frog, Capgemini Engineering, BNP Paribas Cardif, UPEC and Strate PhD project
Using AI and robots to preserve the pet-human relationship and support ageing well at home.
Description
Intelligent robots/systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) are gradually becoming part of our home and/or work environment. Among the new challenges created by an aging population, robotic assistance can provide physical, functional, cognitive and psychosocial support, as well as healthcare management. At the same time, research has shown that owning a pet can address some major problems for seniors, such as loneliness and social isolation. The human-animal interaction products on the market today (connected collars, communication applications etc.) are too specific and not intelligent enough.
PhD objectives
The objective of this research is to provide assistive applications to maintain a symbiotic relationship between humans and their pet(s). This is a concept of assistive robotics which has not been studied and analyzed enough in the literature: the robot does not replace the pet, but is placed into the relationship between the person and his animal. Therefore, while keeping the emotional relationship between the person and his pet, the robot will "work" with the person to take care of the animal on the practical side, for example in the preparation of meals, walks, games etc. In this tripartite human-IA-animal relationship, the PhD student will particularly study scenarios of assistance within the framework of activities shared by the person and his pet. The goal is to rethink the contribution of social AI, embodied through robots of various types. Using state of the art AI techniques (deep reinforcement learning algorithms, domain adaptation, knowledge representation, reasoning and decision mechanisms), the PhD student will propose a new learning and reasoning framework for the contextual recognition and anticipation of activities and interactions.
The scientific challenge is to establish a methodological framework with AI models that are expressive and precise enough to allow for better context recognition and behavior analysis, while offering a consistent and rich description of the context for assistive applications. From an industrial point of view, the aim is to address the issue of integrated co-design of intelligent solutions, articulating in a joint, non-siloed manner, and from the very beginning of an idea, the expertise in user-centered design and AI.
The challenge of this PhD work will be to bring, with a multidisciplinary approach based on design, user experience and fundamental research on AI-based autonomous and intelligent cognitive systems, a substantial value to real life everyday scenarios where AI should support elderly people and their pets.
This is why the thesis project is integrated within the joint multidisciplinary laboratory Robotics by Design Lab, coordinated by Strate Ecole de Design. Altran, frog and BNP Paribas CARDIF are the partners that will collaborate through this thesis on the issues related to the design of intelligent solutions addressing aging and social isolation of the seniors.
Supervisors
Within Robotics by Design Lab, Hazar starts a PhD thesis besides Clément Bataille from frog, Gabrièle Breda from Capgemini Engineering and with the support of with Hélène Chabert from BNP Paribas Cardif. The thesis is under the direction of Abdelghani Chibani and Ghazaleh Khobadandelou from UPEC and is co-supervised by Ioana Ocnarescu from Strate.