Robot R2D2 from Star Wars is probably known to everyone. He is extremely cute, mainly due to the funny squeaks and squeaks he makes. It would seem that this method of communication between robots and living beings is completely unproductive, but scientists think otherwise.
Robin Reed and Tony Belpham from the Center for Robotics and Neuroscience at the University of Plymouth in the UK are conducting a study that examines how the pitch and rhythm of sounds affect their emotional perception. Their research is funded by the ALIZ-E project. The goal of this project is to create robots that can form an emotional bond with hospital patients.
During the experiment, scientists asked several dozen children aged six to eight to associate the sounds made by the Nao robot with what it “feels.”
The children had no doubt what emotions Nao was experiencing – whether he was sad, happy, angry, scared, surprised or tired. At the same time, they used the simplest concepts, without giving any complex explanations for the robot’s mood.
The communication of robots with people using simple sounds does not require any special development, and based on studying the reactions of children, it is possible to build a universal “language of machines” that anyone can understand. For example, a “sad” sound will indicate that the robot’s battery is low, and a “happy” sound will indicate that it is ready to work.
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