Social Interaction with Autonomous Art: Combining Social Analysis and Computer Vision

Darren Reed, Fanta Camara, Tianyuan Wang

Abstract: The deployment of autonomous robots in public spaces is increasing thanks to advancements in robot localisation, mapping and navigation strategies, but there is a slower development of autonomous robotic systems in artistic contexts. This project introduces The Wheel, an autonomous kinetic sculpture that moves through the crowd at art festivals. Using onboard camera data, this work provides some insight into the social interactions happening between The Wheel and people by combining a form of social analysis, called Embodied Conversational Analysis, with computer vision analysis through the AlphaPose algorithm. The findings include a list of meaningful social actions performed by people interacting with The Wheel, thus offering a promising approach to better understanding social interactions with autonomous robots performing on stage and beyond.

External IDs:dblp:conf/socrob/ReedCW25