Connectionists: [Master Internship] Social Robotics with ChatGPT at Inria Grenoble, France

[Chris Reinke]

Social Robotics with ChatGPT

Project

The internship aims to develop a controller for a social mobile robot [1]
to have a conversation with people using large language models (LLMs) such
as ChatGPT [2].

The internship is part of our European SPRING project [3]. SPRING aims to
develop mobile robots that will be employed in healthcare environments. The
robots should communicate with patients, their families, and caretakers to
inform, aid, and entertain them.



Task

During your internship, you will develop a controller (Python, ROS [4]) for
ARI, our social robot. The controller has the following tasks: 1) navigate
towards a human (or group), 2) have a conversation with it (or them), and
3) leave the conversation. For this controller, you will use existing
components from the SPRING project such as mapping and localization of the
robot and humans, human-aware navigation, speech recognition, and a simple
dialogue system based on ChatGPT.
Your task will be to combine these components to create a compelling
behavior for the robot. Moreover, you will focus on investigating how to
optimally use LLMs such as ChatGPT to have a natural and comfortable
conversation with the robot, for example, by using prompt engineering [5].
You will have to compare different techniques and report your experimental
results in a comprehensive manner in the form of a small research paper.
During the internship, you will have the chance to develop and implement
your own ideas to improve the conversation with the robot, for example, by
investigating gaze, gestures, or emotions.


Team

You will join the RobotLearn team [6], an international team of
researchers, students, and engineers at Inria Grenoble [7]. The team has a
strong background in audio-visual computation and its application to
robotics. The team is headed by Xavier Alameda-Pineda [8]. You will be
supervised by Chris Reinke (Postdoc) [9], Xavier, and our robotic engineers
during your internship.


Requirements

Our main requirements are 1) motivation, 2) general knowledge of Machine
Learning and Artificial Intelligence, and 3) knowledge of Python
programming.

Knowledge of robotics and natural language programming is NOT mandatory but
a plus.


Conditions

The internship should start in the second half of 2023. It has a duration
of 5 to 6 months. There will be a compensation of 500 - 600 Euro per month.
Additionally, you will receive subsidized lunch meals (one lunch costs 2 -
4 Euro). You will have a dedicated working space at Inria and access to our
social robotic platform.


Application

Please send an e-mail to chris.reinke at inria.fr including a paragraph about
your motivation, your CV, and a recent transcript of your grades.


References - TODO

[1]

https://pal-robotics.com/robots/ari/

[2]

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://openai.com/chatgpt

[3]

SPRING (Socially Pertinent Robots in Gerontological Healthcare).
https://spring-h2020.eu/

[4]

ROS - Robot Operating System. https://www.ros.org/

[5]

White, J., Fu, Q., Hays, S., Sandborn, M., Olea, C., Gilbert, H., ... &
Schmidt, D. C. (2023). A prompt pattern catalog to enhance prompt
engineering with chatgpt. arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.11382
<https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.11382>.

[6]

https://team.inria.fr/robotlearn/

[7]

https://www.inria.fr/fr/centre-inria-grenoble-rhone-alpes

[8]

http://xavirema.eu/

[9]

http://scirei.net/
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