Robots can be perceived as goal-oriented agents

TLDR

Understanding the goals of others is fundamental for interpersonal interaction and collaboration, and neurocognitive research suggests that intention understanding depends on motor system involvement in predicting observed actions. The study asks whether motor resonance can mediate goal understanding between humans and humanoid robots. We investigated whether goal‑oriented robotic actions induce motor resonance by measuring anticipatory gaze shifts during action observation. Results show humans process robot actions similarly to human actions, supporting the use of anticipatory gaze as a tool for evaluating human‑robot interactions. Keywords: Humanoid robot; motor resonance; anticipation; proactive gaze; action understanding.

Abstract

Understanding the goals of others is fundamental for any kind of interpersonal interaction and collaboration. From a neurocognitive perspective, intention understanding has been proposed to depend on an involvement of the observer’s motor system in the prediction of the observed actions (Nyström et al. 2011; Rizzolatti & Sinigaglia 2010; Southgate et al. 2009). An open question is if a similar understanding of the goal mediated by motor resonance can occur not only between humans, but also for humanoid robots. In this study we investigated whether goal-oriented robotic actions can induce motor resonance by measuring the appearance of anticipatory gaze shifts to the goal during action observation. Our results indicate a similar implicit processing of humans’ and robots’ actions and propose to use anticipatory gaze behaviour as a tool for the evaluation of human-robot interactions. Keywords: Humanoid robot; motor resonance; anticipation; proactive gaze; action understanding