Evaluating Human-Robot Interaction with Embodied Creative Systems

Abstract

As we develop interactive systems involving computa-tional models of creativity, issues around our interaction with these systems will become increasingly important. In particular, the interaction between human and com-putational creators presents an unusual and ambiguous power relation for those familiar with typical human-computer interaction. These issues may be particularly pronounced with embodied artificial creative systems, e.g., involving groups of mobile robots, where humans and computational creators share the same physical en-vironment and enter into social and cultural exchanges. This paper presents a first attempt to examine these is-sues of human-robot interaction through a series of con-trolled experiments with a small group of mobile robots capable of composing, performing and listening to sim-ple songs produced either by other robots or by humans.