To overcome novel challenges in complex domestic environments, humanoid robots can learn from human teachers. We propose that the capability for social interaction should be a key factor in this teaching process and benefits both the subjective experience of the human user and the learning process itself. To support our hypothesis, we present a Human-Robot Interaction study on human-assisted visuomotor learning with the robot NICO, the Neuro-Inspired COmpanion, a child-sized humanoid. NICO is a flexible, social platform with sensing and manipulation abilities. We give a detailed description of NICO's design and a comprehensive overview of studies that use or evaluate NICO. To engage in social interaction, NICO can express stylized facial expressions and utter speech via an Embodied Dialogue System. NICO is characterized in particular by combining these social interaction capabilities with the abilities for human-like object manipulation and crossmodal perception. In the presented study, NICO acquires visuomotor grasping skills by interacting with its environment. In contrast to methods like motor babbling, the learning process is, in part, supported by a human teacher. To begin the learning process, an object is placed into NICO's hand, and if this object is accidentally dropped, the human assistant has to recover it. The study is conducted with 24 participants with little or no prior experience with robots. In the robot-guided experimental condition, assistance is actively requested by NICO via the Embodied Dialogue System. In the human-guided condition, instructions are given by a human experimenter, while NICO remains silent. Evaluation using established questionnaires like Godspeed, Mind Perception, and Uncanny Valley Indices, along with a structured interview and video analysis of the interaction, show that the robot's active requests for assistance foster the participant's engagement and benefit the learning process. This result supports the hypothesis that the ability for social interaction is a key factor for companion robots that learn with the help of non-expert teachers, as these robots become capable of communicating active requests or questions that are vital to their learning process. We also show how the design of NICO both enables and is driven by this approach.

中文翻译：

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教 NICO 如何抓取：跨模式社交互动作为机器人向人类学习的关键因素的实证研究。

为了克服复杂家庭环境中的新挑战，人形机器人可以向人类老师学习。我们认为社交互动的能力应该是教学过程中的关键因素，并且有利于人类用户的主观体验和学习过程本身。为了支持我们的假设，我们提出了一项关于人类辅助视觉运动学习的人机交互研究，其中包括机器人 NICO（神经启发伴侣），这是一个儿童大小的人形机器人。NICO 是一个灵活的社交平台，具有感知和操纵能力。我们详细描述了 NICO 的设计，并对使用或评估 NICO 的研究进行了全面概述。为了进行社交互动，NICO 可以通过具身对话系统表达风格化的面部表情并发出语音。NICO 的特点是将这些社交互动能力与类人物体操作和跨模式感知能力相结合。在本研究中，NICO 通过与环境互动来获得视觉运动抓取技能。与电机牙牙学语等方法相比，学习过程在一定程度上是由人类老师支持的。为了开始学习过程，将一个物体放在 NICO 的手中，如果该物体意外掉落，人类助手必须将其恢复。这项研究由 24 名几乎没有或根本没有机器人经验的参与者参与。在机器人引导的实验条件下，NICO 通过实体对话系统主动请求帮助。在人工引导的情况下，由人类实验者发出指令，而 NICO 保持沉默。使用 Godspeed、Mind Perception 和 Uncanny Valley Indices 等既定问卷进行的评估，以及结构化访谈和互动视频分析，表明机器人主动寻求帮助可以促进参与者的参与并有利于学习过程。这一结果支持了这样的假设：社交互动能力是在非专业教师帮助下学习的伴侣机器人的关键因素，因为这些机器人能够传达对其学习过程至关重要的主动请求或问题。我们还展示了 NICO 的设计如何实现这种方法并由这种方法驱动。