Using Empathy to Improve Human-Robot Relationships

André Pereira; Iolanda Leite; Samuel Mascarenhas; Carlos Martinho; Ana Paiva

Human-Robot Personal Relationships. Third International Conference, HRPR 2010, Leiden, The Netherlands, June 23-24, 2010, Revised Selected Papers

Research Article

Using Empathy to Improve Human-Robot Relationships

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@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-642-19385-9_17,
    author={Andr\^{e} Pereira and Iolanda Leite and Samuel Mascarenhas and Carlos Martinho and Ana Paiva},
    title={Using Empathy to Improve Human-Robot Relationships},
    proceedings={Human-Robot Personal Relationships. Third International Conference, HRPR 2010, Leiden, The Netherlands, June 23-24, 2010, Revised Selected Papers},
    proceedings_a={HRPR},
    year={2012},
    month={5},
    keywords={human-robot interaction companionship empathy},
    doi={10.1007/978-3-642-19385-9_17}
}

André Pereira
Iolanda Leite
Samuel Mascarenhas
Carlos Martinho
Ana Paiva
Year: 2012
Using Empathy to Improve Human-Robot Relationships
HRPR
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-19385-9_17

André Pereira¹^,*, Iolanda Leite¹^,*, Samuel Mascarenhas¹^,*, Carlos Martinho¹^,*, Ana Paiva¹^,*

1: IST - Technical University of Lisbon and INESC-ID

*Contact email: andre.pereira@inesc-id.pt, iolanda.leite@inesc-id.pt, samuel.mascarenhas@inesc-id.pt, carlos.martinho@inesc-id.pt, ana.paiva@inesc-id.pt

Abstract

For robots to become our personal companions in the future, they need to know how to socially interact with us. One defining characteristic of human social behaviour is empathy. In this paper, we present a robot that acts as a social companion expressing different kinds of empathic behaviours through its facial expressions and utterances. The robot comments the moves of two subjects playing a chess game against each other, being empathic to one of them and neutral towards the other. The results of a pilot study suggest that users to whom the robot was empathic perceived the robot more as a friend.

Keywords: human-robot interaction companionship empathy

Published: 2012-05-28

: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19385-9_17