抄録
In this paper, we propose a novel form of telecommunication media using multiple robots, which consists of a conventional telecommunication robot that is tele-operated by a distant person and an additional bystander robot that autonomously respond to an interlocutor in front of them. By using the proposed system, it is expected that the distant person can give the interlocutor the stronger feeling of being responded in a socially correct manner, which is not easy to produce only by tele-operation but enabled by making the bystander robot respond to the interlocutor based on the sensory information. Psychological experiment on tele-communication using a small humanoid robot as a proxy of a distant person with and without a bystander robot shows the positive effect of the proposed system on enhancing social tele-presence of the distant person.
