Engagement by Looking: Behaviors for Robots when Collaborating with People

Abstract

This paper reports on research on developing the ability for robots to engage with humans in a collaborative conversation for hosting activities. It defines the engagement process in collaborative conversation, and reports on our progress in creating a robot to perform hosting activities. The paper then presents the analysis of a study that tracks the looks between collaborators and discusses rules that will allow a robot to track humans so that engagement is maintained. 1