Inferring affective states from observation of a robot's simple movements

Abstract

This paper reports an analytic finding in which humans inferred the emotional states of a simple, flat robot that only moves autonomously on a floor in all directions based on Russell's circumplex model of affect that depends on human's spatial position. We observed the physical interaction between humans and a robot through an experiment where our participants seek a treasure in the given field, and the robot expresses its affective state by movements. This result will contribute to the basic design of HRI. The robot only showed its internal state using its simple movements.