Integrating Built-in Sensors of an Android with Sensors Embedded in the Environment for Studying a More Natural Human-Robot Interaction

Several studies supported that there is a strict and complex relationship between outer appearance and the behavior showed by the robot and that a human-like appearance is not enough for give a positive impression. The robot should behave closely to humans, and should have a sense of perception that enables it to communicate with humans. Our past experience with the android “Geminoid HI-1” demonstrated that the sensors equipping the robot are not enough to perform a human-like communication, mainly because of a limited sensing range. To overcome this problem, we endowed the environment around the robot with perceptive capabilities by embedding sensors such as cameras into it. This paper reports a preliminary study about an improvement of the controlling system by integrating cameras in the surrounding environment, so that a human-like perception can be provided to the android. The integration of the development of androids and the investigations of human behaviors constitute a new research area fusing engineering and cognitive sciences.