Towards Natural Emotional Expression and Interaction: Development of Anthropomorphic Emotion Expression and Interaction Robots

In present research the advanced fundamental mechanical capabilities of anthropomorphic robots developed in Takanishi laboratory at Waseda University are to be enhanced in order to enable these robots to interact with humans in a natural way. The anthropomorphic robot KOBIAN is able to express human-like facial expressions and whole-body gestures. It is equipped with vision and audio sensors that allow it to react to interaction input from human partners and to generate an appropriate emotional expression response. Furthermore, the anthropomorphic flute playing robot WF-4RVI is technically able to perform a musical wind-instrument performance at the level of an intermediate human player. Using this fundamental technical capability the authors implemented a musical-based interaction system (MbIS) that enables the robot to collaboratively play together with human musicians in a natural way. For both of the introduced interaction systems, the authors present and discuss the result of various experiments that were done to examine how well the interaction with a robot resembles realistic human-to-human interaction. DOI: 10.4018/jse.2012070101 2 International Journal of Synthetic Emotions, 3(2), 1-30, July-December 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. systems and other sensory equipment, production quality can be asserted to a high level. More recently, there have been several attempts to introduce robots also in areas where they come into direct contact with people (Figure 1). Apart from scientific research, one of the starting points of this development was the toy industry in the 1980’s. Further development has established robots in households to perform everyday tasks like dust cleaning. In places more inviting to innovation such as trade fairs or art exhibition spaces, robots have been used as visitor guides and information terminals. Furthermore, development efforts worldwide are intending to push robot technology to perform medical treatment tasks and patient care. With the prospect of elderly societies in several developed countries, one important future field of application of robot technology is in health and welfare care. 1.2. Established Concepts in Human-Robot-Interaction As soon as a robot is expected to operate in an environment that is shared with people, the robot needs to be able to naturally interact with humans on an emotional level of perception. Sensory units allow the robot to find its area of operation and define its task space (Figure 2). It needs to be able to detect the proximity of people and give humans the possibility to operate it through an appropriate interface. The people being in the same environment with the robot, regardless if they passively or actively use the device, need to have the possibility to control the machine’s actions. In case of emergency, a mechanism to immediately secure the operation of the robot needs to be provided. 1.3. Development of Anthropomorphic Emotion Expression and Interaction Robots In present research the advanced fundamental mechanical capabilities of anthropomorphic robots developed in Takanishi laboratory at Waseda University are to be enhanced in order to enable these robots to interact with humans in a natural way. In this paper we present two robots that have advanced capabilities to communicate with humans on an emotional level of perception. These robots have been developed over several years and present very recent advances in the field of emotional robotics and human robot interaction (HRI). Figure 1. Overview of different classes of anthropomorphic robots, that are capable of humanrobot interaction. Musical performance robots belong to the class of entertainment robots. 28 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/article/towards-natural-emotionalexpression-interaction/70415?camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Journals, InfoSci-Journal Disciplines Computer Science, Security, and Information Technology. Recommend this product to your librarian: www.igi-global.com/e-resources/libraryrecommendation/?id=2