An Embodied Interaction Robots System Based on Speech

Abstract

The concept of a speech driven embodied interaction robots system is proposed for assisting human interaction by generating the motions of robots coherently related to speech. For an essential human interaction model which estimates a listener's nodding on the basis of a speaker's burst-pause of speech, the validity of a moving-average (MA) model is demonstrated in the robustness of prediction. Then, the prototype of the proposed system which consists of 2 InterRobots with both functions of speaker and listener is developed in which two models are incorporated: one is a listener's reaction model in which nodding, blinking and the motions of head, arms and body are estimated by the MA model of the burst-pause of speech to nodding; the other is a speaker's bodily reaction model in which the motions of head, arms and body are estimated by its own MA model of the burst-pause of speech to the head motion. By the sensory evaluation and behavioral analysis in human-robot interaction, the effectiveness of the InterRobot's bodily interaction is demonstrated. The effectiveness of the embodied interaction robots system is also confirmed in remote communication. © 2000, The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.