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arXiv · 2403.10041

Towards Embedding Dynamic Personas in Interactive Robots: Masquerading Animated Social Kinematics (MASK)

Jeongeun Park·Taemoon Jeong·Hyeonseong Kim·Taehyun Byun·Seungyoon Shin·Keunjun Choi·Jaewoon Kwon·Taeyoon Lee·Matthew Pan·Sungjoon Choi
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Abstract

This paper presents the design and development of an innovative interactive robotic system to enhance audience engagement using character-like personas. Built upon the foundations of persona-driven dialog agents, this work extends the agent's application to the physical realm, employing robots to provide a more captivating and interactive experience. The proposed system, named the Masquerading Animated Social Kinematic (MASK), leverages an anthropomorphic robot which interacts with guests using non-verbal interactions, including facial expressions and gestures. A behavior generation system based upon a finite-state machine structure effectively conditions robotic behavior to convey distinct personas. The MASK framework integrates a perception engine, a behavior selection engine, and a comprehensive action library to enable real-time, dynamic interactions with minimal human intervention in behavior design. Throughout the user subject studies, we examined whether the users could recognize the intended character in both personality- and film-character-based persona conditions. We conclude by discussing the role of personas in interactive agents and the factors to consider for creating an engaging user experience.

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Jeongeun Park, Taemoon Jeong, Hyeonseong Kim, Taehyun Byun, Seungyoon Shin, Keunjun Choi, Jaewoon Kwon, Taeyoon Lee, Matthew Pan, Sungjoon Choi. 2024-10-07. Towards Embedding Dynamic Personas in Interactive Robots: Masquerading Animated Social Kinematics (MASK). https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.10041

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