Page 277 - The Design Thinking Playbook

EXPERT TIP
Design of “emotions” with robots

Emotions in the robot–human relationship are just as important as
trust. The human expects the robot to recognize emotions and to act
accordingly. There is no doubt that human beings have emotions and
that their behavior is influenced by emotions. Our behavior in street
traffic is a good example: Our driving style is influenced by our emo-
tions. And we react to the driving style of others. We are in a hurry
because we must get to an appointment. We are relaxed because we
are just starting off on our vacation. We drive aggressively because You look
we have had a bad day. How does a self-driving car handle such happy!
emotions and tendencies? The robot must adapt its behavior and, for
example, drive faster (more aggressively) or slower (more cautiously).
If necessary, it must adjust the route because either we want to enjoy
the scenery or get from A to B as quickly as possible. One possibility
is that, in the future, we transfer our personality and our preferences
like a personal DNA to distributed systems and thus provide a stock
of information. Another possibility is for various sensors to transmit
additional information in real time, which helps the robot make the
right decision for the emotional situation easily and quickly.
Hence the recognition of emotions and the situational adaptation
of behavior will be of an even greater significance in the future. The
latest developments in this area include “Pepper,” the humanoid
robot of the Softbank telecommunications company that can interpret
emotions.

276