Human-robot interactions as theatre

Given the difficulty of social human-robot interaction (HRI), finding an appropriate conceptual model, as well as a useful venue to test the model, is key. While most work in social HRI draws insight and inspiration from the field of social psychology, this paper explores the philosophical backing and benefits of using ideas from theatre to frame social interactions. We present an analogy to Searle's Chinese Room argument to motivate the expressive challenges faced by human actors and by robots in social situations. We then compare the elements of theatre with the elements of HRI, and discuss techniques that we believe will lead to improved interactions.