MIA

Description

During several open-campus presentations we were surprised how kids reacted to small robots that can exhibit a set of behaviours. Kids, and particularly toddlers, instantly assumed the robot to be a pet, a living being, not different from a dog or cat. They assigned very quickly affective meaning to the robot behaviours and started to interact with it. For instance, some of the behaviours that we have identified were:

• Tapping and Shaking (Affirmative, Negative): When the robot shaked sideways tod- dlers instantly interpreted as negative response, and tapping (pitching, moving the nose down and up) was assumed as affirmative response.
• Twisting (joy): when the robot performed a 360 degrees twist, toddlers assumed that behaviour as joy.
• Moving around quickly (joy): when the robot moved around in semicircles back and forth, kids assumed that as an anxious happy response.
• Pushing forward on kid’s feet (petting): kids interpreted the robot wanted petting all the time. A desire to look for being petted was inmediately understood from this behaviour.

Then the following question was posed: Is there a set of behaviours that are universally understood in a small robot-pet by kids that carry affective information?

This project, MIA Movement to Inspire Affection, aims to explore Human Robot Interaction from the perspective of the Theory of Mind and the Animism, the children understanding of what other entities might be thinking and feeling, and their assumption of objects to being alive. We also explore the ideas of kinesics and proxemics, on how to communicate messages by non-verbal movements and actions.

Methodology

The first iteration we will create the platform that will allow us to perform the experiments.

Scope

At the beginning is just the robot itself, based on Parrot Jumping Sumo. We will try to use the robot to perform the first set of experiments.