Antonio Sgorbissa (University of Genova)
Carmine Recchiuto (University of Genova)
Christina Kouloglioti (Middlesex University)
Irena Papadopoulos (Middlesex University)
The CARESSES Ontology encodes guidelines defined by experts in Transcultural Nursing, with the aim of offering a specific tool for endowing social assistive robots (assisting older adults) with cultural competence.
CARESSES Ontology
As part of a joint effort towards the development of a culturally competent robot for elderly care, experts in Transcultural Nursing have led the development of guidelines defining the behaviour and functionalities of a culturally competent robot for older people, linking cultural knowledge and perceptual information to actions and utterances. These guidelines have an impact upon the following main areas: - Goals. The user always has the last word in choosing what the robot should do for her. However, the robot might proactively make suggestions, and some of them might depend on cultural factors. What activity should the robot suggest the user to engage in before lunch? Cooking - and what menu?, praying - and how? What will the user most likely want to be reminded of? Social or cultural events - and which ones? TV shows? - Actions and their parameters. Different cultures may use different actions to convey the same concept. How should the robot greet the user? Waving, bowing, or with a Namaste? What volume would the user be comfortable with? What distance while interacting? - Norms. Behaviours which are common in one culture might be unacceptable in others. Are there areas of the house that should be off-limits for the robot? Does the answer depend on the time of the day? What is the user likely to consider as private? - Topics of conversation. Different cultures might have different histories, customs and traditions, which influence the lifestyle of people. What are the topics a user might like to talk about? Is she interested in sports, movies, politics or social activities? And if so, which sports, which types of movies could the robot suggest? Topics of conversation are also those activities in which the robot might assist the user, independently from any physical assistance it might also provide. Could the user be interested in discussing pizza toppings? Could this motivate her to bake a pizza herself? Or to call her friends for an evening out? The CARESSES Ontology encodes all these guidelines, with the aim of offering a specific tool for endowing robots with cultural competence. In particular, this Ontology may be used to: - provide suitable Goals, Operators, Actions and Parameters to the planner - handle the verbal interaction between the robot and the user, in a cultural competent way. - store user-specific information, that makes the robot attune its behaviour towards the assisted person’s preferences and needs. Please refer to the following for additional information: - http://caressesrobot.org, CARESSES project website; - Bruno, B., Menicatti, R., Recchiuto, C. T., Lagrue, E., Pandey, A. K., & Sgorbissa, A. (2018, June). Culturally-Competent Human-Robot Verbal Interaction. In 2018 15th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR) (pp. 388-395). IEEE. - Sgorbissa, A., Papadopoulos, I., Bruno, B., Koulouglioti, C., & Recchiuto, C. (2018, October). Encoding guidelines for a culturally competent robot for elderly care . In 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (pp. 1988-1995). IEEE. - Bruno, B., Recchiuto, C. T., Papadopoulos, I., Saffiotti, A., Koulouglioti, C., Menicatti, R., ... & Sgorbissa, A. (2019). International Journal of Social Robotics, 1-24.
Version 1.0
A relation that holds between Operators and Actions
hasAction
stable
hasActor
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about possible ways to address the user
hasAddressing
Relationship of closeness between Objects and/or Locations
hasAdjacent
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about user's beliefs and values
hasBeliefAndValue
Cultural Parameters to be associated to Actions
hasCParameter
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about the user's clothes
hasCloth
hasCondition
The individual filler of this property is used for building the configuration files for the related action
hasConfFile1
hasConfFile2
Correlations between Individuals, even belonging to different Classes. An HCorrelation implies that, if a UserSpecific instances with an high DataProperty HasLikeliness value is added, the hasLiklelines of the other individuals should be increased. A VLCorrelation impliease that if a UserSpecific instances with an high DataProperty HasLikeliness value is added, the hasLiklelines of the other individuals should be decreased.
hasCorrelation
hasCountry
hasDistance
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about events relevant for the user's life
hasEvent
hasFamily
hasFeeling
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about food
hasFood
hasFrequency
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about games
hasGame
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about possible activities
hasGoal
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about user's regular / periodical activities
hasHabit
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about the user's health
hasHealth
hasHealthProblem
hasHome
Inclusion relationship between Objects and/or Location
hasIn
hasLanguage
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about the user's life
hasLife
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about places that are relevant for the user
hasLocation
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about good manners
hasManner
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about medicines relevant for the user
hasMedicine
hasMusic
Filler of this ObjectProperty is an Event or Time or Quality that allows the robot to talk about a specific topic
hasNecessaryCondition
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about social norms
hasNorm
hasObject
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about persons relevant for the user's life
hasPerson
hasPet
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about the physical and mental state of the user
hasPhysicalAndMentalState
hasPhysicalEnvironment
hasPitch
hasQuality
hasRelatLocation
hasRelative
ObjectProperty used for let the robot talk about user's religion
hasReligion
hasRobot
hasRoom
hasSocialEnvironment
hasSong
Instances, belonging to the Person-Specific ABox layer, are fillers of the corresponding instances in the Culture-Specific ABox layer for the hasSpecific property,
hasSpecific
hasSpeed
hasSportsPlayer
hasSuggestion
hasTime
All object properties that allow the robot to talk about conversation topics
hasTopic
hasTown
Filler of this ObjectProperty is an Event or Time or Quality that triggers a specific dialogue
hasTriggeringCondition
hasUserName
hasWaitingTime
String for automatically composing sentences. It refers to Smart Devices
hasAs-sensor
Compulsory recipient for related messages.
hasCompulsory-recipient
hasConfFile1Name
hasConfFile2Name
Confirmation sentence before launching a goal
hasConfirmation
Coordinates of objects in the environment
hasCoordinates
hasEmail
hasFull field for building configuration files of actions
hasFull
Triggering keyword for conversation topics
hasKeyword1
hasKeyword2
Likeliness value for conversation topics. It corresponds to a reasonable estimate, to the best of available knowledge, of the a posteriori probability of the assertion. - In the Culture-Specific Layer, Likeliness values are used to specify how appropriate each instance is for the each culture, and guide the robot’s behaviour. - In the Person-Specific Layer, the likeliness corresponds to the evidence of the assertion collected through interaction with the user.
hasLikeliness
hasLine
hasLocations
Preloaded messages for the SendMessageAction
hasMessage
Field used to automatically generate sentences
hasName
hasNameforPlanner
Operations that can be executed with smart devices
hasOperations
Planning tasks (written in the PDDL formalism) that should be sent to the planner
hasPDDL
hasPhone
Field used for automatically building sentences
hasPrep-object
hasQuestion-t
Sentences that the robot may pronounce during the interaction with the user. Subproperties of hasSentence may be: hasQuestion (encoded sentences used by the robot to ask the general user's feeback about the topic) - hasQuestionContextual (encoded sentences used by the robot to ask the user's feedback related to the specific context) - hasQuestionGoal (encoded sentences used by the robot to ask the user about activities to be performed) - has PositiveSentence (encoded sentences used by the robot when a positive feedback is received) - has PositiveAndWait (encoded sentences used by the robot when a positive feedback is received. With these sentences, the robot invites the user to freely talk about a conversation topic) - hasNegativeSentence (encoded sentences used by the robot when a negative feedback is received)
hasSentence
hasSkype
hasStatus
Confirmation to be shown on the robot's tablet
hasTablet-view
Telegram account of user's contact accounts
hasTelegram
Type of the smart devices (device - sensor)
hasType
hasUDDL
hasURL
hasUrl-article
hasUrl-root
String value for handling triggering and necessary conditions
hasValue
Actions that may be executed by the robot. Actions are associate to parameters (Volume, Pitch, Speed, Language), to the username (Name), to the Suggestions (Topic).
Action
Actor
Possible ways to address the user. In the context of the verbal interaction between the robot and the user, this conversation topic will be probably selected among the firsts (this is implemented by the ObjectProperty hasTriggeringCondition). Examples of subclasses may be: FirstName, MrLastName, MrsLastName, Nickname, ... The DataProperty hasNameforPlanner describes how the robot should actually address the person, and its value is usually encoded in a User-Specific Individual (E.g. for the class FirstName, the DataProperty hasNameforPlanner will include the actual first name of the user)
Addressing
AmusementPlace
Appliance
An abstract or physical object considered to fulfill a primarily independent aesthetic function.
ArtObject
Lack of belief in gods and religions
Atheism
Ideology or set of principles. It is mainly intended in the form of religion. Individuals of this class may be related to Individuals of the class ReligiousCulturalEvent; thus, known the user's religion, the robot would probably talk about related religious festivities.
BeliefSystem
Birthday
Book
Parameter for the VideoCall action (Audio or Video call)
CallMode
The habit of celebrating events (holidays, festivities, ... )
CelebratingEvents
Childhood
CircleOfFriend
Clothing
A nation with its own government
Country
Action or sequence of actions that are daily executed by the user. Possible Subclasses are: DoingPhysicalExercises, GettingDressed, HavingMeal, TakingMedicine, TakingCareOfOneself, and many others
DailyRoutine
Dance
DayOfTheWeek
DeathOfAClosePerson
Decoration
Drink
EatingPlace
Education
A thing that has happened, or that takes place with regularity, independently from the user's activity
Event
Family
Possible Subclasses are FeelingAfraid, FeelingAngry, FeelingLonely, FeelingWorried, ...
FeelingBad
Possible Subclasses are FeelingExcited, FeelingHappy, FeelingRelaxed, FeelingStrong, ...
FeelingWell
Food
FoodAndDrink
Dietary restrictions, that may be related to religious or ethical aspects. Possible Subclasses are EatingHalal, EatingKosher, EatingVegetarian, ...
FoodNorm
Frequency
Friend
Furniture
Game
The DataProperty hasPDDL encode the related string, in PDDL formalism, that should be sent to the planner when the goal is required
Goal
Activities, routines or behaviors that are regularly repeated by the user. Individuals of this class may be filled with Individuals to the class Time for the ObjectProperty hasCondition (conversation topics may be triggered in some specific period of the day) or hasTime (the robot may investigate if habits take place in specific times of the day).
Habit
The condition of having health problems can be related to medicines taken by the user
HavingHealthProblems
Heritage
Relevant facts in the areas of politics, military, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment, ...
HistoricFactOrPeriod
Activities done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure. They may be chosen accordingly to the specific targets (i.e. older adults). Examples of SubClasses may be ReadingABook, WatchingAMovie, DoingSomeCooking, GoingToAClub, MakingHennaTattoos, ...
Hobby
The building where one lives. Examples of SubClasses are Apartment, CareHome (for the specific case of older adults to which the CARESSES Ontology is addressed)
Home
Hour
HouseObject
Kitchenware
Parameter related to the language in which the sentences are written
Language
LivingPlace
A physical space or region, defined by geographical coordinates (absolute location) or expressed in relative terms (relative location).
Location
Definitions of polite or acceptable social behaviours. They may be chosen accordingly to the specific targets (i.e. older adults) and cultural identities. Examples of SubClasses are GivingPresentsToRelativeOrFriend, StackingDishesAfterMeal, ...
Manner
MedicalStaff
Medication
Messages encoded for the SendMsgAction
Message
Movie
Music
Guidelines about what is considered correct or incorrect speaking of social behavior in a particular group, social unit or cultural identities.
Norm
Abstracts objects, with no physical referents and that does not exist at any particular time or place, and concrete objects
Object
This class includes all Operators that should be sent to the planner for the execution of actions. Operators achieve Goals by implementing Actions
Operator
Parameters associated to actions
Parameter
PeriodOfTheDay
Persons in the social, physical and cultural environemnt of the user
Person
PersonalCareObject
Pet
The condition or state of the body or mind
PhysicalAndMentalCondition
All tangible space regiones that support and influence the user's life
PhysicalEnvironment
Voice pitch for all actions involving verbal interaction
Pitch
Distance parameter for the ApproachUser action
Proxemics
PublicPerson
Basic entities to perceive or measure: shapes, colors, sizes, sounds, smells,...
Quality
Relative
The position of something expressed in relative terms (e.g. Close, Far, VeryFar, ... )
RelativeLocation
Individuals of this class may be filled with Individuals of the class FoodNorm for the ObjectProperty hasNorm; thus, known the user's religion, the robot would probably investigate aspects related to possible alimentary restrictions Individuals of this class may be filled with Individuals of the class ReligiousCulturalEvent for the ObjectProperty hasEvent; thus, known the user's religion, the robot would probably talk about related religious festivities.
Religion
Any event related to religious celebrations
ReligiousCulturalEvent
The user's robot . An instance of the class Robot may be connected with instances of the class Goal, in order to encode all goals that may be achieved by the robot
Robot
Room
Season
ShoppingPlace
Singer
SleepingPlace
SmartDevice
Social relationships that influence the user's life (friends, family, ...)
SocialEnvironment
Any occasion/event that involves social interaction.
SocialEvent
Song
Voice speed for all actions involving verbal interaction
Speed
Sport
SportsPlayer
TVChannel
Time
12 hr or 24hr
TimeFormat
Conversation topics that may be explored by the robot. Conversation topics are defined by a set of DataProperties: - hasLikeliness (it reflects the probability that the user will have a positive attitude towards that topic, given his cultural identity (if the instance belong to the Culture-Specific ABox), or given the evidence collected through the interaction with the user (if the instance belong to the Person-Specific ABox). - hasQuestion (encoded sentences used by the robot to ask the general user's feeback about the topic) - hasQuestionContextual (encoded sentences used by the robot to ask the user's feedback related to the specific context) - hasQuestionGoal (encoded sentences used by the robot to ask the user about activities to be performed) - has PositiveSentence (encoded sentences used by the robot when a positive feedback is received) - has PositiveAndWait (encoded sentences used by the robot when a positive feedback is received. With these sentences, the robot invites the user to freely talk about a conversation topic) - hasNegativeSentence (encoded sentences used by the robot when a negative feedback is received) - hasKeyword1 & hasKeyword2 (keywords that may trigger a conversation topic) Culture-specific instances of subclasses of Topic may be filled with Person-specific instances for the hasSpecific ObjectProperty
Topic
Relevant facts for the user's past and present life (chilldhood, education, heritage, work, ...)
TopicAboutOnesLife
All things that may be expressed in terms of "preference" (e.g. what is your favourite ... ?)
TopicOneCanHavePreferenceAbout
Town
Person to which the user-specific information of the Ontology refers
User
Voice volume for all actions involving verbal interaction
Volume
Waiting Time parameter for the AcceptRequest Action
WaitingTime
Work
Writer
Any event that takes place regularly every year
YearlyEvent