Integrating Built-in Sensors of an Android withSensors Embedded in the Environment forStudying a More Natural Human-RobotInteraction

Several studies supported that there is a strict and complexrelationship between outer appearance and the behavior showed by therobot and that a human-like appearance is not enough for give a positiveimpression. The robot should behave closely to humans, and should havea sense of perception that enables it to communicate with humans. Ourpast experience with the android “Geminoid HI-1” demonstrated thatthe sensors equipping the robot are not enough to perform a human-likecommunication, mainly because of a limited sensing range. To overcomethis problem, we endowed the environment around the robot with perceptivecapabilities by embedding sensors such as cameras into it. Thispaper reports a preliminary study about an improvement of the controllingsystem by integrating cameras in the surrounding environment, sothat a human-like perception can be provided to the android. The integrationof the development of androids and the investigations of humanbehaviors constitute a new research area fusing engineering and cognitivesciences.