this review, we investigate studies and developments in the field of gait event detection methods, more precisely applied to prosthetic devices. We compared advantages and limitations between all the proposed methods and extracted the relevant questions and recommendations about gait detection methods for future developments.

ACS Style

Huong Thi Thu Vu; Dianbiao Dong; Hoang-Long Cao; Tom Verstraten; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght; Joost Geeroms. A Review of Gait Phase Detection Algorithms for Lower Limb Prostheses. Sensors 2020, 20, 3972 .

AMA Style

Huong Thi Thu Vu, Dianbiao Dong, Hoang-Long Cao, Tom Verstraten, Dirk Lefeber, Bram VanderBorght, Joost Geeroms. A Review of Gait Phase Detection Algorithms for Lower Limb Prostheses. Sensors. 2020; 20 (14):3972.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Huong Thi Thu Vu; Dianbiao Dong; Hoang-Long Cao; Tom Verstraten; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght; Joost Geeroms. 2020. "A Review of Gait Phase Detection Algorithms for Lower Limb Prostheses." Sensors 20, no. 14: 3972.

Journal article
Published: 09 November 2019 in Robotics
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Maintaining engagement is challenging in human–human interaction. When disengagements happen, people try to adapt their behavior with an expectation that engagement will be regained. In human–robot interaction, although socially interactive robots are engaging, people can easily drop engagement while interacting with robots. This paper proposes a multi-layer re-engagement system that applies different strategies through human-like verbal and non-verbal behaviors to regain user engagement, taking into account the user’s attention level and affective states. We conducted a usability test in a robot storytelling scenario to demonstrate technical operation of the system as well as to investigate how people react when interacting with a robot with re-engagement ability. Our usability test results reveal that the system has the potential to maintain a user’s engagement. Our selected users gave positive comments, through open-ended questions, to the robot with this ability. They also rated the robot with the re-engagement ability higher on several dimensions, i.e., animacy, likability, and perceived intelligence.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Paola Cecilia Torrico Moron; Pablo G. Esteban; Albert De Beir; Elahe Bagheri; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. “Hmm, Did You Hear What I Just Said?”: Development of a Re-Engagement System for Socially Interactive Robots. Robotics 2019, 8, 95 .

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Paola Cecilia Torrico Moron, Pablo G. Esteban, Albert De Beir, Elahe Bagheri, Dirk Lefeber, Bram Vanderborght. “Hmm, Did You Hear What I Just Said?”: Development of a Re-Engagement System for Socially Interactive Robots. Robotics. 2019; 8 (4):95.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Paola Cecilia Torrico Moron; Pablo G. Esteban; Albert De Beir; Elahe Bagheri; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. 2019. "“Hmm, Did You Hear What I Just Said?”: Development of a Re-Engagement System for Socially Interactive Robots." Robotics 8, no. 4: 95.

Journal article
Published: 09 April 2019 in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine
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Robot-assisted therapy (RAT) offers potential advantages for improving the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This article provides an overview of the developed technology and clinical results of the EC-FP7-funded Development of Robot-Enhanced therapy for children with AutisM spectrum disorders (DREAM) project, which aims to develop the next level of RAT in both clinical and technological perspectives, commonly referred to as robot-enhanced therapy (RET). Within this project, a supervised autonomous robotic system is collaboratively developed by an interdisciplinary consortium including psychotherapists, cognitive scientists, roboticists, computer scientists, and ethicists, which allows robot control to exceed classical remote control methods, e.g., Wizard of Oz (WoZ), while ensuring safe and ethical robot behavior. Rigorous clinical studies are conducted to validate the efficacy of RET. Current results indicate that RET can obtain an equivalent performance compared to that of human standard therapy for children with ASDs. We also discuss the next steps of developing RET robotic systems.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo G. Esteban; Madeleine Bartlett; Paul Baxter; Tony Belpaeme; Erik Billing; Haibin Cai; Mark Coeckelbergh; Cristina Costescu; Daniel David; Albert De Beir; Daniel Hernandez; James Kennedy; Honghai Liu; Silviu Matu; Alexandre Mazel; Amit Pandey; Kathleen Richardson; Emmanuel Senft; Serge Thill; Greet Van De Perre; Bram VanderBorght; David Vernon; Kutoma Wakanuma; Hui Yu; Xiaolong Zhou; Tom Ziemke. Robot-Enhanced Therapy: Development and Validation of Supervised Autonomous Robotic System for Autism Spectrum Disorders Therapy. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 2019, 26, 49 -58.

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Pablo G. Esteban, Madeleine Bartlett, Paul Baxter, Tony Belpaeme, Erik Billing, Haibin Cai, Mark Coeckelbergh, Cristina Costescu, Daniel David, Albert De Beir, Daniel Hernandez, James Kennedy, Honghai Liu, Silviu Matu, Alexandre Mazel, Amit Pandey, Kathleen Richardson, Emmanuel Senft, Serge Thill, Greet Van De Perre, Bram VanderBorght, David Vernon, Kutoma Wakanuma, Hui Yu, Xiaolong Zhou, Tom Ziemke. Robot-Enhanced Therapy: Development and Validation of Supervised Autonomous Robotic System for Autism Spectrum Disorders Therapy. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine. 2019; 26 (2):49-58.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo G. Esteban; Madeleine Bartlett; Paul Baxter; Tony Belpaeme; Erik Billing; Haibin Cai; Mark Coeckelbergh; Cristina Costescu; Daniel David; Albert De Beir; Daniel Hernandez; James Kennedy; Honghai Liu; Silviu Matu; Alexandre Mazel; Amit Pandey; Kathleen Richardson; Emmanuel Senft; Serge Thill; Greet Van De Perre; Bram VanderBorght; David Vernon; Kutoma Wakanuma; Hui Yu; Xiaolong Zhou; Tom Ziemke. 2019. "Robot-Enhanced Therapy: Development and Validation of Supervised Autonomous Robotic System for Autism Spectrum Disorders Therapy." IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 26, no. 2: 49-58.

Original research paper
Published: 12 October 2018 in Intelligent Service Robotics
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In this paper, we present a novel dual-robot testbed called DualKeepon for carrying out pairwise comparisons of linguistic features of speech in human–robot interactions. Our solution, using a modified version of the MyKeepon robotic toy developed by Beatbots, is a portable open-source system for researchers to set up experiments quickly, and in an intuitive way. We provide an online tutorial with all required materials to replicate the system. We present two human–robot interaction studies to demonstrate the testbed. The first study investigates the perception of robots using filled pauses. The second study investigates how social roles, realized by different prosodic and lexical speaking profiles, affect trust. Results show that the proposed testbed is a helpful tool for linguistic studies. In addition to the basic setup, advanced users of the system have the ability to connect the system to different robot platforms, i.e., NAO, Pepper.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Lars Christian Jensen; Xuan Nhan Nghiem; Huong Vu; Albert De Beir; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Greet Van De Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. DualKeepon: a human–robot interaction testbed to study linguistic features of speech. Intelligent Service Robotics 2018, 12, 45 -54.

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Lars Christian Jensen, Xuan Nhan Nghiem, Huong Vu, Albert De Beir, Pablo Gomez Esteban, Greet Van De Perre, Dirk Lefeber, Bram VanderBorght. DualKeepon: a human–robot interaction testbed to study linguistic features of speech. Intelligent Service Robotics. 2018; 12 (1):45-54.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Lars Christian Jensen; Xuan Nhan Nghiem; Huong Vu; Albert De Beir; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Greet Van De Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. 2018. "DualKeepon: a human–robot interaction testbed to study linguistic features of speech." Intelligent Service Robotics 12, no. 1: 45-54.

Conference paper
Published: 01 March 2018 in Companion of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
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ACS Style

Laurens De Gauquier; Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Albert De Beir; Stephanie van de Sanden; Kim Willems; Malaika Brengman; Bram Vanderborght. Humanoid Robot Pepper at a Belgian Chocolate Shop. Companion of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction 2018, 373 -373.

AMA Style

Laurens De Gauquier, Hoang-Long Cao, Pablo Gomez Esteban, Albert De Beir, Stephanie van de Sanden, Kim Willems, Malaika Brengman, Bram Vanderborght. Humanoid Robot Pepper at a Belgian Chocolate Shop. Companion of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction. 2018; ():373-373.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Laurens De Gauquier; Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Albert De Beir; Stephanie van de Sanden; Kim Willems; Malaika Brengman; Bram Vanderborght. 2018. "Humanoid Robot Pepper at a Belgian Chocolate Shop." Companion of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction , no. : 373-373.

Journal article
Published: 18 January 2018 in IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems
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Social robots have been proven beneficial in different types of healthcare interventions. An ongoing trend is to develop (semi-)autonomous socially assistive robotic systems in healthcare context to improve the level of autonomy and reduce human workload. This paper presents a behavior control system for social robots in therapies with a focus on personalization and platform-independence. This system architecture provides the robot an ability to behave as a personable character, which behaviors are adapted to user profiles and responses during the human-robot interaction. Robot behaviors are designed at abstract levels and can be transferred to different social robot platforms. We adopt the component-based software engineering approach to implement our proposed architecture to allow for the replaceability and reusability of the developed components. We introduce three different experimental scenarios to validate the usability of our system. Results show that the system is potentially applicable to different therapies and social robots. With the component-based approach, the system can serve as a basic framework for researchers to customize and expand the system for their targeted healthcare applications.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Greet Van De Perre; James Kennedy; Emmanuel Senft; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Albert De Beir; Ramona Simut; Tony Belpaeme; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. A Personalized and Platform-Independent Behavior Control System for Social Robots in Therapy: Development and Applications. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 2018, 11, 334 -346.

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Greet Van De Perre, James Kennedy, Emmanuel Senft, Pablo Gomez Esteban, Albert De Beir, Ramona Simut, Tony Belpaeme, Dirk Lefeber, Bram Vanderborght. A Personalized and Platform-Independent Behavior Control System for Social Robots in Therapy: Development and Applications. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems. 2018; 11 (3):334-346.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Greet Van De Perre; James Kennedy; Emmanuel Senft; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Albert De Beir; Ramona Simut; Tony Belpaeme; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. 2018. "A Personalized and Platform-Independent Behavior Control System for Social Robots in Therapy: Development and Applications." IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems 11, no. 3: 334-346.

Journal article
Published: 24 December 2017 in Mechatronics
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By connecting two drivetrains to a single load, a redundant degree of freedom is created. In this work, we investigate how the redundancy of such a system can be exploited in order to make it more energy efficient. The system under study consists of two drivetrains coupled to a planetary differential. Both drivetrains are composed of a geared DC motor and a holding brake. First, we derive an accurate semi-empirical model of this system and prove its validity on a test setup. Based on this model, which includes nonlinear friction terms, we analyze how the power flows and energy losses depend on the redundant degree of freedom. Furthermore, we discuss how the design of the actuator can be optimized for energy efficiency. This strategy is applied to a case study, where a 250 W geared DC motor is replaced by a more efficient dual-motor actuator. Experiments confirm that a dual-motor actuator succeeds in reducing the energy consumption at various loads and speeds. We also show that the results are very sensitive to friction and other speed- and load-dependent losses.

ACS Style

Tom Verstraten; Raphaël Furnémont; Pablo Lopez Garcia; David Rodriguez-Cianca; Hoang-Long Cao; Bram Vanderborght; Dirk Lefeber. Modeling and design of an energy-efficient dual-motor actuation unit with a planetary differential and holding brakes. Mechatronics 2017, 49, 134 -148.

AMA Style

Tom Verstraten, Raphaël Furnémont, Pablo Lopez Garcia, David Rodriguez-Cianca, Hoang-Long Cao, Bram Vanderborght, Dirk Lefeber. Modeling and design of an energy-efficient dual-motor actuation unit with a planetary differential and holding brakes. Mechatronics. 2017; 49 ():134-148.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Tom Verstraten; Raphaël Furnémont; Pablo Lopez Garcia; David Rodriguez-Cianca; Hoang-Long Cao; Bram Vanderborght; Dirk Lefeber. 2017. "Modeling and design of an energy-efficient dual-motor actuation unit with a planetary differential and holding brakes." Mechatronics 49, no. : 134-148.

Journal article
Published: 16 November 2017 in International Journal of Humanoid Robotics
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The use of Robot-Assisted Therapy (RAT) in healthcare interventions has increasingly received research attention. However, a lot of RAT studies are conducted under Wizard of Oz (WoZ) techniques in which the robots are teleoperated or pre-programmed. The trend of RAT is moving towards (partially) autonomous control in which the robot behavior control architecture plays a significant role in creating effective human–robot interaction by engaging and motivating human users into the therapeutic processes. This paper describes the state-of-the-art of the autonomous behavior control architectures currently developed for social robots in healthcare interventions, considering both clinical and exploratory studies. We also present certain requirements that an architecture used in RAT study should acquire, which provide roboticists and therapists an inspiration to orient their designs and implementations on the basis of their targeted RAT applications.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Albert De Beir; Ramona Simut; Greet Van De Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. A Survey on Behavior Control Architectures for Social Robots in Healthcare Interventions. International Journal of Humanoid Robotics 2017, 14, 1 .

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Pablo Gomez Esteban, Albert De Beir, Ramona Simut, Greet Van De Perre, Dirk Lefeber, Bram VanderBorght. A Survey on Behavior Control Architectures for Social Robots in Healthcare Interventions. International Journal of Humanoid Robotics. 2017; 14 (4):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Albert De Beir; Ramona Simut; Greet Van De Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. 2017. "A Survey on Behavior Control Architectures for Social Robots in Healthcare Interventions." International Journal of Humanoid Robotics 14, no. 4: 1.

Article
Published: 05 July 2017 in Autonomous Robots
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Gesturing is an important modality in human–robot interaction. Up to date, gestures are often implemented for a specific robot configuration and therefore not easily transferable to other robots. To cope with this issue, we presented a generic method to calculate gestures for social robots. The method was designed to work in two modes to allow the calculation of different types of gestures. In this paper, we present the new developments of the method. We discuss how the two working modes can be combined to generate blended emotional expressions and deictic gestures. In certain situations, it is desirable to express an emotional condition through an ongoing functional behavior. Therefore, we implemented the possibility of modulating a pointing or reaching gesture into an affective gesture by influencing the motion speed and amplitude of the posture. The new implementations were validated on virtual models with different configurations, including those of the robots NAO and Justin.

ACS Style

Greet Van De Perre; Hoang-Long Cao; Albert De Beir; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. Generic method for generating blended gestures and affective functional behaviors for social robots. Autonomous Robots 2017, 42, 569 -580.

AMA Style

Greet Van De Perre, Hoang-Long Cao, Albert De Beir, Pablo Gomez Esteban, Dirk Lefeber, Bram Vanderborght. Generic method for generating blended gestures and affective functional behaviors for social robots. Autonomous Robots. 2017; 42 (3):569-580.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Greet Van De Perre; Hoang-Long Cao; Albert De Beir; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. 2017. "Generic method for generating blended gestures and affective functional behaviors for social robots." Autonomous Robots 42, no. 3: 569-580.

Conference paper
Published: 18 May 2017 in Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency XV
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Homeostatic drive theory is a popular approach for decision-making of robot behavior in social robotic research. It is potentially to be used in social therapies. To increase the involvement of end-users in the robot’s control, we present an end-user interface allowing the therapists to generate homeostatic behavior for NAO robot in social skills training for children. We demonstrate the system by two interactions in which the robot homeostatic behavior is adapted to children’s behavior. The result shows that the system provides a practical solution for therapists to implement interaction scenarios to robot behavior.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Albert De Beir; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Ramona Simut; Greet Van de Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. An End-User Interface to Generate Homeostatic Behavior for NAO Robot in Robot-Assisted Social Therapies. Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency XV 2017, 609 -619.

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Albert De Beir, Pablo Gomez Esteban, Ramona Simut, Greet Van de Perre, Dirk Lefeber, Bram Vanderborght. An End-User Interface to Generate Homeostatic Behavior for NAO Robot in Robot-Assisted Social Therapies. Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency XV. 2017; ():609-619.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Albert De Beir; Pablo Gomez Esteban; Ramona Simut; Greet Van de Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram Vanderborght. 2017. "An End-User Interface to Generate Homeostatic Behavior for NAO Robot in Robot-Assisted Social Therapies." Transactions on Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency XV , no. : 609-619.

Journal article
Published: 25 April 2017 in Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics
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Robot-Assisted Therapy (RAT) has successfully been used to improve social skills in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) through remote control of the robot in so-called Wizard of Oz (WoZ) paradigms.However, there is a need to increase the autonomy of the robot both to lighten the burden on human therapists (who have to remain in control and, importantly, supervise the robot) and to provide a consistent therapeutic experience. This paper seeks to provide insight into increasing the autonomy level of social robots in therapy to move beyond WoZ. With the final aim of improved human-human social interaction for the children, this multidisciplinary research seeks to facilitate the use of social robots as tools in clinical situations by addressing the challenge of increasing robot autonomy.We introduce the clinical framework in which the developments are tested, alongside initial data obtained from patients in a first phase of the project using a WoZ set-up mimicking the targeted supervised-autonomy behaviour. We further describe the implemented system architecture capable of providing the robot with supervised autonomy.

ACS Style

Pablo Gomez Esteban; Paul Baxter; Tony Belpaeme; Erik Billing; Haibin Cai; Hoang-Long Cao; Mark Coeckelbergh; Cristina Costescu; Daniel David; Albert De Beir; Yinfeng Fang; Zhaojie Ju; James Kennedy; Honghai Liu; Alexandre Mazel; Amit Pandey; Kathleen Richardson; Emmanuel Senft; Serge Thill; Greet Van De Perre; Bram Vanderborght; David Vernon; Hui Yu; Tom Ziemke. How to Build a Supervised Autonomous System for Robot-Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics 2017, 8, 18 -38.

AMA Style

Pablo Gomez Esteban, Paul Baxter, Tony Belpaeme, Erik Billing, Haibin Cai, Hoang-Long Cao, Mark Coeckelbergh, Cristina Costescu, Daniel David, Albert De Beir, Yinfeng Fang, Zhaojie Ju, James Kennedy, Honghai Liu, Alexandre Mazel, Amit Pandey, Kathleen Richardson, Emmanuel Senft, Serge Thill, Greet Van De Perre, Bram Vanderborght, David Vernon, Hui Yu, Tom Ziemke. How to Build a Supervised Autonomous System for Robot-Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics. 2017; 8 (1):18-38.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pablo Gomez Esteban; Paul Baxter; Tony Belpaeme; Erik Billing; Haibin Cai; Hoang-Long Cao; Mark Coeckelbergh; Cristina Costescu; Daniel David; Albert De Beir; Yinfeng Fang; Zhaojie Ju; James Kennedy; Honghai Liu; Alexandre Mazel; Amit Pandey; Kathleen Richardson; Emmanuel Senft; Serge Thill; Greet Van De Perre; Bram Vanderborght; David Vernon; Hui Yu; Tom Ziemke. 2017. "How to Build a Supervised Autonomous System for Robot-Enhanced Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder." Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics 8, no. 1: 18-38.

Article
Published: 11 April 2017 in International Journal of Social Robotics
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Robots have been gradually leaving laboratory and factory environments and moving into human populated environments. Various social robots have been developed with the ability to exhibit social behaviors and collaborate with non-expert users in different situations. In order to increase the degree of collaboration between humans and the robots in human–robot joint action systems, these robots need to achieve higher levels of interaction with humans. However, many social robots are operated under teleoperation modes or pre-programmed scenarios. Based on homeostatic drive theory, this paper presents the development of a novel collaborative behavior controller for social robots to jointly perform tasks with users in human–robot interaction (HRI) experiments. Manual work during the experiments is reduced, and the experimenters can focus more on the interaction. We propose a hybrid concept for the behavior decision-making process, which combines the hierarchical approach and parallel-rooted, ordered, slip-stack hierarchical architecture. Emotions are associated with behaviors by using the two-dimensional space model of valence and arousal. We validate the usage of the behavior controller by a joint attention HRI scenario in which the NAO robot and a therapist jointly interact with children.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gomez Esteban; De Beir Albert; Ramona Simut; Greet Van De Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. A Collaborative Homeostatic-Based Behavior Controller for Social Robots in Human–Robot Interaction Experiments. International Journal of Social Robotics 2017, 9, 675 -690.

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Pablo Gomez Esteban, De Beir Albert, Ramona Simut, Greet Van De Perre, Dirk Lefeber, Bram VanderBorght. A Collaborative Homeostatic-Based Behavior Controller for Social Robots in Human–Robot Interaction Experiments. International Journal of Social Robotics. 2017; 9 (5):675-690.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gomez Esteban; De Beir Albert; Ramona Simut; Greet Van De Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. 2017. "A Collaborative Homeostatic-Based Behavior Controller for Social Robots in Human–Robot Interaction Experiments." International Journal of Social Robotics 9, no. 5: 675-690.

Journal article
Published: 01 September 2016 in Robotics and Autonomous Systems
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Highlights•The proposed method can be used to generate gestures for an arbitrary social robot.•This paper focusses on how reaching and pointing gestures are calculated.•DH- parameters, orientation of the base frames and joint limits are used as input.•Joint angles are calculated using IK with a cost-function for natural postures.•The method was validated on several robots, including NAO, Justin and ASIMO. AbstractSince the implementation of gestures for a certain robot generally involves the use of specific information about it’s morphology, these gestures are not easily transferable to other robots. To cope with this problem, we proposed a generic method to generate gestures, constructed independently of any configuration and therefore usable for different robots. In this paper, we discuss the novel end-effector mode of the method, which can be used to calculate gestures whereby the position of the end-effector is important, for example for reaching for or pointing towards an object. The interesting and innovative feature of our method is its high degree of flexibility in both the possible configurations wherefore the method can be used, as in the gestures to be calculated. The method was validated on several configurations, including those of the robots ASIMO, NAO and Justin. In this paper, the working principles of the end-effector mode are discussed and a number of results are presented.

ACS Style

Greet Van De Perre; Albert De Beir; Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gómez Esteban; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. Reaching and pointing gestures calculated by a generic gesture system for social robots. Robotics and Autonomous Systems 2016, 83, 32 -43.

AMA Style

Greet Van De Perre, Albert De Beir, Hoang-Long Cao, Pablo Gómez Esteban, Dirk Lefeber, Bram VanderBorght. Reaching and pointing gestures calculated by a generic gesture system for social robots. Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 2016; 83 ():32-43.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Greet Van De Perre; Albert De Beir; Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gómez Esteban; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. 2016. "Reaching and pointing gestures calculated by a generic gesture system for social robots." Robotics and Autonomous Systems 83, no. : 32-43.

Preprint
Published: 18 July 2016
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While social robots are developed to provide assistance to users through social interactions, their behaviors are dominantly pre-programmed and remote-controlled. Despite the numerous robot control architectures being developed, very few offer reutilization opportunities in various therapeutic contexts. To bridge this gap, we propose a robot control architecture to be applied in different scenarios taking into account requirements from both therapeutic and robotic perspectives. As robot behaviors are kept at an abstract level and afterward mapped with the robot's morphology, the proposed architecture accommodates its applicability to a variety of social robot platforms.

ACS Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gómez Esteban; Albert De Beir; Ramona Simut; Greet Van De Perre; Bram VanderBorght. A platform-independent robot control architecture for multiple therapeutic scenarios. 2016, 1 .

AMA Style

Hoang-Long Cao, Pablo Gómez Esteban, Albert De Beir, Ramona Simut, Greet Van De Perre, Bram VanderBorght. A platform-independent robot control architecture for multiple therapeutic scenarios. . 2016; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gómez Esteban; Albert De Beir; Ramona Simut; Greet Van De Perre; Bram VanderBorght. 2016. "A platform-independent robot control architecture for multiple therapeutic scenarios." , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 24 June 2016 in International Journal of Social Robotics
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ACS Style

Albert De Beir; Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gómez Esteban; Greet Van De Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. Enhancing Emotional Facial Expressiveness on NAO. International Journal of Social Robotics 2016, 8, 513 -521.

AMA Style

Albert De Beir, Hoang-Long Cao, Pablo Gómez Esteban, Greet Van De Perre, Dirk Lefeber, Bram VanderBorght. Enhancing Emotional Facial Expressiveness on NAO. International Journal of Social Robotics. 2016; 8 (4):513-521.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Albert De Beir; Hoang-Long Cao; Pablo Gómez Esteban; Greet Van De Perre; Dirk Lefeber; Bram VanderBorght. 2016. "Enhancing Emotional Facial Expressiveness on NAO." International Journal of Social Robotics 8, no. 4: 513-521.