Turn taking based on information flow for fluent human-robot interaction

Abstract

Turn taking is a fundamental part of human communication. Our goal is to devise a turntaking framework for human-robot interaction that, like the human skill, represents something fundamental about interaction, generic to context or domain. We propose a model of turn taking, and conduct an experiment with human subjects to inform this model. Our findings from this study suggest that information flow is an integral part of human floor-passing behavior. Following this, we implement autonomous floor relinquishing on a robot and discuss our insights into the nature of a general turn-taking model for human-robot interaction. Copyright © 2011, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.