Ningyo of the CAVE: robots as social puppets of static infrastructure

In this paper, we present a view of robots as physical agents submitting to a static infrastructure, allowing a computerized static system to use the robot as a dynamic puppet, which is a social agent that can communicate on physical and social terms with its human users and visitors. We demonstrate our approach with Ningy? of the CAVE, a prototype designed to allow a virtual reality CAVE facility to introduce its capabilities to human users and visitors. Through the robot, the CAVE is able to highlight capabilities and uses of the facility through performance, showmanship and physical actions to create an engaging interaction that conveys an overview of the facility and demonstrates its key functionalities. We examine the quality of the resulting engagement with preliminary reflection by several human visitors to our CAVE system. We believe that viewing robots as components of a greater and more capable computerized ecosystem is a less explored research path in social human-robot interaction, and hope that our Ningy? of the CAVE prototype could set the stage and inform some of the future research on this topic.

[1]  David V. Lu.  Ontology of Robot Theatre , 2012 .

[2]  Ipke Wachsmuth,et al.  Max - A Multimodal Assistant in Virtual Reality Construction , 2003, Künstliche Intell..

[3]  Hideaki Kuzuoka,et al.  Museum guide robot based on sociological interaction analysis , 2007, CHI.

[4]  Christoph Bartneck,et al.  I Sing the Body Electric An experimental theatre play with robots [video abstract] , 2013, 2013 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[5]  Sven Behnke,et al.  The humanoid museum tour guide Robotinho , 2009, RO-MAN 2009 - The 18th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[6]  John C. Hart,et al.  The CAVE: audio visual experience automatic virtual environment , 1992, CACM.

[7]  Anton Leuski,et al.  Ada and Grace: Toward Realistic and Engaging Virtual Museum Guides , 2010, IVA.

[8]  Roland Siegwart,et al.  Robox at Expo.02: A large-scale installation of personal robots , 2003, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[9]  Toshi Takamori,et al.  An analysis of the Bunraku puppet's motions based on the phase correspondence of the puppet's motions axis-for the generation of humanoid robots motions with fertile emotions , 1999, IEEE SMC'99 Conference Proceedings. 1999 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Cat. No.99CH37028).

[10]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  The Interactive Museum Tour-Guide Robot , 1998, AAAI/IAAI.

[11]  Rachid Alami,et al.  Roboscopie: A theatre performance for a human and a robot [video abstract] , 2012, 2012 7th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[12]  H. Ishiguro,et al.  Possibilities of Androids as poetry-reciting agent , 2012, 2012 IEEE RO-MAN: The 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[13]  Stephanie Rosenthal,et al.  Designing robots for long-term social interaction , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[14]  Takayuki Kanda,et al.  How to approach humans?-strategies for social robots to initiate interaction , 2009, 2009 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[15]  Zaven Paré.  Robot Drama Research: From Identification to Synchronization , 2012, ICSR.

[16]  Takayuki Kanda,et al.  Humanoid robots as a passive-social medium - a field experiment at a train station , 2007, 2007 2nd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[17]  Kuo-Liang Chung,et al.  The realization of robot theater: Humanoid robots and theatric performance , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Advanced Robotics.

[18]  Stacy Marsella,et al.  Building Interactive Virtual Humans for Training Environments , 2007 .

[19]  Takayuki Kanda,et al.  Interactive Humanoid Robots for a Science Museum , 2006, IEEE Intelligent Systems.