Affective social robots

Abstract

a b s t r a c tFor human-robot interaction to proceed in a smooth, natural manner, robots must adhere to human social norms. One such human convention is the use of expressive moods and emotions as an integral part of social interaction. Such expressions are used to convey messages such as ''I'm happy to see you'' or ''I want to be comforted,'' and people's long-term relationships depend heavily on shared emotional experiences. Thus, we have developed an affective model for social robots. This generative model attempts to create natural, human-like affect and includes distinctions between immediate emotional responses, the overall mood of the robot, and long-term attitudes toward each visitor to the robot, with a focus on developing long-term human-robot relationships. This paper presents the general affect model as well as particular details of our implementation of the model on one robot, the Roboceptionist. In addition, we present findings from two studies that demonstrate the model's potential.

Long-term assessment of a service robot in a hotel environment

“…To avoid this, the authors proposed some design recommendations such as proper greeting and farewell behaviors, more interactive dialogue or a robust way of identifying repeated visitors. A second long-term 50 study with the same robot [18] was carried out over nine weeks, in which the robot was able to display different moods. Results indicate that interactions were different depending on the level of familiarity and the robot's mood: frequent users interacted more often when the robot was in a positive mood, but the amount of time they dedicated to the robot was higher when it was in a 55 negative mood.…”

Can Humanoid Service Robots Perform Better Than Service Employees? A Comparison of Innovative Behavior Cues

“…Condition (1) contained an interaction with an HSR behaving in a neutral, but friendly and professional manner (HSR neutral); Condition (2) contained an interaction with an HSR behaving in an innovative manner. To invoke an innovative service behavior the service representative tried to come up with helpful solutions, easily linking facts together, thinking up new ways of doing something, coming up with bold plans and showing a vivid imagination.…”

“…This is surprising, as service delivery by humanoid service robots (HSRs) that "exist primarily to interact with people" [2] has become increasingly important in recent years. HSRs assist human users in various settings, such as retailing, hospitality, education, and health care [1].…”

Emotional Synchronization-Based Human–robot Communication and Its Effects

“…Many researchers [17][18][19][20] have investigated emotion-generating methods for human-robot interactions. Kim et al 17 introduced a computer model of emotion generation based on cognitive appraisal theory.…”