Emotional Communication between Humans and the Autonomous Robot WAMOEBA-2 (Waseda Amoeba) which has the Emotion Model

Abstract

This study discusses the communication between autonomous robots and humans through the development of a robot which has an emotion model. The model refers to the internal secretion system of humans and it has four kinds of the hormone parameters to use to adjust various internal conditions such as motor output, cooling fan output and sensor gain. We surveyed 126 visitors at ’97 International Robot Exhibition held in Tokyo (Oct. 1997) in order to exaluate psychological impressions of the robot. As the result, the human friendliness of the robot was confirmed and some factors concerning with the human-robot emotional communication were discovered. © 1999, The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.