Robots are often envisaged as embodied agents that might be able to intelligently and expressively communicate with humans. This could be due to their physical embodiment, their animated nature, or to other factors, such as cultural associations. In this study, we investigated emotional responses of humans to affective non-linguistic utterances produced by an embodied agent, with special attention to the way that these responses depended on the nature of the embodiment and the extent to which the robot actively moved in proximity to the human. To this end, we developed a new singing robot platform, ROVER, that could interact with humans in its surroundings. We used affective sound design methods to endow ROVER with the ability to communicate through song, via musical, non-linguistic utterances that could, as we demonstrate, evoke emotional responses in humans. We indeed found that the embodiment of the computational agent had an affect on emotional responses. However, contrary to our expectations, we found singing computers to be more emotionally arousing than singing robots. Whether the robot moved or not did not affect arousal. The results may have implications for the design of affective non-speech audio displays for human-computer or human-robot interaction.

中文翻译：

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唱歌机器人：具体化如何影响对非语言话语的情绪反应

机器人通常被设想为可能能够与人类进行智能和表达交流的具身代理。这可能是由于它们的物理化身、它们活跃的天性或其他因素，例如文化关联。在这项研究中，我们调查了人类对具身代理产生的情感非语言话语的情绪反应，特别注意这些反应取决于具身的性质和机器人主动靠近的程度人类。为此，我们开发了一个新的唱歌机器人平台 ROVER，它可以与周围的人类互动。我们使用情感声音设计方法赋予 ROVER 通过歌曲进行交流的能力，通过音乐性的非语言表达，正如我们所展示的那样，唤起人类的情绪反应。我们确实发现计算代理的体现对情绪反应有影响。然而，与我们的预期相反，我们发现唱歌的计算机比唱歌的机器人更能激发情感。机器人是否移动不影响唤醒。结果可能对人机或人机交互的情感非语音音频显示的设计有影响。