p. 17-18
In many areas, robots take the place of human recently, and this trend is expected to be spreading in the future. The traditional robot played a role that human operator did not wanted to perform, such as physically demanding, simple and repetitive work in a manufacturing industry. However, recently introduced humanoid robot plays a role which needs frequent interaction with human customers. Thus, those kinds of robot should present human characteristics to make the interaction natural and rich. In this sense, robot receptionist needs to greet the customer warmly, attend to the customer’s queries, satisfy the customer, and bid goodbye to the customer. This study investigated the receptionists’ expression of gestures to provide guidelines for robot motion design. Through the experiment held with 11 customers, and 6 receptionists, the facial expressions and gestures of the receptionists were identified by Facial Action Coding Scheme and the Gestures Coding. The finding suggests that the robot receptionist should have eyebrows, eyes and mouth to present emotions by facial expression. The gestures the robot receptionist should adopt were ‘iconic’and ‘deictic’. This is mainly due to the fact that these two gestures are more direct and effective for the representation of speech. In conclusion, this design would help to provide the customer with a better experience with the robot receptionist.
