Realization and Evaluation of Realistic Nod with Receptionist robot SAYA

Android robots that have a human-like appearance have been developed recently. The purpose of android robots is to realize realistic communication between human and robot by implementation of human-like behaviors. Then knowledge and techniques for generating human-like natural motions and behaviors with android robot are required. In face-to-face communication, we can observe that the speaker nods during his utterance, and we call this behavior "Speaker\´s nod". Thus, in this study, we tried to realize realistic "Speaker\´s nod" as a natural interpersonal behavior with receptionist robot SAYA that has human-like appearance. Therefore we experimentally investigated expression-timing, angle and angular velocity of the human "Speaker\´s nod", and we implemented "Speaker\´s nod" to SAYA based on the investigation results. Then we have verified that "Speaker\´s nod" at appropriate timing affected the humanity of SAYA, and it greatly enhanced emotional impression of human by subjective experiment.