Social robot
Related papers: 20
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A social robot is a physically embodied autonomous machine designed to interact with humans through natural social cues — including speech, gesture, facial expression, eye gaze, and personality — following norms and conventions that govern human communication. Unlike purely industrial or task-focused robots, social robots are explicitly built to engage people in meaningful exchanges, adapting their behavior to social context and user emotional state. In robotics and AI, they are deployed across diverse domains including education (as tutors or peer learners), elderly care and rehabilitation, autism therapy, and public-facing roles such as museum guides and home companions. Achieving genuine social interaction requires integrating capabilities from perception, natural language processing, affective computing, and human-aware navigation. Social robots matter because they extend the reach of human support services, providing consistent, personalized interaction at scale — particularly for vulnerable populations who benefit from patient, non-judgmental engagement. As robots like Pepper demonstrate viable mass production, understanding how appearance, personality, and behavior shape human acceptance becomes critical to deploying these systems effectively and ethically in everyday life.
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B. R. Duffy
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Amit Kumar Pandey, Rodolphe Gélin
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