Augmenting the Audio-Based Expression modalities of a Non-Affective robot

This paper investigates the potential benefits of augmenting audio-based affective means of expression to strengthen the perceived intentions of a robot. Robots are often viewed as being simple machines with limited capabilities of communication. Changing how a robot is perceived, towards a more affective interpretation of its intentions, requires careful consideration of the means of expression available to the robot. It also requires alignment between these means to ensure they work in coordination with each other to make the robot easier to understand. As an effort to strengthen the affective interpretation of a soft robotic arm robot, we altered its overall expression by changing the available audio-based expression modalities. The system mitigated the naturally occurring noise from actuators and pneumatic systems and used a custom sound that supported the movement of the robot. The robot was tested by interacting with human observers (n=78) and was perceived as being significantly more curious, happy and less angry when augmented by audio that aligned with the naturally occurred robot sounds. The results show that the audio-based expression modality of robots is a valuable communication tool to consider augmenting when designing robots that convey affective information. Index Terms—affective robot audio expression