Modelling Social Embodiment in Social Robotic Companions: using Tamagotchi & NAO

Abstract

Social interactions with robots and agents have become increasingly popular as a way for humans to interact. To be able to provide these social interactions, the embodiment in particular social embodiment for the social agents are considered to be an important factor. In this paper, we introduce an experiment to measure the impor- tance of modelling of social embodiment in social agents. For which we decided to use Tamagotchi architecture in two different configurations as a virtual agent (Graphical user interface) and a physical robot (NAO robot). We then surveyed on interactions with these two different embodiment configurations using a questionnaire and a short interview. Which we then discussed in our results section, showing how modelling of social embodiment in social agents plays an important role in social interactions between humans and robots.