Drumming with a Humanoid Robot: Results from Human-Robot Interaction Studies

Abstract

We summarise two human-robot interaction studies investigating a drumming experience with Kaspar, a humanoid child-sized robot, and human participants. Our aim is not to have Kaspar just replicate the humanpsilas drumming, but to engage in a 'social manner', i.e. in a call and response turn-taking interaction. The interactions are discussed in terms of imitation, turn-taking, and the effect of gender differences. This research is part of a project into developmental robotics with a particular emphasis of our work on gesture communication.