Text & Speech: Robot Communication Design

Human-robot interaction studies examine what happens when robots and peo- ple communicate and how to best design the robot interface. A robot interface includes everything people see, touch, or hear as they engage with a robot, includ- ing the way they communicate. Social robots are increasing their communication skills, enabling them to generate, comprehend, and respond to a wider selection of messages or commands, and to do so more #uidly and in ways that are increas- ingly similar to human-human interaction. Engineering and design decisions determine both the robot’s function and appearance, as well as the way people engage with the robot, which in#uences perceived capabilities and expectations (Banks, 2020; Rosenthal-von der Pütten et al., 2018). !us, a major challenge in the design and engineering of social robots is balancing (a) the need to be agile in speech and behavior so they may adapt to individual humans and contexts, against (b) human requirements for affordability, fit for human social spaces and processes, and other context-driven functionality (Lin et al., 2017).