Sound and Robotics: Speech, Non-Verbal Audio and Robotic Musicianship

Sound in human–robot interaction currently encompasses a wide range of approaches and methodologies not easily classified, analyzed or compared among projects. This edited book covers the state of the art in sound and robotics, aiming to gather existing approaches in a combined volume.

Collecting chapters from world-leading academic and industry authors, Sound and Robotics: Speech, Non-Verbal Audio and Robotic Musicianship explores how robots can communicate through speech, non-verbal audio and music. The first set of chapters explores how robots use verbal communication, considering the possibilities of speech for human–robot interaction. The second section shifts to roles of non-verbal communication in HRI, including consequential sound, sonification and audio cues. The third and final section describes current approaches to robotic musicianship and their evaluation.

This book is primarily aimed at HRI researchers, ranging from those who have never used sound to those very experienced with sound. Alongside robotic researchers, this book will present avenues for a diverse range of musicians, composers and sound designers to become introduced to the world of HRI and learn of potential creative directions in robotics.

Richard Savery is a Research Fellow at Macquarie University, Australia, working at the intersection of sound and robotics. He completed his doctorate in Music Technology at Georgia Tech, USA, focusing on the use of non-verbal audio for improved human-robot interaction.