Human-robot interaction: Exploring the ability to express emotions by a social robot

Abstract

Robots should have characteristics that make the interaction effective and fluent for a successful Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Since the emotions play a fundamental role in the human interaction process, many robots are introduced facial expressions, speech, body movements, among others to deepen the HRI. This chapter presents the exploration, design, and evaluation of the recognition of emotions displayed by a social robot. Initially, a pre-experiment was done to program the emotions in a virtual prototype. Afterwards, a pilot study and two experiments were conducted by manipulating the robot facial expressions and body movements to evaluate the recognition of the emotions. The results show that joy, surprise, and sadness have higher correct recognition and fear, disgust, and anger reported as lower recognition. Further study is needed regarding body movement and displacement of the robot for disgust, fear, and anger. Moreover, a robot should be introduced in a specific context to increase the recognition of emotions.