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A dancing robot for rhythmic social interaction
M.P. Michalowski, S. Sabanovic, and H. Kozima
Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2007), ACM, March, 2007, pp. 89 - 96.

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This paper describes a robotic system that uses dance as a form of social interaction to explore the properties and importance of rhythmic movement in general social interaction. The system consists of a small creature-like robot whose movement is controlled by a rhythm-based software system. Environmental rhythms can be extracted from auditory or visual sensory stimuli, and the robot synchronizes its movement to a dominant rhythm. The system was demonstrated, and an exploratory study conducted, with children interacting with the robot in a generalized dance task. Through a behavioral analysis of videotaped interactions, we found that the robot’s synchronization with the background music had an effect on children’s interactive involvement with the robot. Furthermore, we observed a number of expected and unexpected styles and modalities of interactive exploration and play that inform our discussion on the next steps in the design of a socially rhythmic robotic system.

Associated centers: VASC, MRTC, SRI, and FRC
Associated lab/group: Human-Robot Interaction Group
Associated project: BeatBots

Number of pages: 8

M.P. Michalowski, S. Sabanovic, and H. Kozima, "A dancing robot for rhythmic social interaction," Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2007), ACM, March, 2007, pp. 89 - 96.

@inproceedings{Michalowski_2007_5767,
   author = "Marek Piotr Michalowski and S. Sabanovic and H. Kozima.",
   title = "A dancing robot for rhythmic social interaction",
   booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2007)",
   month = "March",
   year = "2007",
   pages = "89 - 96",
   publisher = "ACM"
}