CDE EngD student Alex Rotsidis has had his Master’s thesis acccepted in IUI-ATEC 2019 workshop, being held in conjunction with the 24th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, in March 2019 in Los Angeles.

Alex who is currently on Industrial placement with DCactiv completed the paper as part of his master’s year at the start of his EngD at the University of Bath.

Alex’s paper is titled ‘Augmented Reality: Making Sense of Robots through real-time transparency display’.

Abstract: Autonomous robots can be difficult to understand by their developers, let alone by end users. Yet, as they become increasingly integral parts of our societies, the need for affordable easy-to-use tools to provide transparency grows. The rise of the smartphone and the improvements in mobile computing performance have gradually allowed Augmented Reality (AR) to become more mobile and affordable. In this paper, we review relevant robot systems architecture and propose a new software tool to provide robot transparency through the use of AR technology. Our new tool, ABOD3-AR provides real-time graphical visualisation and debugging of a robot’s goals and priorities as a means for both designers and end users to gain a better mental model of the internal state and decision-making processes taking place within a robot. We also report on our ongoing research programme and planned studies to further understand the effects of transparency on naive users and experts.

View a film of Alex’s work herehttps://youtu.be/Gqqng1uh3Ys

Huge congratulations to Alex.