Investigating the use of Non-verbal Cues in Human-Robot Interaction with a Nao robot

Abstract

This paper discusses a new method to investigate the use of Non-Verbal Cues in Human-Robot Interaction with the Nao platform built from a number of sensors, controllers and programming interfaces. Using this platform a set of pilot experiments were carried out and conducted by 12 users. A multimodal corpus was recorded using several cameras and microphones placed on and around the robot. People were asked to interact with the Nao robot freely with some instructions of how to use the commands. A set of specific questions were asked for the feedback and evaluation. Preliminary results show that the non-verbal cues aid the human-robot interaction; furthermore we found that people were more likely to interact with a robot which is capable of utilizing non-verbal channels for understanding and communication.