The research community of human-robot interaction relies on theories and phenomena from the social sciences in order to study and validate robotic developments in interaction. These studies mainly concerned one (human) on one (robot) interactions in the past. The present paper shifts the attention to groups and group dynamics and reviews relevant concepts from the social sciences: ingroup identification (I), cohesion (C) and entitativity (E). Ubiquitous robots will be part of larger social settings in the near future. A conceptual framework, the I-C-E framework, is proposed as a theoretical foundation for group (dynamics) research in HRI. Additionally, we present methods and possible measures for these relevant concepts and outline topics for future research.
The question how humans integrate artificial lower limb devices into their body schema has distinct potential for engineering motion assistance systems, e.g., the design of robotic prostheses. Adding robotic technology to existing psychological experiments enables a deeper investigation of multisensory interaction between proprioceptive, visual, and tactile stimuli during motion. This paper reports the design and control of a robot to investigate embodiment with regard to the lower limbs. In an evaluation study, the rubber hand illusion is transferred to the whole leg for the first time. Participants performed knee bends according to three different conditions being imitated by a robotic leg. The occurrence of a robotic leg illusion was subjectively assessed by a questionnaire and objectively measured by the proprioceptive drift. Considering both metrics, the results show a successful integration of the robotic leg into the body schema. Motion synchronization appears to be a paramount factor, whereby the study indicates that acoustical stimulation might also be relevant. The interrelation between mechatronic design and control of the human-in-the-loop experiment and the factors influencing the illusion are discussed and alternative experimental setups are suggested. Index Terms-Body schema, human-in-the-loop, human-robot interaction, multisensory integration, robotic leg illusion (RobLI). I. INTRODUCTION A FTER amputation of extremities, people are encouraged to wear prostheses when starting the rehabilitation process [1] and for the rest of their lives in order to maintain
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