Socio-feedback via nao robot : design of feedback messages

Abstract

Nao Robot is a state-of-the-art autonomous humanoid robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics. As one of the world’s most advanced social robots, the presence of Nao has provided a new feedback platform of the Real-time Socio-feedback System (RSS), which makes the interaction between the RSS and the users more lively and interactive. The first objective of this project is to explore various techniques of making the social behavior of Nao distinguishable. After learning the design techniques in the first stage, the next stage, which is the second objective, is to build Nao as a mediator of the RSS with designed feedback messages. Nao’s feedback messages for a total of 6 different scenarios of conversation, namely “Aggressive Speaker”, “Cannot Hear”, “Uninterested Speakers”, “Talking Too Much”, “Too Loud” and “Conversation Goes Well” respectively, were designed in this project. Journals of human behavioristics were studied to make Nao’s behavior patterns look more natural and human-like. A user study was carried out to investigate the accuracy of designed feedback postures in terms of expressing the feedback message to the audience, and to learn the user experience towards the RSS and the designed feedback messages of Nao.