Robot Manzai - robots´ conversation as a passive social medium

This paper reports on the development of a multirobot cooperation system for human-robot communication. In the system, robots behave as if they are communicating by speech, but the system is designed based on communication through a network. Actual information exchanged through the network is based on analysis of inter-human conversation. This system is based on a scripting language for coordinating multi-robot communication, which has the advantage for developer\´s being easy to develop. The developed system is applied to "robot Manzai" which is a Japanese comedy conversation usually performed by two people. Although tempo and timing are particularly important in Manzai, the robot Manzai system was more highly evaluated than the Manzai shown in a video performed by humans. We believe that this system demonstrates the potential of robots as a passive-social medium, similar to television and computers