Feb 3, 2022 10:46 PM
(This post was last modified: Feb 4, 2022 01:23 AM by C C.)
So much for that genderless trend of the tail wagging the dog. Notice how the only explanation that's offered is "gender stereotyping", to genuflect to the "one size fits all" conspiracy narrative of systemic oppression being responsible for everything (as Woke slash collectivist academic propaganda continues its welcomed despoiling of the social sciences). Not something like "females are less statistically menacing in a violent sense", among other contributing factors.
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People prefer interacting with female robots in hotels, study finds
https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2022/...in-hotels/
RELEASE: People are more comfortable talking to female rather than male robots working in service roles in hotels, according to a study by Washington State University researcher Soobin Seo.
The study, which surveyed about 170 people on hypothetical service robot scenarios, also found that the preference was stronger when the robots were described as having more human features. The findings are detailed in a paper published online in the International Journal of Hospitality Management.
"People have a tendency to feel more comfort in being cared for by females because of existing gender stereotyping about service roles," said Seo, an assistant professor of hospitality management at WSU's Carson Business College in Everett. "That gender stereotype appears to transfer to robot interactions, and it is more amplified when the robots are more human like."
Even before the pandemic, the hotel industry struggled with high turnover of employees, and Seo noted that some hotels have turned to robots and automation for a variety of functions from dishwashing and room cleaning to customer service such as greeting guests and delivering luggage.
Examples range from the female humanized robots named "Pepper" at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas to the fully automated FlyZoo hotel chain in China where guests interact only with robots and artificial intelligence (AI) features.
For the study, survey participants were presented with one of four scenarios about interacting with an AI service robot at a hotel. In one scenario, they were greeted by a male service robot named "Alex" who was described as having a face and human-like body. A second scenario was worded exactly the same with just two changes: the robot's gender was female, and its name was "Sara." In two other scenarios, the robots were both gendered and named differently but described as "machine-like' with an interactive screen instead of a face.
The respondents were then asked to rank how they felt about the interactions. The participants who were presented with the female robot scenarios rated the experience as more pleasant and satisfying than those who had scenarios with male robots. The preference for the female robot was more pronounced when the robots were described as looking more human.
Seo cautioned that replacing human hospitality workers with AI robots of any gender raises many issues that need further research. For instance, if a robot breaks down or fails in service in some way, such as losing luggage or getting a reservation wrong, customers may want a human employee to help them.
The WSU business researcher is also in the process of investigating how the personality of AI robots may impact customers' perceptions, such as if they are extroverted and talkative or introverted and quiet.
These are important considerations for AI robot developers as well as for hospitality employers to consider as they think about adopting robots more widely, Seo said.
"We may start to see more robots as replacements of human employees in hotels and restaurants in the future, so we may find that some of the psychological relationships that we see in human-to-human interaction also implemented in robot interactions," she said.
Bristol scientists develop insect-sized flying robots with flapping wings
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2022/febr...obots.html
RELEASE: A new drive system for flapping wing autonomous robots has been developed by a University of Bristol team, using a new method of electromechanical zipping that does away with the need for conventional motors and gears.
This new advance, published today in the journal Science Robotics, could pave the way for smaller, lighter and more effective micro flying robots for environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and deployment in hazardous environments.
Until now, typical micro flying robots have used motors, gears and other complex transmission systems to achieve the up-and-down motion of the wings. This has added complexity, weight and undesired dynamic effects.
Taking inspiration from bees and other flying insects, researchers from Bristol’s Faculty of Engineering, led by Professor of Robotics Jonathan Rossiter, have successfully demonstrated a direct-drive artificial muscle system, called the Liquid-amplified Zipping Actuator (LAZA), that achieves wing motion using no rotating parts or gears.
The LAZA system greatly simplifies the flapping mechanism, enabling future miniaturization of flapping robots down to the size of insects. In the paper, the team show how a pair of LAZA-powered flapping wings can provide more power compared with insect muscle of the same weight, enough to fly a robot across a room at 18 body lengths per second.
They also demonstrated how the LAZA can deliver consistent flapping over more than one million cycles, important for making flapping robots that can undertake long-haul flights. The team expect the LAZA to be adopted as a fundamental building block for a range of autonomous insect-like flying robots.
Dr Tim Helps, lead author and developer of the LAZA system said: “With the LAZA, we apply electrostatic forces directly on the wing, rather than through a complex, inefficient transmission system. This leads to better performance, simpler design, and will unlock a new class of low-cost, lightweight flapping micro-air vehicles for future applications, like autonomous inspection of off-shore wind turbines.”
Professor Rossiter added: “Making smaller and better performing flapping wing micro robots is a huge challenge. LAZA is an important step toward autonomous flying robots that could be as small as insects and perform environmentally critical tasks such as plant pollination and exciting emerging roles such as finding people in collapsed buildings.”
Paper: ‘Liquid-amplified zipping actuators for micro-air vehicles with transmission-free flapping’ by T. Helps, C. Romero, M. Taghavi, A. Conn and J. Rossiter in Science Robotics
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/2QWoAXX9FWI
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People prefer interacting with female robots in hotels, study finds
https://news.wsu.edu/press-release/2022/...in-hotels/
RELEASE: People are more comfortable talking to female rather than male robots working in service roles in hotels, according to a study by Washington State University researcher Soobin Seo.
The study, which surveyed about 170 people on hypothetical service robot scenarios, also found that the preference was stronger when the robots were described as having more human features. The findings are detailed in a paper published online in the International Journal of Hospitality Management.
"People have a tendency to feel more comfort in being cared for by females because of existing gender stereotyping about service roles," said Seo, an assistant professor of hospitality management at WSU's Carson Business College in Everett. "That gender stereotype appears to transfer to robot interactions, and it is more amplified when the robots are more human like."
Even before the pandemic, the hotel industry struggled with high turnover of employees, and Seo noted that some hotels have turned to robots and automation for a variety of functions from dishwashing and room cleaning to customer service such as greeting guests and delivering luggage.
Examples range from the female humanized robots named "Pepper" at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas to the fully automated FlyZoo hotel chain in China where guests interact only with robots and artificial intelligence (AI) features.
For the study, survey participants were presented with one of four scenarios about interacting with an AI service robot at a hotel. In one scenario, they were greeted by a male service robot named "Alex" who was described as having a face and human-like body. A second scenario was worded exactly the same with just two changes: the robot's gender was female, and its name was "Sara." In two other scenarios, the robots were both gendered and named differently but described as "machine-like' with an interactive screen instead of a face.
The respondents were then asked to rank how they felt about the interactions. The participants who were presented with the female robot scenarios rated the experience as more pleasant and satisfying than those who had scenarios with male robots. The preference for the female robot was more pronounced when the robots were described as looking more human.
Seo cautioned that replacing human hospitality workers with AI robots of any gender raises many issues that need further research. For instance, if a robot breaks down or fails in service in some way, such as losing luggage or getting a reservation wrong, customers may want a human employee to help them.
The WSU business researcher is also in the process of investigating how the personality of AI robots may impact customers' perceptions, such as if they are extroverted and talkative or introverted and quiet.
These are important considerations for AI robot developers as well as for hospitality employers to consider as they think about adopting robots more widely, Seo said.
"We may start to see more robots as replacements of human employees in hotels and restaurants in the future, so we may find that some of the psychological relationships that we see in human-to-human interaction also implemented in robot interactions," she said.
Bristol scientists develop insect-sized flying robots with flapping wings
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2022/febr...obots.html
RELEASE: A new drive system for flapping wing autonomous robots has been developed by a University of Bristol team, using a new method of electromechanical zipping that does away with the need for conventional motors and gears.
This new advance, published today in the journal Science Robotics, could pave the way for smaller, lighter and more effective micro flying robots for environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and deployment in hazardous environments.
Until now, typical micro flying robots have used motors, gears and other complex transmission systems to achieve the up-and-down motion of the wings. This has added complexity, weight and undesired dynamic effects.
Taking inspiration from bees and other flying insects, researchers from Bristol’s Faculty of Engineering, led by Professor of Robotics Jonathan Rossiter, have successfully demonstrated a direct-drive artificial muscle system, called the Liquid-amplified Zipping Actuator (LAZA), that achieves wing motion using no rotating parts or gears.
The LAZA system greatly simplifies the flapping mechanism, enabling future miniaturization of flapping robots down to the size of insects. In the paper, the team show how a pair of LAZA-powered flapping wings can provide more power compared with insect muscle of the same weight, enough to fly a robot across a room at 18 body lengths per second.
They also demonstrated how the LAZA can deliver consistent flapping over more than one million cycles, important for making flapping robots that can undertake long-haul flights. The team expect the LAZA to be adopted as a fundamental building block for a range of autonomous insect-like flying robots.
Dr Tim Helps, lead author and developer of the LAZA system said: “With the LAZA, we apply electrostatic forces directly on the wing, rather than through a complex, inefficient transmission system. This leads to better performance, simpler design, and will unlock a new class of low-cost, lightweight flapping micro-air vehicles for future applications, like autonomous inspection of off-shore wind turbines.”
Professor Rossiter added: “Making smaller and better performing flapping wing micro robots is a huge challenge. LAZA is an important step toward autonomous flying robots that could be as small as insects and perform environmentally critical tasks such as plant pollination and exciting emerging roles such as finding people in collapsed buildings.”
Paper: ‘Liquid-amplified zipping actuators for micro-air vehicles with transmission-free flapping’ by T. Helps, C. Romero, M. Taghavi, A. Conn and J. Rossiter in Science Robotics