iCub, a child-sized humanoid, tricks people with its 'self-awareness'
Do you remember seeing a child-sized robot performing Tai Chi moves on Italy's Got Talent in 2016? The latest version of the robot dubbed 'iCub 3' has now managed to deceive people into thinking that it has a mind of its own. This happened during a study conducted to understand people's perception of robots and how it is affected by the robot's behavior.
Why does this story matter?
Can a robot trick human beings into believing that it has human-like capabilities? If you're about to say no, think hard. The iCub 3 just did that and this could have vast implications on the development of AI-powered humanoids. Although it is far from being self-aware, this experiment allows us to understand how to go about when it comes to human-robot relationships.
The advanced android has 53-degrees of freedom
Developed by the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology), the iCub 3 is the latest in the line of humanoids that we first heard of in 2011. The advanced android is 1.1m tall, has a human-like face, and swiveling stereo cameras as eyes. It also has 53-degrees of freedom, dual microphones for ears, and tactile sensors on fingertips to give a sense.
It behaved like a human being with some participants
The iCub is capable of being programmed to act remarkably like humans. In the study, the robot was programmed to interact with people as they watch short videos. In some of them, iCub was made to behave like humans, while in others, its behavior was more machine-like. The lead author of the study was Serena Marchesi and Agnieszka Wykowska was the co-author.
Short clips of animals were used to avoid bias
Researchers chose video watching as the shared activity for the study as it is a common activity among friends and families. Participants were made to watch three two-minute clips of animals. They did not include humans or robots to avoid any bias.
iCub greeted participants and laughed to funny scenes
In the first set of experiments, iCub behaved like a human with participants. It greeted the human participants, introduced itself, and asked for their names. The android reacted to the videos in a human-like way by vocalizing its response to videos. It laughed during a funny scene and behaved like it was in awe. It also made eye contact with human participants.
The robot also behaved like machine and made beeping noises
With the second group of human participants, the robot was programmed to behave like a machine. Apart from not being interactive with the people, it made machine-like beeping noises. Its eyes were also disabled.
InStance Test was used to understand participant's opinion about robot
The study was conducted to gauge the participants' opinions about the robot's mental state. For this, the researchers used InStance Test (IST). In the test, the participants were presented with 34 different scenarios. "Each scenario consists of a series of three pictures depicting the robot in daily activities," said the researchers. The participants had to choose between two sentences describing the scenario.
Participants picked between intentional and mechanistic sentences
Among the two options presented to the participants, one sentence used intentional language, while the other used mechanistic language. The former hinted at an emotional state, whereas the latter focused on the actions. Those participants who were exposed to the robot's human-like behavior chose an intentional stance. On the other hand, those who saw a more robotic version of iCub chose the mechanistic stance.
Relatable behavior made a difference in participants' perception of robot
The findings of the study suggest that people will perceive robots as human-like if they see relatable behavior. This knowledge could have serious implications for forming future robot-human bonds. The researchers aim to answer whether people can bond with a robot that looks less like a human but displays similar behavior. They plan to repeat the study with robots of different sizes and shapes.
