Human-Robot Interaction : an Introduction

The role of robots in society keeps expanding and diversifying, bringing with it a host of issues surrounding the relationship between robots and humans. This introduction to human-robot interaction (HRI), written by leading researchers in this developing field, is the first to provide a broad overview of the multidisciplinary topics central to modern HRI research. Students and researchers from robotics, artificial intelligence, psychology, sociology, and design will find it a concise and accessible guide to the current state of the field. Written for students from diverse backgrounds, it presents relevant background concepts, describing how robots work, how to design them, and how to evaluate their performance. Self-contained chapters discuss a wide range of topics, including the different communication modalities such as speech and language, non-verbal communication and the processing of emotions, as well as ethical issues around the application of robots today and in the context of our future society.

Christoph Bartneck is Associate Professor and director of postgraduate studies at the HIT Lab NZ of the University of Canterbury. He has worked for several international organizations including the Technology Centre of Hannover, LEGO, Philips Research and ATR.

Tony Belpaeme is Professor at Ghent University and the University of Plymouth. He works on science and technology behind social robots, and worked on robots to support children in hospitals and robots that can act as therapists and tutors for young children.

Friederike Eyssel is Professor of Applied Social Psychology and Gender Research at Universität Bielefeld, Germany. She works on research topics ranging from social robotics, social agents, and ambient intelligence to attitude change, prejudice reduction, and sexual objectification of women.

Takayuki Kanda is Professor in Informatics at Kyoto University, Japan and a Visiting Group Leader at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories. He is one of the founding members of the Communication Robots project at ATR and developed the Robovie communication robot.

Merel Keijsers is a Ph.D. student at the HIT Lab NZ, University of Canterbury. She has a research masters in Statistics, and in Social and Health Psychology from the University of Utrecht. She studies what conscious and subconscious psychological processes drive people to abuse and bully robots.