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Survey of Design Paradigms for Social Robots

Rita Frieske, Xiaoyu Mo, Yini Fang, Jay Nieles, Bertram E. Shi

TL;DR

The paper addresses the design of social robots by surveying six design paradigms and proposing an integrated design model that combines operational, emotional, and communicational dimensions to foster adaptive, empathetic HRI. It analyzes cognitive architectures, role design, linguistic models, communication flow, and activity theory, linking them to interdisciplinary insights and identifying strengths and gaps. The integrated framework is demonstrated across Healthcare, Entertainment, and Education, with attention to evaluation methods (quantitative and qualitative) and practical deployment challenges. The work emphasizes holistic design as essential for robust multimodal dialogue, real-time responsiveness, and socially aware robots that can operate effectively across diverse settings.

Abstract

The demand for social robots in fields like healthcare, education, and entertainment increases due to their emotional adaptation features. These robots leverage multimodal communication, incorporating speech, facial expressions, and gestures to enhance user engagement and emotional support. The understanding of design paradigms of social robots is obstructed by the complexity of the system and the necessity to tune it to a specific task. This article provides a structured review of social robot design paradigms, categorizing them into cognitive architectures, role design models, linguistic models, communication flow, activity system models, and integrated design models. By breaking down the articles on social robot design and application based on these paradigms, we highlight the strengths and areas for improvement in current approaches. We further propose our original integrated design model that combines the most important aspects of the design of social robots. Our approach shows the importance of integrating operational, communicational, and emotional dimensions to create more adaptive and empathetic interactions between robots and humans.

Survey of Design Paradigms for Social Robots

TL;DR

The paper addresses the design of social robots by surveying six design paradigms and proposing an integrated design model that combines operational, emotional, and communicational dimensions to foster adaptive, empathetic HRI. It analyzes cognitive architectures, role design, linguistic models, communication flow, and activity theory, linking them to interdisciplinary insights and identifying strengths and gaps. The integrated framework is demonstrated across Healthcare, Entertainment, and Education, with attention to evaluation methods (quantitative and qualitative) and practical deployment challenges. The work emphasizes holistic design as essential for robust multimodal dialogue, real-time responsiveness, and socially aware robots that can operate effectively across diverse settings.

Abstract

The demand for social robots in fields like healthcare, education, and entertainment increases due to their emotional adaptation features. These robots leverage multimodal communication, incorporating speech, facial expressions, and gestures to enhance user engagement and emotional support. The understanding of design paradigms of social robots is obstructed by the complexity of the system and the necessity to tune it to a specific task. This article provides a structured review of social robot design paradigms, categorizing them into cognitive architectures, role design models, linguistic models, communication flow, activity system models, and integrated design models. By breaking down the articles on social robot design and application based on these paradigms, we highlight the strengths and areas for improvement in current approaches. We further propose our original integrated design model that combines the most important aspects of the design of social robots. Our approach shows the importance of integrating operational, communicational, and emotional dimensions to create more adaptive and empathetic interactions between robots and humans.
Paper Structure (33 sections, 2 figures, 2 tables)

This paper contains 33 sections, 2 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Features of Dialogue in HRI
  3. Real-time Interaction
  4. Wide Communication Context
  5. Symmetrical Communication
  6. Multimodality
  7. Design
  8. Cognitive Architectures
  9. Role Design Model
  10. Linguistic Model
  11. Communication Flow
  12. Activity System Model
  13. Our Novel Paradigm: Integrated Design Model
  14. Operational Dimension
  15. Emotional Dimension
  16. ...and 18 more sections

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: The communication context of text chatbot consists of textual information, whereas for robots that operate in the physical environment, the communication context is grounded in its direct environment and limited only by the number of its sensors.
  • Figure 2: Diagram of auditory, haptic, and visual modalities with examples of processed information.