What's in the gap? Interaction transitions that make HRI work

This paper presents an in-depth analysis from a human robot interaction (HRI) study on spatial positioning and interaction episode transitions. Subjects showed a living room to a robot to teach it new places and objects. This joint task was analyzed with respect to organizing strategies for interaction episodes. Noticing the importance of transitions between interaction episodes, small adaptive movements in posture were observed. This finding needs to be incorporated into HRI modules that plan and execute robots' spatial behavior in interaction, e.g., through dynamic adaptation of spatial formations and distances depending on interaction episode