Levels of Embodiment: Linguistic Analyses of Factors Influencing HRI

In this paper, we investigate the role of physical embodiment of a robot and its degrees of freedom in HRI. Both factors have been suggested to be relevant in definitions of embodiment, and so far we do not understand their effects on the way people interact with robots very well. Linguistic analyses of verbal interactions with robots differing with respect to physical embodiment and degrees of freedom provide a useful methodology to investigate factors conditioning human-robot interaction. Results show that both physical embodiment and degrees of freedom influence interaction, and that the effect of physical embodiment is located in the interpersonal domain, concerning in how far the robot is perceived as an interaction partner, whereas degrees of freedom influence the way users project the suitability of the robot for the current task.