In this paper, we introduce a novel conceptual model for a robot's behavioral adaptation in its long-term interaction with humans, integrating dynamic robot role adaptation with principles of flow experience from psychology. This conceptualization introduces a hierarchical interaction objective grounded in the flow experience, serving as the overarching adaptation goal for the robot. This objective intertwines both cognitive and affective sub-objectives and incorporates individual and group-level human factors. The dynamic role adaptation approach is a cornerstone of our model, highlighting the robot's ability to fluidly adapt its support roles - from leader to follower - with the aim of maintaining equilibrium between activity challenge and user skill, thereby fostering the user's optimal flow experiences. Moreover, this work delves into a comprehensive exploration of the limitations and potential applications of our proposed conceptualization. Our model places a particular emphasis on the multi-person HRI paradigm, a dimension of HRI that is both under-explored and challenging. In doing so, we aspire to extend the applicability and relevance of our conceptualization within the HRI field, contributing to the future development of adaptive social robots capable of sustaining long-term interactions with humans.

How do we leverage AI and intelligent tools to make better decisions? How can we utilize intelligent technology to upskill our workforce and increase AI fluency? In our latest AI Ignition episode, Cynthia Breazeal, associate director of the MIT Media Lab and dean for digital learning at MIT Open Learning, shares the implications of social robotics in business and applying AI at scale. We're understanding a lot about what it takes to build technologies that can really deeply and meaningfully engage people of all ages to help them achieve deeply important goals in their lives. Cynthia Breazeal is the professor of media arts and sciences at MIT Media Lab where she founded and directs the Personal Robots group.

Cynthia Breazeal has joined MIT Open Learning as senior associate dean, beginning in the Fall 2021 semester. The MIT professor of media arts and sciences and head of the Personal Robots group at the MIT Media Lab is also director of MIT RAISE, a cross-MIT initiative on artificial intelligence education. At MIT Open Learning, Breazeal will oversee MIT xPRO, Bootcamps, and Horizon, three units focused on different aspects of developing and delivering courses, programs, training, and learning resources to professionals. With experience as an entrepreneur and founder of a high-tech startup, Breazeal has a nuanced understanding of the startup spirit of MIT Open Learning's revenue-generating business units, and of the importance of connecting MIT's deep knowledge base with the just-in-time needs of professionals in the workforce. "I appreciate the potential educational and training impact of exciting new innovations in the business world. Each of these programs addresses a specific market opportunity and has a particular style of engaging with MIT's educational materials," says Breazeal.

As part of our series showcasing the plenary and keynote talks from the IEEE/RSJ IROS2020 (International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems), this week we bring you Nikolaus Correll (Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder) and Cynthia Breazeal (Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT). Nikolaus' talk is on the topic of robot manipulation, while Cynthia's talk is about the topic of social robots. Bio: Nikolaus Correll is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He obtained his MS in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zürich and his PhD in Computer Science from EPF Lausanne in 2007. From 2007-2009 he was a post-doc at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).

Reports The second international conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI-2007) was held in Arlington, Virginia, March 9-11, 2007. The theme of the conference was "Robot as Team Member" and included posters and paper presentations on teamwork, social robotics, adaptation, observation and metrics, attention, user experience, and field testing. One hundred seventy-five researchers and practitioners attended the conference, and many more contributed to the conference as authors or reviewers. HRI-2008 will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands from March 12-15, 2008. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) through SIGCHI and SIGART, and by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

R2-D2 may seem like a blast to hang out with, but in real-life, robots are rarely social butterflies. They're fantastic assembly line workers, bolting together cars and refrigerators, but most are all work and no play. The closest thing to robotic friends we have right now are the growing number of smart speakers, like the Amazon Echo, each with an voice assistant inside them. Smart speakers have carved out a few uses, like playing music, cracking jokes, telling us the weather, and controlling our smart home devices. Which is why I was excited to meet Jibo.

Q: How has having children yourself changed your perspective on your work, and in particular, has it made you think about ways in which your work might benefit ill children in the future? My work has always been strongly inspired by the cognitive and social development of children and the crucial role that social interaction plays in that process. I wouldn't say that having children has changed my perspective as much as broadened it and made my research and its application much more personal. My parents always told me that you can't appreciate what it's like to be a parent until you are one--and then you're one for life. Having children of your own, nurturing them, experiencing the joy of seeing them learn and grow--well, it adds depth and meaning to everything.

Dr. Cynthia L. Breazeal of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is famous for her robots, not just because they they are programmed to perform specific tasks, but because they seem to have emotional as well as physical reactions to the world around them. They are ''embodied,'' she says, even ''sociable'' robots -- experimental machines that act like living creatures. As part of its design triennial, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York is exhibiting a ''cyberfloral installation,'' by Dr. Breazeal, which features robotic flowers that sway when a human hand is near and glow in beautiful bright colors. ''The installation,'' said Dr. Breazeal, 35, ''communicates my future vision of robot design that is intellectually intriguing and remains true to its technological heritage, but is able to touch us emotionally in the quality of interaction and their responsiveness to us -- more like a dance, rather than pushing buttons.'' Dr. Breazeal (pronounced bruh-ZILL) wrote about her adventures as a modern-day Mary Shelley in her book ''Designing Sociable Robots,'' released this year by M.I.T. Press.

Jibo is about supporting the family, supporting those who help care for the family, doctors and nurses... it helps make the whole human and technological network stronger and better able to serve human values. That's the big "value add" of this kind of technology and that's certainly where my heart is because certainly as a mom, I completely understand the value and importance of the human connection and human relationships. And we have human responsibilities to each other. Technology should not be mitigating that or interfering with that. We want technology to really support that.

MIT's Personal Robotics Group has been one of the driving forces behind social robotics since… well, since they pretty much invented social robotics. Led by Professor Cynthia Breazeal, who is also founder of social robot startup Jibo, the MIT group has built an amazing collection of smart, cute, and squishy creatures, and now they have a new one. The latest, smartest, cutest, and squishiest social robot that MIT has been testing out is named Tega, and it's already gotten to work, adorably teaching Spanish to preschoolers. We spoke with Jackie Kory Westlund, a Ph.D. student in the MIT Media Lab who's been doing research with Tega, about why it's such a useful social assistive robotics platform and how to keep preschoolers from utterly destroying it with hugs. To provide some context for Tega, have a look at a couple of the other robots developed by MIT's Personal Robotics Group, which is really just an excuse to post one of my favorite robot videos of all time: You can sort of imagine that Dragonbot and Tofu maybe got extra cuddly one lonely night at the Media Lab, and Tega was the result.