After already welcoming QTrobot in our team last March, Pepper joins us as a new team member. He too will assist us in further researching the topic of social robots and will eventually become the foundation of future studies. Pepper is a social-humanoid robot from SoftBank Robotics. His specialty is the interaction with humans. This …
Social Robots
New Book on Social Robots
Social robots not only work with humans in collaborative workspaces – we meet them in shopping malls and even more personal settings like health and care. Does this imply they should become more human, able to interpret and adequately respond to human emotions? Do we want them to help elderly persons? Do we want them …
Social Robots – Assistance for the Elderly?
In collaboration with Francesca Fracasso, a researcher of the “Planning and Scheduling Technology Laboratory” (PST Lab, headed by Amedeo Cesta), at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) of the National Research Council of Italy, we are conducting a cross-cultural investigation on people’s believes and opinions on social robots. Social robots differ from other …
Interview on AI
In December, ACI-director Oliver Korn gave an interview on artificial intelligence and social robots. In the talk with Anja Nolte, they cover not only technological, but also societal and ethical aspects. The interviews as well as a concluding article have been published in January with the Volksbank Freiburg: Part 1 [German] Part 2 [German] Concluding …
Impressions of the Open Day
Our first Open Day of 2018 was a great success. We are still a bit overwhelmed by the large number of visitors. Students, colleagues from Offenburg University and also some curious members of the public took the chance to inform themselves about our work and research projects. The ACI robot on tour Our robot “Sanbot” …
Open Day at ACI
The newly founded ACI – Affective & Cognitive Institute of the University of Applied Sciences in Offenburg introduces itself. On Wednesday, 14th November 2018 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., an open day will take place in building B, room 123. We invite all employees, students and the public to get to know our team …
ACI-Workshop at AAL Forum on Social Robot Market
Like in 2016 and 2017, the ACI will again be involved in the AAL Forum (Active and Assisted Living) – 2018 hosted in Bilbao. This year’s workshop focuses on market barriers and opportunities for social robots. It starts September 26 at 2 pm and builds on the outcomes from last year’s workshop “Does the Robot …
Kids’ University with Social Robots
Robots have long left their industrial settings. Next to everyday phenomena like vacuum cleaning robots we encounter the first autonomous “social robots” – for example in the domains health and care. And some of them walk towards us with a smile on their face… In the lecture of this year’s Kids’ university in Offenburg on …
New Film on Social Robots
Last year the institute’s director Prof. Dr. Oliver Korn won the innovation award of AGYA, the Arab-German Young Academy. Ever since, Social Robots have become an important topic at the Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI). We are hosting a Workshop (together with AGYA) at this year’s PETRA conference and in the last few months we …