{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03mb6wj31","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"},{"id":"https:\/\/www.isni.org\/000000041937028X","id-type":"ISNI","asserted-by":"publisher"},{"id":"https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q1640731","id-type":"wikidata","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Universitat Polit\u00e8cnica de Catalunya","acronym":["UPC"]}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,10]],"date-time":"2026-03-10T14:48:13Z","timestamp":1773154093091,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Universitat Polit\u00e8cnica de Catalunya","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Robotic assistants have inspired numerous books and science fiction movies.\r\nIn the real world, these kinds of devices are a growing need in amongst the elderly, who while life continue requiring more assistance. While life expectancy is increasing, life quality is not necessarily doing so. Thus, we may find ourselves and our loved ones being dependent and needing another person to perform the most basic tasks, which has a strong psychological impact. Accordingly, assistive robots may be the definitive tool to give more quality of life by empowering dependent people and extending their independent living.\r\n\r\nAssisting users to perform daily activities requires adapting to them and their needs, as they might not be able to adapt to the robot.\r\nThis thesis tackles adaptation and personalization issues through user preferences. We 'focus on physical tasks that involve close contact, as these present interesting challenges, and are of great importance for he user. Therefore, three tasks are mainly used throughout the thesis: assistive feeding, shoe fitting, and jacket dressing. We first describe a framework for robot behavior adaptation that illustrates how robots should be personalized for and by end- users or their assistants. Using this framework, non-technical users determine how !he robot should behave. Then, we define the concept of preference for assistive robotics scenarios and establish a taxonomy, which includes hierarchies and groups of preferences, grounding definitions and concepts. We then show how the preferences in the taxonomy are used with Al planning systems to adapt the robot behavior to the preferences of the user obtained from simple questions. Our algorithms allow for long-term adaptations as well as to cope with misinformed user models. We further integrate the methods with low-level motion primitives that provide a more robust adaptation and behavior while lowering the number of needed actions and demonstrations. Moreover, we perform a deeper analysis in Planning and preferences with the introduction of new algorithms to provide preference suggestions in planning domains. The thesis then concludes with a user study that evaluates the use of the preferences in the three real assistive robotics scenarios. The experiments show  a clear understanding of the preferences of users, who were able to assess the impact of their preferences on the behavior of the robot.\r\n\r\nIn summary, we provide tools and algorithms to design the robotic assistants of the future. Assistants that should be able to adapt to the assisted user needs and preferences, just as human assistants do nowadays.<\/jats:p>\n                <jats:p>Els assistents rob\u00f2tics han inspirat nombrosos llibres i pel\u00b7l\u00edcules de ci\u00e8ncia-ficci\u00f3 al llarg de la hist\u00f2ria. Per\u00f2 tornant al m\u00f3n real, aquest tipus de dispositius s'estan tornant una necessitat per a una societat que envelleix a un ritme r\u00e0pid i que, per tant, requerir\u00e0 m\u00e9s i m\u00e9s assist\u00e8ncia. Mentre l'esperan\u00e7a de vida augmenta, la qualitat de vida no necess\u00e0riament ho fa. Per tant, ens podem trobar a nosaltres mateixos i als nostres estimats en una situaci\u00f3 de depend\u00e8ncia, necessitant una altra persona per poder fer les tasques m\u00e9s b\u00e0siques, cosa que t\u00e9 un gran impacte psicol\u00f2gic. En conseq\u00fc\u00e8ncia, els robots assistencials poden ser l'eina definitiva per proporcionar una millor qualitat de vida empoderant els usuaris i allargant la seva capacitat de viure independentment. L'assist\u00e8ncia a persones per realitzar tasques di\u00e0ries requereix adaptar-se a elles i les seves necessitats, donat que aquests usuaris no poden adaptar-se al robot. En aquesta tesi, abordem el problema de l'adaptaci\u00f3 i la personalitzaci\u00f3 d'un robot mitjan\u00e7ant prefer\u00e8ncies de l'usuari. Ens centrem en tasques f\u00edsiques, que involucren contacte amb la persona, per les seves dificultats i import\u00e0ncia per a l'usuari. Per aquest motiu, la tesi utilitzar\u00e0 principalment tres tasques com a exemple: donar menjar, posar una sabata i vestir una jaqueta. Comencem definint un marc (framework) per a la personalitzaci\u00f3 del comportament del robot que defineix com s'han de personalitzar els robots per usuaris i pels seus assistents. Amb aquest marc, usuaris sense coneixements t\u00e8cnics s\u00f3n capa\u00e7os de definir com s'ha de comportar el robot. Posteriorment definim el concepte de prefer\u00e8ncia per a robots assistencials i establim una taxonomia que inclou jerarquies i grups de prefer\u00e8ncies, els quals fonamenten les definicions i conceptes. Despr\u00e9s mostrem com les prefer\u00e8ncies de la taxonomia s'utilitzen amb sistemes planificadors amb IA per adaptar el comportament del robot a les prefer\u00e8ncies de l'usuari, que s'obtenen mitjan\u00e7ant preguntes simples. Els nostres algorismes permeten l'adaptaci\u00f3 a llarg termini, aix\u00ed com fer front a models d'usuari mal inferits. Aquests m\u00e8todes s\u00f3n integrats amb primitives a baix nivell que proporcionen una adaptaci\u00f3 i comportament m\u00e9s robusts a la mateixa vegada que disminueixen el nombre d'accions i demostracions necess\u00e0ries. Tamb\u00e9 fem una an\u00e0lisi m\u00e9s profunda de l'\u00fas de les prefer\u00e8ncies amb planificadors amb la introducci\u00f3 de nous algorismes per fer suggeriments de prefer\u00e8ncies en dominis de planificaci\u00f3. La tesi conclou amb un estudi amb usuaris que avalua l'\u00fas de les prefer\u00e8ncies en les tres tasques assistencials. Els experiments demostren un clar enteniment de les prefer\u00e8ncies per part dels usuaris, que van ser capa\u00e7os de discernir quan les seves prefer\u00e8ncies eren utilitzades. En resum, proporcionem eines i algorismes per dissenyar els assistents rob\u00f2tics del futur. Uns assistents que haurien de ser capa\u00e7os d'adaptar-se a les prefer\u00e8ncies i necessitats de l'usuari que assisteixen, tal com els assistents humans fan avui en dia.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.5821\/dissertation-2117-330728","type":"dissertation","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,11,21]],"date-time":"2024-11-21T01:22:40Z","timestamp":1732152160000},"approved":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,9]]},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Adapting robot behavior to user preferences in assistive scenarios"],"prefix":"10.5821","author":[{"sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Gerard","family":"Canal Camprodon","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"3865","container-title":[],"original-title":[],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,25]],"date-time":"2026-01-25T06:31:04Z","timestamp":1769322664000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/2117\/330728"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Guillem","family":"Aleny\u00e0 Ribas","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Carme","family":"Torras","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[null]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5821\/dissertation-2117-330728","relation":{},"subject":[]}}