Agreebot introduction dialogue in human–robot interaction: improving the acceptability of robot statements on incapable robotic experiences

Abstract

Dialogue robots have gained widespread use in various domains. However, their ability to engage in conversations about actions that robots cannot perform, such as eating and traveling, remains a challenge. This study proposes a dialogue strategy called Agreebot Introduction Dialogue to enhance the acceptability of robot statements related to actions that robots are incapable of performing. This strategy involved referring to the presence of another robot with the same opinion. We examined our proposed method by conducting a dialogue experiment with 43 participants. The results indicated that the proposed dialogue strategy increased the acceptance of the robot's statements regarding food topics and improved user engagement behavior. This suggests that our strategy enables dialogue robots to participate effectively in diverse scenarios, including conversations on certain topics that are typically challenging for robots.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Acceptance of robot's statement
• human–robot interaction
• dialogue strategy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.vstone.co.jp/english/index.html

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI under Grant JP20H00101,JP19H05691,JP23KJ1462, and Innovation Platform for Society 5.0 (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) under Grant JPMXP0518071489.

Notes on contributors

Seiya Mitsuno

Seiya Mitsuno received a Bachelor's degree in engineering science from Osaka University, Japan, in 2020. He is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in the Graduate School of Engineering Science at Osaka University. His research interests include human-robot interaction and dialogue systems.

Yuichiro Yoshikawa

Yuichiro Yoshikawa received a Ph.D. degree in engineering from Osaka University, Japan, in 2005. He is currently an associate professor at the Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University. He is interested in the study of human-robot communication, especially about multiple-robot coordination and psychiatric or educational applications.

Midori Ban

Midori Ban received a Ph.D. degree in psychology from Doshisha University, Japan, in 2015. She is currently a specially appointed lecturer at the Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University. Her research fields are developmental psychology and Human-Agent Interaction (HAI) studies.

Hiroshi Ishiguro

Hiroshi Ishiguro received a Ph.D. degree in engineering from Osaka University, Japan in 1991. He is currently a professor at the Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University. He is also visiting Director of ATR Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories. His expertize includes robotics, android science, and sensor networks.