Micbot: A Peripheral Robotic Object to Shape Conversational Dynamics and Team Performance

Assistive Robots for the Social Management of Health: A Framework for Robot Design and Human–Robot Interaction Research

“…However, our vision is subject to a different concern: that mediator robots would inadvertently alter and negatively impact human-human interactions. A robot embedded in an interaction could detract from it by being an unwelcomed distraction [71]. Instead of focusing on each other, people would instead focus on the robot and change their interaction to accommodate the robot.…”

“…However, it is important for the robot to not only intervene in negative situations, but also when it detects opportunities for positive social interactions, lest it be perceived as a "watchdog" and its interventions associated with unpleasant events [23]. In the sections above, weve seen examples of mediation from both peripheral robotic devices, such as the ones from Hoffman et al [57] and Tennent, Shen and Jung [71], and also mediation from robots in leading roles, offering high amounts of direction such as those developed by Shen, Slovak and Jung [23] or Utami and Bickmore [30]. Further research is needed to establish the factors that should dictate the degree of robot involvement in an interaction.…”

“…Connected to the challenge of deception explored above, SARs should be designed in mindful ways that do not create expectations that are not met [71]. For example, just because a robot can offer suggestions of conversation topics, it does not mean that it has an understanding of what people talk about.…”

“…Finally, SARs need to be robust in terms of their ability to carry out the functions they are designed for. Since SARs for the social management of health are envisioned to assist vulnerable populations, potential technical problems need to be reduced to a minimum [71]. When robots that simply provide entertainment fail, the failure might be more tolerable and less costly, but when people rely on robots for tasks that have significance for their health, technical issues become seriously problematic.…”

I-C-E Framework: Concepts for Group Dynamics Research in Human-Robot Interaction

“…Moreover, researchers investigated in interaction studies the influence of the size of a robot group, for instance with regard to how well participants can detect those robots which indicate attention toward the human by gaze behaviour [26]. The research team of Malte Jung investigates how a robot might positively intervene in interactions between two or more humans to moderate working team conflicts [27] or conflicts between children competing for toys [28] or to shape conversational dynamics for equal consideration of all group members inputs in a discussion [29].…”