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robots

SPRING’s mission

In the past five years, social robots have been introduced into public spaces, such as museums, airports, commercial malls, banks, company show rooms, hospitals, and retirement homes, to mention a few examples. In addition to classical robotic skills such as navigation, grasping and manipulating objects, i.e. physical interactions, social robots must be able to communicate with people in the most natural way, i.e. cognitive interactions.

SPRING’s research question: in order to properly fulfil social roles and successfully execute social tasks, how to create robots able to move, see, hear and communicate with several actors, in complex and unstructured populated spaces.

Nevertheless, today’s Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) technology is not well-suited to fulfil these needs. Indeed, SARs that are currently available suffer from two main bottlenecks: (i) they are limited to a handful of simple scenarios which leads to (ii) SARs not being well accepted by a large percentage of users such as elderly adults. These limitations are largely due to the fact that both their hardware and supporting software have been designed for reactive single-user interaction mostly based on keyword spotting where the robot waits to be instructed what to do based on a limited set of scripted actions. Overcoming these limitations raises difficult scientific and technological challenges with tremendous social impact and economic value.

SPRING’s overall objective: to develop Socially Assistive Robots with the capacity of performing multi-person interactions and open-domain dialogue

Strategic objective 1 – To enable robust robot perception in complex, unstructured and populated environments

Strategic objective 2 – To enable sensor-based (data-driven) and knowledge-based robot actions for multi-modal multiperson
interaction and communication

Strategic objective 3 – Validate the technology based on the needs of gerontological healthcare

SPRING’s objectives

This will require new developments over several scientific topics, namely computer vision, audio signal processing, spoken dialogue, machine learning, and robotics, as well as inter-topic developments, such as human behaviour analysis, audio-visual fusion, multi-modal dialogue, sensorimotor robot control. Altogether, SPRING plans to achieve a fine coupling between scientific findings and technological developments to bring social robots into gerontological healthcare:

SPRING partners

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE EN INFORMATIQUE ET AUTOMATIQUE (INRIA),
Grenoble, France

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO (UNITN),
Trento, Italy

CESKE VYSOKE UCENI TECHNICKE V PRAZE (CVUT),
Prague, Czechia

HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY (HWU),
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY (BIU),
Ramat Gan, Israel

ERM AUTOMATISMES INDUSTRIELS (ERM),
Carpentras, France

PAL ROBOTICS SL (PAL),
Barcelona, Spain

ASSISTANCE PUBLIQUE HOPITAUX DE PARIS (AP-HP),
Paris, France

Find out more about the consortium

People involved (alphabetical order)

Angus Addlesee
Angus AddleseeHWU
Research Associate
Conversational AI
Xavier Alameda-Pineda
Xavier Alameda-PinedaINRIA
Project PI & Research Scientist
RobotlearnTeam
Soraya Arias
Soraya AriasINRIA
Research Engineer
Perception Team
Federica Arrigoni
Federica ArrigoniUNITN
Assistant Professor
Alexandre Auternaud
Alexandre AuternaudINRIA
Software Engineer
Perception Team
Anand Ballou
Anand BallouINRIA
PhD Student
Perception Team
Samuel Benveniste
Samuel BenvenisteCEN STIMCO
Computer scientist,
CTO of Broca Living Lab
Guillaume Beolet
Guillaume BeoletERM
Web Designer & Community Manager
Etienne Berger
Etienne BergerCEN STIMCO
Sociologist,
Researcher at Broca Living Lab
Cigdem Beyan
Cigdem BeyanUNITN
Assistant Professor
Benoit Charlieux
Benoit CharlieuxAP-HP
Clinical psychologist
Researcher at Broca Living Lab
Shlomo E. Chazan
Shlomo E. ChazanBIU
PhD Student
Sara Cooper
Sara CooperPAL Robotics
Biomedical and Robotics
Software Engineer at PAL
Christian Dondrup
Christian DondrupHWU
Assistant Professor
Martina Dubeňová
Martina DubeňováCVUT
MSc Student
Francesco Ferro
Francesco FerroPAL Robotics
CEO of PAL Robotics
Sharon Gannot
Sharon GannotBIU
Professor
Luis Gomez-Camara
Luis Gomez-CamaraINRIA
Post-doc
Florian Gras
Florian GrasERM
Technical project manager & Developper
Nancie Gunson
Nancie GunsonHWU
Postdoctoral Researcher
Elior Hadad
Elior HadadBIU
Post-doctoral Researcher
Daniel Hernandez Garcia
Daniel Hernandez GarciaHWU
Post-doctoral Researcher
Radu Horaud
Radu HoraudINRIA
Senior Research Scientist
Perception Team
Yaron Laufer
Yaron LauferBIU
PhD Student
Bracha Laufer-Goldshtein
Bracha Laufer-GoldshteinBIU
PhD Student
Oliver Lemon
Oliver LemonHWU
Professor
Cyril Liotard
Cyril LiotardERM Automatismes
CEO
Luca Marchionni
Luca MarchionniPAL Robotics
CTO of PAL Robotics
Software and Control Engineer
Shmulik Markovich-Golan
Shmulik Markovich-GolanBIU
Post-doctoral Researcher
Geoffrey Monteiro
Geoffrey MonteiroERM
Software Developer
Tomas Pajdla
Tomas PajdlaCVUT
Associate Professor
Jose L. Part
Jose L. PartHWU
Post-doctoral Researcher
Maribel Pino
Maribel PinoAP-HP
Cognitive psychologist,
Head of Broca Living Lab
Matthieu Py
Matthieu PyINRIA
Project Manager
Perception Team
Sarah Terreri
Sarah TerreriPAL Robotics
EU Project Manager at PAL
Chris Reinke
Chris ReinkeInria
Post-doctoral Researcher
Perception Team
Elisa Ricci
Elisa RicciUNITN
Associate Professor
Paolo Rota
Paolo RotaUNITN
Assistant Professor
Enver Sangineto
Enver SanginetoUNITN
Assistant Professor
Nicu Sebe
Nicu SebeUNITN
Full Professor
Weronika Sieińska
Weronika SieińskaHWU
PhD Student
Stanislav Steidl
Stanislav SteidlCVUT
PhD Student
Pinchas Tandeitnik
Pinchas TandeitnikBIU
Engineer
Wei Wang
Wei WangUNITN
Assistant Professor
Timothée Wintz
Timothée WintzInria
Post-doctoral Researcher
Perception Team
Yochai Yemini
Yochai YeminiBIU
PhD Student
Yanchao Yu
Yanchao YuHWU
Postdoctoral Researcher
Petra Žufníčková
Petra ŽufníčkováCVUT
Engineer