Rhode Island Nexus

The Legislative Luncheon will once again feature an interactive panel discussion. Join 600 of the region's most prominent business leaders to hear legislators from both the House and Senate respond to questions regarding many critical issues facing the business community. The Providence Journal is the Presenting Sponsor.

"Robots and People Collaborating: How to be an Engaging Robot"

Candy Sidner, BAE Systems AIT

When people collaborate, in addition to using language to talk to one another, they also employ a variety of verbal and non-verbal means to initiate, maintain and end their interactions. In face-to-face interaction, this process of "engagement" often occurs through gestures. In this talk I will describe the engagement process, especially how people maintain engagement through mutual looking and conversational nodding. I will report on studies of people collaborating with a robot and show several videos of these interactions. Finally, I will discuss recent research on initiating engagement, and show videos of two different robots finding and engaging a person.