Child–robot interaction mediated by building blocks: from field observations in a public space

This study attempts to describe children's behavior from the viewpoint of microscopic adjustment of actions when they encounter an oddly shaped robot, called “Muu.” We investigated this through field observations at a workshop in a children's museum. Children of various ages and their parents participated in the workshop together. They were instructed by an experimenter to play with building blocks while talking with Muu. As a result, it was found that the children and the robot could establish rich communications with each other not when the children evaluated Muu's behavior, but when Muu evaluated the children's work. This indicates that the robot could become an “other” that might interact with children mediated by the building blocks, whereas many children and parents treated it as a “toy,” just as the building blocks were considered merely as “objects” during interactions. This work was presented in part at the 10th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, February 4–6, 2005