Towards Natural Human-Robot Interaction: A Dialogue Management Model for Modulating Social Dialogue Distance

Abstract

In this study, we propose a robotic model that creates a sense of distance by using a conversational strategy based on politeness theory. The ”sense of distance” in dialogue refers to the perceived emotional or social distance between the participants in a conversation. When it comes to human-robot interaction, robots are typically designed to have a consistent conversational style or sense of distance, regardless of the user’s level of intimacy or familiarity. However, this uniformity can result in a lack of human-like behavior and contribute to the sense of artificialness. Recently, the number of robots communicating with humans has been increasing, and further development is expected by achieving familiarity and human-like qualities. Therefore, in this study, we focus on the ”sense of distance” in conversation and attempt to create variations in distance by modifying linguistic behavior. In this experiment, we employed several conversational strategies centered around a simulated two-day tour guide theme and gradually reduced the sense of distance produced by the robot. As a result, approximately 80% of the participants confirmed perceiving a sense of human-likeness and familiarity in the in the way the robot established social dialogue distance.