Robotics Research

Applications: Human-Robot Interaction

In order to operate to their full potential in general society robots need the ability to interact and communicate effectively with humans using tools similar to those used in human-human interactions. Effective human-robot interaction would facilitate many applications for robotics in a variety of areas where communication with humans is necessary, such as hospitality, education, health and aged care, etc.

Successful human-robot interaction requires the robot to be able to understand and use speech, body language and even facial expression to communicate with humans. In order to achieve these requirements robots would need excellent perception abilities, and must be able to learn and adapt to new situations in order to communicate with a variety of known and unknown humans.  

Human-Robot Interaction Research in Australia

• Alan Blair from UNSW is conducting research into dynamic language processing with possible applications in robotics.
• The humanoid project at IRRC Monash is aiming to develop robots capable of interacting with humans using voice, body language and facial expression.
  
• The RSL at ANU is working on vision related human-robot interaction projects, including a system for tracking the gaze point and pose of a human head and a gesture based interface system.