Designing robot-to-robot interaction to support early-stage engagement in a teleoperated Robot Avatar system with multiple robots
8 affiliations
- 1Graduate School of Engineering Science, The University of Osaka, Toyonaka, Japan
- 2Department of Robotics, Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto Tachibana University, Kyoto, Japan
- 3Faculty of Science and Engineering, Otemon Gakuin University, Ibaraki, Japan
- 4Faculty of Culture and Information Science, Doshisha University, Kyotanabe, Japan
- 5Graduate School of Informatics, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
- 6Department of Anthropology, The New School for Social Research, New York, NY, United States
- 7i-RooBO Network Forum, Osaka, Japan
- 8Deep Interaction Laboratory Group, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Kyoto, Japan
Abstract
Teleoperated Robot Avatars enable operators to provide customer service from remote locations. Effective persuasive interaction requires more than information presentation; customers' attention and engagement must be elicited before their attitudes and behavior can be influenced. Social presence may support this type of engagement. Based on prior research, we conceptualize a Robot Avatar's social presence as the extent to which customers perceive it, i.e., not as a machine or information medium, but as a social entity customers can attend to and interact with. Therefore, we examined a design approach intended to enhance a Robot Avatar's social presence by forming a social context around it. We developed GayaRobo, comprising one teleoperated Robot Avatar and two supporting Gaya robots. Rather than approaching users as independent agents, the Gaya robots respond to the Robot Avatar's utterances via speech and movement, thereby forming a social context centered on the avatar. We conducted a field experiment at a commercial complex in Osaka, Japan, to compare observable early-stage engagement behaviors of passersby toward the Robot Avatar across three experimental conditions. The same three-robot configuration was used under three conditions: the Gaya robots responded to the Robot Avatar, only the Robot Avatar spoke, or only the Gaya robots spoke. Two annotators coded four behaviors among 1,379 passersby in 270 min of video recordings: looking at the Robot Avatar, approaching it, talking to it, and picking up a flyer. After correction for multiple testing, only approaching the Robot Avatar was significantly associated with experimental condition and occurred more frequently than expected under the inter-robot interaction condition. These findings provide behavioral evidence that the inter-robot interaction condition was associated with approaching the Robot Avatar, an observable indicator of early-stage engagement. Because social presence was not directly measured, the findings did not demonstrate that GayaRobo enhanced the Robot Avatar's social presence. Nevertheless, they highlight approach behavior as a relevant observable outcome for future evaluations of designs that consider the social context surrounding a Robot Avatar in customer service settings.
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BibTeX
@article{suemitsu2026designing,
title = {{Designing robot-to-robot interaction to support early-stage engagement in a teleoperated Robot Avatar system with multiple robots}},
author = {Kiichiro Suemitsu and Midori Ban and Hideyuki Takahashi and Hiroshi Ishiguro and Takamasa Iio and Keito Izawa and Yurina Someya and Sonia Yuhui Zhang and Keiko Yukita and Shogo Nishimura and Yukiko Horikawa and Takahiro Miyashita},
journal = {Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/frai.2026.1928110},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2026.1928110},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Designing robot-to-robot interaction to support early-stage engagement in a teleoperated Robot Avatar system with multiple robots
AU - Kiichiro Suemitsu
AU - Midori Ban
AU - Hideyuki Takahashi
AU - Hiroshi Ishiguro
AU - Takamasa Iio
AU - Keito Izawa
AU - Yurina Someya
AU - Sonia Yuhui Zhang
AU - Keiko Yukita
AU - Shogo Nishimura
AU - Yukiko Horikawa
AU - Takahiro Miyashita
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence
DO - 10.3389/frai.2026.1928110
UR - https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2026.1928110
AB - Teleoperated Robot Avatars enable operators to provide customer service from remote locations. Effective persuasive interaction requires more than information presentation; customers' attention and engagement must be elicited before their attitudes and behavior can be influenced. Social presence may support this type of engagement. Based on prior research, we conceptualize a Robot Avatar's social presence as the extent to which customers perceive it, i.e., not as a machine or information medium, but as a social entity customers can attend to and interact with. Therefore, we examined a design approach intended to enhance a Robot Avatar's social presence by forming a social context around it. We developed GayaRobo, comprising one teleoperated Robot Avatar and two supporting Gaya robots. Rather than approaching users as independent agents, the Gaya robots respond to the Robot Avatar's utterances via speech and movement, thereby forming a social context centered on the avatar. We conducted a field experiment at a commercial complex in Osaka, Japan, to compare observable early-stage engagement behaviors of passersby toward the Robot Avatar across three experimental conditions. The same three-robot configuration was used under three conditions: the Gaya robots responded to the Robot Avatar, only the Robot Avatar spoke, or only the Gaya robots spoke. Two annotators coded four behaviors among 1,379 passersby in 270 min of video recordings: looking at the Robot Avatar, approaching it, talking to it, and picking up a flyer. After correction for multiple testing, only approaching the Robot Avatar was significantly associated with experimental condition and occurred more frequently than expected under the inter-robot interaction condition. These findings provide behavioral evidence that the inter-robot interaction condition was associated with approaching the Robot Avatar, an observable indicator of early-stage engagement. Because social presence was not directly measured, the findings did not demonstrate that GayaRobo enhanced the Robot Avatar's social presence. Nevertheless, they highlight approach behavior as a relevant observable outcome for future evaluations of designs that consider the social context surrounding a Robot Avatar in customer service settings.
SN - 2624-8212
ER -