Page 35 - Designing Sociable Robots

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16 Chapter 2

participateinrichhuman-stylesocialexchangewiththeirusersofferanumberofadvantages.
First, people would find working with them more enjoyable and would thus feel more
competent. Second, communicating with them would not require any additional training
since humans are already experts in social interaction. Third, if the robot could engage in
various forms of social learning (imitation, emulation, tutelage, etc.), it would be easier for
the user to teach new tasks. Ideally, the user could teach the robot just as one would teach
another person.
Hence, one important challenge is not only to build a robot that is an effective learner, but
also to build a robot that can learn in a way that is natural and intuitive for people to teach.
The human learning environment is a dramatically different learning environment from that
of typical autonomous robots. It is an environment that affords a uniquely rich learning
potential. Any robot that co-exists with people as part of their daily lives must be able to
learn and adapt to new experiences using social interaction. As designers, we simply cannot
predict all the possible scenarios that such a robot will encounter. Fortunately, there are
many advantages social cues and skills could offer robots that learn from people (Breazeal
& Scassellati, 2002).
I am particularly interested in the human form of socially situated learning. From Kismet’s
inception, the design has been driven by the desire to leverage from the social interactions
that transpire between a robot infant and its human caregiver. Much of this book is concerned
with supplying the infrastructure to support this style of learning and its many advantages.
The learning itself, however, is the topic of future work.

2.2 Socially Situated Learning

Humans (and other animals) acquire new skills socially through direct tutelage, observa-
tional conditioning, goal emulation, imitation, and other methods (Galef, 1988; Hauser,
1996). These social learning skills provide a powerful mechanism for an observer (the
learner) to acquire behaviors and knowledge from a skilled individual (the instructor). In
particular, imitation is a significant social-learning mechanism that has received a great deal
of interest from researchers in the fields of animal behavior and child development.
Similarly, social interaction can be a powerful way for transferring important skills, tasks,
and information to a robot. A socially competent robot could take advantage of the same
sorts of social learning and teaching scenarios that humans readily use. From an engineering
perspective, a robot that could imitate the actions of a human would provide a simple and
effective means for the human to specify a task and for the robot to acquire new skills
without any additional programming. From a computer science perspective, imitation and
other forms of social learning provide a means for biasing interaction and constraining the