Symbiosis of human and communication robots

Abstract

This chapter discusses the possibilities of symbiosis with human and communication robots from the viewpoint of communication media. Recently communication robots have come into greater use as next-generation communication media by being networked with humans, PCs and ubiquitous sensors (stationary and wearable). The "Network Robots", a new framework for integrating ubiquitous network and robot technologies, is a step towards providing infrastructure to make robots into communication media. In this chapter, the development of communication robots at ATR is introduced along with the results of two field experiments at elementary school and a science museum as notable examples of communication robots in the real world. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.