Engagement in dialogue with social robots

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly clear that social and interactive skills are necessary requirements in many application areas where robots interact, communicate and collaboratewith humans or other connected devices.The social aspects of humancomputer interaction and the connection between humans and robots has recently received considerable attention in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, healthcare, companion technologies, and industrial/commercial robotics. This article addresses some dimensions of near-term future HRI, with focus on engagement detection for conversational efficiency. We present some findings from HRI research conducted at the Speech Communication Lab at Trinity College Dublin, report our experiences with a publicly exhibited conversational robot, and discuss some future research trends.