Multiple-Robot Mediated Discussion System to support group discussion ∗

S. Ikari, Y. Yoshikawa and H. Ishiguro, "Multiple-Robot Mediated Discussion System to support group discussion *," 2020 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Naples, Italy, 2020, pp. 495-502, doi: 10.1109/RO-MAN47096.2020.9223444.The 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication [31 AUG - 04 SEPT, 2020

Having Different Dialog Roles in Telecommunication by Using Two Teleoperated Robots Reduces an Operator’s Guilt

The version of record of this article, first published in International Journal of Social Robotics, is available online at Publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-024-01125-1.In recent years, applications of social robots as the operator’s avatar have been widely studied for remote conversation with rich nonverbal information. Having another side-participant robot beside the avatar robot of the operator was found to be effective for providing long-lasting backchannels to the interlocutor. The side-participant robot is also expected to play a role in assisting human participation in multiparty conversations. However, such a focus has not been applied to remote conversations with multiple robots. Here, we propose a multiple-robot telecommunication system with which the operator can use a side-participant robot to assist conversation that is developed by the operator through the main speaker robot to verify its effectiveness. In the laboratory experiment where the subjects were made to feel stressed by being forced to provide rude questions to the interlocutor, the proposed system was shown to reduce guilt and to improve the overall mood of operators. The result encourages the application of a multi robot remote conversation system to allow the user to participate in remote conversations with less anxiety of potential failure in maintaining the conversation

Integrating Flow Theory and Adaptive Robot Roles: A Conceptual Model of Dynamic Robot Role Adaptation for the Enhanced Flow Experience in Long-term Multi-person Human-Robot Interactions

In this paper, we introduce a novel conceptual model for a robot's behavioral adaptation in its long-term interaction with humans, integrating dynamic robot role adaptation with principles of flow experience from psychology. This conceptualization introduces a hierarchical interaction objective grounded in the flow experience, serving as the overarching adaptation goal for the robot. This objective intertwines both cognitive and affective sub-objectives and incorporates individual and group-level human factors. The dynamic role adaptation approach is a cornerstone of our model, highlighting the robot's ability to fluidly adapt its support roles - from leader to follower - with the aim of maintaining equilibrium between activity challenge and user skill, thereby fostering the user's optimal flow experiences. Moreover, this work delves into a comprehensive exploration of the limitations and potential applications of our proposed conceptualization. Our model places a particular emphasis on the multi-person HRI paradigm, a dimension of HRI that is both under-explored and challenging. In doing so, we aspire to extend the applicability and relevance of our conceptualization within the HRI field, contributing to the future development of adaptive social robots capable of sustaining long-term interactions with humans