This work introduces a robotics platform which embeds a conversational AI agent in an embodied system for natural language understanding and intelligent decision-making for service tasks; integrating task planning and human-like conversation. The agent is derived from a large language model, which has learned from a vast corpus of general knowledge. In addition to generating dialogue, this agent can interface with the physical world by invoking commands on the robot; seamlessly merging communication and behavior. This system is demonstrated in a free-form tour-guide scenario, in an HRI study combining robots with and without conversational AI capabilities. Performance is measured along five dimensions: overall effectiveness, exploration abilities, scrutinization abilities, receptiveness to personification, and adaptability.

Matt Kaeberlein is what you might call a dog person. He has grown up with dogs and describes his German shepherd, Dobby, as "really special." But Dobby is 14 years old--around 98 in dog years. Kaeberlein is co-director of the Dog Aging Project, an ambitious research effort to track the aging process of tens of thousands of companion dogs across the US. He is one of a handful of scientists on a mission to improve, delay, and possibly reverse that process to help them live longer, healthier lives.

We've only ourselves to blame. That said, the gadget fan inside of me is shamelessly drawn to the meretriciousness of the idea. The general problem of the aerial selfie is a nut that's been cracked already, but we're all for more options -- and Dobby (above) from ZeroTech is one of them. Pitched as a "pocket drone," Dobby is (as you might have guessed) small, with arms that fold out when an emergency selfie opportunity presents itself. It's not a truly hands-free experience, as you'll need your phone to control it, but it's crammed with an array of smart features and we tried most of them here in Berlin.