This paper reviews "socially interactive robots": robots for which social human-robot interaction is important. We begin by discussing the context for socially interactive robots, emphasizing the relationship to other research fields and the di#erent forms of "social robots". We then present a taxonomy of design methods and system components used to build socially interactive robots. Finally, we describe the impact of these these robots on humans and discuss open issues. An expanded version of this paper, which contains a survey and taxonomy of current applications, is available as a technical report[61].

Our study considers children’s perceptions of robots in terms of physical attributes, personality and emotion traits. To examine children’s attitudes towards robots, a questionnaire approach was taken with a large sample of children, followed by a detailed statistical framework to analyse the data. Results show that children clearly distinguish between emotions and behaviour when judging robots. The distinguishing robotic physical characteristics for positive and negative emotions and behaviour are highlighted. Children judge human-like robots as aggressive, but human-machine robots as friendly providing support for the Uncanny Valley. The paper concludes with discussing the results in light of design implications for children’s robots. 1

Abstract- This paper presents the results from two empirical exploratory studies of human-robot interaction in the context of an initial encounter with a robot of mechanistic appearance. The first study was carried out with groups of children, and the second with single adults. The analysis concentrates on the personal space zones and initial distances between robot and humans, the context of the encounters and the human’s perception of the robot as a social being. We discuss the results of these observations and analyses, and also compare the child and adult data. The child groups showed a dominant response to prefer the ‘social zone ’ distance, comparable to distances people adopt when talking to other humans. From the single adult studies a small majority preferred the ‘personal zone’, reserved for talking to friends. However, significant minorities deviate from this pattern. Implications for future work are discussed.

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Abstract – The study presented in this paper explored people’s perceptions and attitudes towards the idea of a future robot companion for the home. A human-centred approach was adopted using questionnaires and human-robot interaction trials to derive data from 28 adults. Results indicated that a large proportion of participants were in favour of a robot companion and saw the potential role as being an assistant, machine or servant. Few wanted a robot companion to be a friend. Household tasks were preferred to child/animal care tasks. Humanlike communication was desirable for a robot companion, whereas humanlike behaviour and appearance were less essential. Results are discussed in relation to future research directions for the development of robot companions. Index Terms – robot companion, robot-human interaction, social robotics, robot appearance, human perception and attitudes I.

This paper addresses different possible social relationships between robots and humans, drawing on animal-human relationships. I will argue that humans have been living in (generally peaceful) co-existence with a number of potentially dangerous species, such as some canines. Interestingly dogs are not born ‘pet dogs’, it’s not completely ‘predefined ’ in their genes whether they will become friendly or dangerous. A critical period in a puppy’s early life significantly shapes its socialization and behavioral conformation. I will suggest that such a developmental model of socialization could be an interesting viewpoint on the design of future generations of robots that need to co-exist with humans, and that humans like to live with. I will propose the challenge of developing ‘personalized robot companions’, machines that can serve as life-long companions. I will argue that such individualized robots are necessary due to human nature: people have individual needs, likes and dislikes, preferences and personalities that a companion would have to adapt to: one and the same robot will not fit all people. Cognitive robot companions above all need to be socialized and personalized in order to meet the social, emotional and cognitive needs of people they are ‘living with’. 1

This paper considers findings from synthetic character research using Virtual Learning Environments. Children aged 8-11 years interacted with FearNot, a software package that deals with the social problem of bullying in schools. Following the interaction, children participated in Classroom Discussion Forums, a method we have developed to assist children in verbalizing their views and perspectives. This approach enables the exploration of children’s opinions of the software and the potential to derive design implications from a childcentred perspective. The relevance and appropriateness of the research approach taken in the present study for the design and interaction with robots is discussed. 1

Abstract. An evaluation study using a trailer approach of a Virtual Learning Environment populated with animated characters focusing on physical bullying was carried out with three stakeholder groups, (children, teachers and experts) to examine their attitudes and empathic styles about the characters and storyline believability. Results from 127 children and 95 adults revealed that children expressed the most favourable views towards the characters and the highest levels of believability towards the bullying storyline. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of child-informant processes in leading the design of child-based systems and the use of animated cartoon characters alongside storyline narratives to incite engaging interactions.

This study explored children’s and adults ’ attitudes towards different types of robots. A large sample of children viewed different robot images and completed a questionnaire that enquired about different robot physical attributes, personality and emotion characteristics. A few adults independently rated the overall appearance of different robot images. Results indicated high levels of agreement for classifications of robot appearance between children and adults, but children only differentiated between certain robot personality characteristics (e.g. aggressiveness) and emotions (e.g. anger) in relation to how adults rated the robots ’ appearances. Agreement among children for particular robots in terms of personality and emotion attributes varied. Previously, we found evidence for the Uncanny Valley based on children’s ratings of robot appearance. However, based on the adults ’ rating of robot appearances, we did not find evidence of the Uncanny Valley in terms of how children perceived emotions and personality of the robots. Results are discussed in light of future design implications for children’s robots. 1

This paper presents results of a novel study on interaction kinesics where 18 children interacted with a humanoid child-sized robot called KASPAR. Based on findings in psychology and social sciences we propose the temporal behaviour matching hypothesis which predicts that children will adapt to and match the robot’s temporal behaviour. Each child took part in six experimental trials involving two games in which the dynamics of interactions played a key part: a body expression imitation game, where the robot imitated expressions demonstrated by the children, and a drumming game where the robot mirrored the children’s drumming. In both games KASPAR responded either with or without a delay. Additionally, in the drumming game, KASPAR responded with or without exhibiting facial/gestural expressions. Individual case studies as well as statistical analysis of the complete sample are presented. Results show that a delay of the robot’s drumming response lead to larger pauses (with and without robot nonverbal gestural expressions) and longer drumming durations (with nonverbal gestural expressions only). In the imitation game, the robot’s delay lead to longer imitation eliciting behaviour with longer pauses for the children, but systematic individual differences are observed in regards to the effects on the children’s pauses. Results are generally consistent with the temporal behaviour matching hypothesis, i.e. children adapted the timing of their behaviour, e.g. by mirroring to the robot’s temporal behaviour.