In the last decades, cognitive models of multisensory integration in human beings have been developed and applied to model human body experience. Recent research indicates that Bayesian and connectionist models might push developments in various branches of robotics: assistive robotic devices might adapt to their human users aiming at increased device embodiment, e.g., in prosthetics, and humanoid robots could be endowed with human-like capabilities regarding their surrounding space, e.g., by keeping safe or socially appropriate distances to other agents. In this perspective paper, we review cognitive models that aim to approximate the process of human sensorimotor behavior generation, discuss their challenges and potentials in robotics, and give an overview of existing approaches. While model accuracy is still subject to improvement, human-inspired cognitive models support the understanding of how the modulating factors of human body experience are blended. Implementing the resulting insights in adaptive and learning control algorithms could help to taylor assistive devices to their user's individual body experience. Humanoid robots who develop their own body schema could consider this body knowledge in control and learn to optimize their physical interaction with humans and their environment. Cognitive body experience models should be improved in accuracy and online capabilities to achieve these ambitious goals, which would foster human-centered directions in various fields of robotics.
Understanding the integration of user-proximal robots in the body schema of their human users has a distinct potential to improve human-robot interaction. Robotic devices can help to investigate the psychological fundamentals of body schema integration. While the Rubber Hand Illusion experiment indicates how artifacts can be perceived as a part of the own body, it relies on a passive limb that does not perform motions during the examinations. Novel setups aim at Robotic Hand/Leg Illusions induced by robotic devices which imitate human motions. Although such devices distinctly extend experimental possibilities, their design is rather proprietary and unstructured up to now. This paper analyzes the requirements of robotic hand and leg illusion setups based on systematic discussion of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from engineering and psychology. In a comparative study, requirements are collected and structured, their similarities and differences are determined, and the most important ones are extracted yielding design implications. The requirements with the highest priority are setup characteristics that concern the occurrence and quality of the illusion, i.e., hiding the real limb, anatomical plausibility, visual appearance, temporal delay, and softwarecontrolled experimental conditions. Based on the results, the design of future robotic devices for the exploration of human body schema integration might be guided and supported.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.