Facilitating Mental Modeling in Collaborative Human-Robot Interaction through Adverbial Cues

Abstract

Advances in robotics are allowing robots to take on increasingly complex tasks without the need for human micro-management, necessitating the development of high-level human-robot interaction (HRI) competencies. Constructing mental models, that is the set of beliefs that other agents in an interaction possess, is one vital capability. In this talk, I discuss the progress made at the HRI-Laboratory to develop a natural language (NL) dialogue system that supports and facilitates mental-modeling.

Specifically, I will discuss how our system utilizes adverbial cues that are routinely employed by humans. I present a novel algorithm that integrates adverbial modifiers with belief revision and expression, phrasing utterances based on Gricean conversational maxims. The algorithm is then demonstrated in a simple HRI scenario.

Finally, the construction of a robust and human-like situated dialogue system is a multifaceted challenge. Numerous future extensions to the system are discussed, outlining a plan to incrementally achieve more powerful and natural interaction capabilities. -------------------------------------------------