Fong’s paper discusses “socially interactive robots” for which social human-robot interaction is important. The paper provides a taxonomy of design methods and system components used to build socially interactive robots. The common definition of social robots is that they are embodied agents that are part of a heterogeneous groups: a society of robots or humans. They are able to recognize each other and engage in social interactions, they possess histories (perceive and interpret the world in terms of their own experience), and they explicitly communicate with and learn from each other. The benefits of successfully creating socially interactive robots are enormous, such as toys in Michaud’s “Roball, the Rolling Robot”. The toys must minimize production cost, be appealing to children and be capable of facing the wide variety of situations that can be experienced during play. Other uses include robots as persuasive machines (robot is used to change behaviors) and robots as avatars (robots are used to function as representatives for human).
The problem with socially interactive robots is that because humans are so well versed in social interaction, we can pick out an imposter right away. If technology adheres to human social interactions, people will find the interaction enjoyable, feeling empowered and competent. The two main approaches addressed in this article are “biologically inspired” robots which internally simulate social intelligence in living creatures and “functionally designed”, where the robot is constructed to outwardly appear to be socially intelligent. One of the elements of functionally designed robots are the iterative design process. The process of revising a design through a series of test and redesign cycles was used for a series of museum robots, each of which was designed based on lessons learned from preceding generations. This was researched thoroughly in Thrun’s “MINERVA: A Second-Generation Museum Tour-Guide Robot”.
In regards to socially acceptable robots, there is a reason to believe that if a robot had a compelling personality, people would be more willing to interact with it and to establish a relationship with it. But, in order to interact with people in a human like manner, socially interactive robots must perceive human social behavior. In the research conducted, a robot with a machine-like appearance, serious personality, and round shape is preferred. Also, verbal communication using a human-like voice is highly desired. With these pieces working together, one must remember that humans and robots must be able to coordinate their actions so that they interact productively with each other.
In conclusion, the techniques discussed within this paper covered how socially interactive robots could be developed. Social robots will assist in health care, rehabilitation and therapy. From the small sample of examples that I have seen, emotionally simulated robots get very interesting results from humans. In is important to research the field of the human-computer relationship. There are profound implications for changes in society once we resolve the basic issues.
Reference:
- Fong, Terrence. “A Survey of Socially Interactive Robots: Concepts, Design, and Applications.” <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/PAPERS/socialroboticssurvey.pdf>
