Development of a hug request motion model during active approach to human

In human face-to-face communication, embodied sharing using the synchrony of embodied rhythms is promoted by embodied interactions. Therefore, embodied interactions are important for smoothly initiating coexistence and communication. When there is embodied interactions with direct contact, it plays to synchronize embodied rhythms effectively. Hug behavior is one of the types of embodied interactions that involve direct contact. In this type interactions, humans whole-body contact with each other. In the case of interaction between a human and a robot, robot synchronizes embodied rhythms effectively using hug behaviors. Furthermore, embodied interactions are expected to be promoted by hug behaviors, in which robot actively approaches and requests to the human. Therefore, in this paper, we develop a hug request motion model of robot during active approach to human. At first, mutual hug behaviors between humans are analyzed in an environment with a voice greeting. Then, on the basis of this analysis results, a hug request motion model during active approach to human is developed. This model generates a hug behavior in which a robot active approaches and requests a hug behavior to a human. In addition, we developed a hug robot system that uses the developed hug request motion model. Using this robot system, the effectiveness of the proposed model is demonstrated by a sensory evaluation.