Two Layers Action Integration for HRI - Action Integration with Attention Focusing for Interactive Robots

Behavior architectures are widely used to program interactive robots. In these architectures multiple behaviors are usually running concurrently so a mechanism for integrating the resulting actuation commands from these behaviors into actual actuation commands sent to the robot’s motor system must be faced. Different architectures proposed different action integration mechanisms that range from distributed to central integration. In this paper an analysis of the special requirements that HRI imposes on the action integration system is given. Based on this analysis a novelle hybrid action integration mechanism that combines distributed attention focusing with a fast central integration algorithm is presented in the framework of the EICA architecture. The proposed system was tested in a simulation of a listener robot that aimed to achieve human-like nonverbal listening behavior in real world interactions. The analysis of the system showed that the proposed mechanism can generate coherent human-like behavior while being robust against signal correlated noise.