Human-Robot Cooperative Conveyance Using Speech and Head Gaze

In this study, we designed a strategy using speech and head gaze and a set of voice commands for cooperative conveyance by a human and a robot. In the designed strategy, the human turns his or her head to face the robot and gives one of twelve spoken commands in the set. In order to start and stop the robot moving, the human sends nonverbal cues by changing his or her point of gaze. We developed a mobile robot that interacts with a human based on the strategy and the command set, which was evaluated with ten young novices. The results of this study imply that most young people can quickly learn how to cooperate with our robot to move objects using speech and head gaze.