Social robots: the ultimate test for AI and robotics
April Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute Virtual Seminar
In association with the Hamilton Institute
Monday, 19th April 2021 2pm –4pm
Keynote: Professor Tony Belpaeme
Abstract:
While robots have traditionally been used to automate physical labour and have minimal interaction with people, social robots are designed to engage us using the same channels we use when interacting with each other. There is a fair bit of excitement around the potential of social robots, and recent years have seen a number of promising applications, ranging from healthcare, assisted living, customer service to education. However, building an autonomous social robot capable of keeping an interaction going for more than a few minutes is still a formidable challenge. This talk will show experimental results of the efficacy of social robots in therapy and education, and will speculate on how we can move forward with building increasing social autonomy, a challenge which is likely to involve the entire artificial intelligence department.