Page 23 - Designing Sociable Robots

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4 Chapter 1

in a few museums and are very popular with children (Burgard et al., 1998; Thrun et al.,
1999). Honda has developed an adult-sized humanoid robot called P3 and a child-sized
version called Asimo. The company is exploring entertainment applications, such as robotic
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soccer players. Eventually, however, it will be plausible for companies to pursue domestic
uses for robots, humanoid or otherwise. For example, NEC is developing a household robot
resembling R2-D2 that can help people interact with electronic devices around the house
(e.g., TV, computer, answering service, etc.). Health-related applications are also being
explored, such as the use of robots as nursemaids to help the elderly (Dario & Susani, 1996;
see also www.cs.cmu.edu/ nursebot). The commercial success of these robots hinges
on their ability to be part of a person’s daily life. As a result, the robots must be responsive
to and interact with people in a natural and intuitive manner.
It is difficult to predict what other applications the future holds for socially intelligent
robots. Science fiction has certainly been a source of inspiration for many of the applications
beingexploredtoday.Asadifferenttwist,whatifyoucould“project”yourselfintoaphysical
avatar? Unlike telerobotics or telepresence of today, the robotic “host” would have to be
socially savvy enough to understand the intention of the human “symbiont.” Then, acting
in concert with the human, the robot would faithfully carry out the person’s wishes while
portraying his/her personality. This would enable people to physically interact with faraway
people, an exciting prospect for people who are physically isolated, perhaps bedridden for
health reasons.
Another possibility is an artifact that you wear or carry with you. An example from science
fiction would be the Primer described in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age (2000). The
Primer is an interactive book equipped with sophisticated artificial intelligence. It is socially
aware of the little girl who owns it, can identify her specifically, knows her personally, is
aware of her education and abilities, and shapes its lessons to foster her continued growth
and development into adulthood. As another possibility, the technology could take the form
of a small creature, like a gargoyle, that sits on your shoulder and acts as an information
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assistant for you. Over time, the gargoyle could adapt to you, learn your preferences,
retrieve information for you—similar to the tasks that software agents might carry out
while sharing your world and supporting natural human-style interaction. These gargoyles
could interact with each other as well, serving as social facilitators to bring people with
common interests into contact with each other.

1. Robocup is an organized event where researchers build soccer-playing robots to investigate research questions
into cooperative behavior, team strategy, and learning (Kitano et al., 1997; Veloso et al., 1997).
2. Rhodes (1997) talks of a rememberance agent, a continuously running proactive memory aid that uses the
physical context of a wearable computer to provide notes that might be relevant in that context. This is a similar
idea, but now it is a wearable robot instead of a wearable computer.