In this paper, we explore the effective social cues, behaviors, and potential interactive spaces (the proxemics) in the approach of a child-dependent robot. The proposed social trash box (STB) robot uses the above interactive social cues and vocal interactions to build a social coupling with children in order to induce their assistance in the collection of trash. We discuss the minimalist design of mechanism for the STB, as well as the effectiveness of the above factors, through an experiment which is conducted in a child-centric environment. A model-based unsupervised approach is proposed to elicit the proxemic information (interactive spaces) by considering the dynamic (i.e., the interactive distance and duration of interactions) interaction of the children.

We developed a Sociable Trash Box (STB) as a children-assisted robot able to collect the trash in order to convey its intentional stance to children. The STB is capable of engaging manifold affiliation behaviors to build a social rapport with children by collecting the trash around their environment. In particular, the STB is a child-dependent robot that walks alone in a public space for tracing humans and trash for the purpose of collecting the trash. The robot is incapable of collecting the trash by itself, and it engages by using interactive behaviors and vocalizations to make a social coupling with children based on the robot's anticipation to accomplish its goal. The present experiment investigates how STB behaviors are effective in conveying intentions to evoke children's social interactions and to assist in collecting the trash in their environment.

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