Preschoolers' engagement in social interaction with an autonomous robotic system

In this paper, we present an empirical study with children at the age of 4 and 5 years to reveal whether they engage with a robot in an interaction. For our analysis, we developed a score assessing the interaction level. It consists of emotional involvement, engagement and independence of the child in the interaction. For the interaction, an autonomous system was equipped with a designed dialogic structure. It consisted of a repertoire of (pre-recorded) interaction protocols that a robot can apply in an interaction. The results from the evaluation suggest that the implementation was successful as most of the studied children engaged in the interaction with the robot. The results also reveal some gender differences. The long-term aim of the study is to develop an autonomous system that can be applied in an interaction with young children.