A Survey of Socially Interactive Robots

A Survey of Socially Interactive Robots

Fong, Terrence, Illah Nourbakhsh, and Kerstin Dautenhahn
Robotics and Autonomous Systems 42, no. 3-4 (2003): 143-166.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8890(02)00372-X

“For the purposes of this paper, we use the term “socially interactive robots” to describe robots for which social interaction plays a key role. We do this, not to introduce another class of social robot, but rather to distinguish these robots from other robots that involve “conventional” human–robot interaction, such as those used in teleoperation scenarios. […]

Socially interactive robots operate as partners, peers or assistants, which means that they need to exhibit a certain degree of adaptability and flexibility to drive the interaction with a wide range of humans. Socially interactive robots can have different shapes and functions, ranging from robots whose sole purpose and only task is to engage people in social interactions to robots that are engineered to adhere to social norms in order to fulfill a range of tasks in human-inhabited environments.”

— Terrence Fong et al.