How do people participate in dialogue with the robot's attitude expressed through body torque?

Abstract

In this study, we focus on "body torque," expressed as a combination of face and body directions in a new participant situation in a dialogue with three or more participants (multi-person conversation). It is thought that new participants in a multi-person conversation infer their internal state from the physical signals of the existing participants and decide when to participate in the dialogue and to what extent to participate in the conversation. In previous studies, there have been some explanations through the concept of "F formation," in which new participants gain the status of a participant in a dialogue by adjusting their physical arrangement. However, there needs to be more research on the behavioral design that encourages or discourages participation in the conversation, considering the behavior of existing and new participants. In this study, a field experiment was conducted to observe the process of new human participation in a multi-robot dialogue while considering the behavior of others at JST Miraikan. This paper reports the results of the analysis of the effect of body twisting on the behavior of the new participant through the field experiment.