InterRobot: a speech driven embodied interaction robot

Abstract

The concept of a speech driven embodied interaction robots system is introduced for supporting human interaction by generating the expressive actions or motions of robots coherently related to speech input. Then, the prototype of the system which consists of 2 interaction robots called InterRobots with both functions of speaker and listener is developed in which two models are incorporated: one is a listener's action model in which nodding, blinking and the motions of head, arms and body are estimated by the hierarchical moving average (MA) model of the burst-pause (ON-OFF) of speech to the nodding; the other is a speaker's action model in which the motions of head, arms and body are estimated by its own MA model of the ON-OFF of speech to the head motion. By the sensory evaluation and behavioral analysis in human-robot interaction, the effectiveness of InterRobot's interaction is demonstrated. The effectiveness of the embodied interaction robots system is also confirmed in remote communication.