Break barriers: a social robot interpreting a pet-like robot.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17979/ja-cea.2026.47.13841Keywords:
Onboarging, Multi-Robot, social robot, pet-like robotAbstract
The first contact with a social robot defines the users' expectations, establishing the bond and the continuity of its use. According to the communication capability of the social robot, a guided process, called an onboarding sequence, can explain to the user how to interact with it. This work presents a multi-robot onboarding sequence in which a social robot, Mini, with the ability to interact with users through voice, acts as an interpreter for Mia, a pet-like robot which communicates through non-verbal sounds. The objective is for the user to be able to meet Mia and learn to interact with her, without a human facilitator. Mini translates the gestures that Mia performs into simple instructions for the user. The sequence is organised into stages that explain the different interaction modalities, based on three principles: touch is the channel for first contact, capabilities must be revealed one at a time and from lower to higher complexity, and caregiving actions precede play.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Guillermo A. Arrojo, Sara Carrasco-Martínez, Arecia Segura-Bencomo, Fernando Alonso-Martin, María Malfaz, José Carlos Castillo
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