Example recordings of human-robot interactions in the rejection and prohibition experiments

Abstract

This video shows some example interactions between participants and the humanoid robot iCub that were recorded within experiments on the acquisition of linguistic negation. The iCub robot acquires its speech solely based on the speech provided the participants who act as language tutors, and teach it the names of the shapes printed on the cube visible in the video. Unbeknownst to them the actual target of investgation was to understand the mechanism and dynamics underlying the acquisition of negation words. Affect plays a central role in this process. More details can be gleaned from the linked publication "Robots Learning to Say `No' Prohibition and Rejective Mechanisms in Acquisition of Linguistic Negation" published in the ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction.