Building companionship through human-robot collaboration

While human-robot collaboration has been studied intensively in the literature, little attention has been given to understanding the role of collaborative endeavours on enhancing the companionship between humans and robots. In this position paper, we explore the possibilities of building the human-robot companionship through collaborative activities. The design guideline of a companion robot Nancy developed at SRL is introduced, and preliminary studies on human-robot collaboration conducted at SRL and I2R are elaborated. Critical issues and technical challenges in human-robot collaboration systems are discussed. Through these discussions, we aim to draw the attention of the social robotics community to the importance of human-robot collaboration in companionship building, and stimulate more research effort in this emerging area.