Designing a Humanoid Robot Face to Fulfill a Social Contract

Abstract

In building humanoid robots, we are also building in implicit expectations about the social abilities and interactions that the machine should exhibit. The morphology and aesthetic of the robot play a critical role in defining these expectations. Specifically, the robot face plays a paramount role in establishing the social competence of the machine, and in defining a social contract between the observer and the robot. We will discuss the development of a face for our robot humanoid, Cog. This endeavor poses a host of design issues, from the technical constraints created by the mechanics of the head, to considerations of the impact of the face on the social contract which the robot will establish with its audience.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA434150

Entities

People

  • Aaron Edsinger
  • Una-may O'reilly

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Contracts
  • Diffraction
  • Distortion
  • Maturation
  • Mechanical Structure
  • Mechanics
  • Observers
  • Spectra

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy
  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Human-Robot Interaction