Daily HRI evaluation at a classroom environment: reports from dance interaction experiments

The design and development of social robots that interact and assist people in daily life requires moving into unconstrained daily-life environments. This presents unexplored methodological challenges to robotic researchers. Is it possible, for example, to perform useful experiments in the uncontrolled conditions of everyday life environments? How long do these studies need to be to provide reliable results? What evaluations methods can be used? In this paper we present preliminary results on a study designed to evaluate an algorithm for social robots in relatively uncontrolled, daily life conditions. The study was conducted as part of the RUBI project, whose goal is to design and develop social robots by immersion in the environment in which the robots are supposed to operate. First we found that in spite of the relative chaotic conditions and lack of control existing in the daily activities of a child-care center, it is possible to perform experiments in a relatively short period of...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: HRI
• Authors: Fumihide Tanaka, Javier R. Movellan, Bret Fortenberry, Kazuki Aisaka
• Keywords: Daily Life, HRI 2006, Human Robot Interaction, Social Robots, Unconstrained Daily-life Environments