Robots and virtual characters are becoming increasingly used in our everyday life. Yet, they
are still far from being able to maintain long-term social relationships with users. It also …

The objective of my Ph. D is to develop a computational model of social relations for artificial
companions. Such a model should consider the representation of the social relation, its …

The emergence of mixed human-agent societies poses challenges in designing artificial
companion agents (social robots or virtual characters) that are able to form meaningful …

Robots and agents are becoming increasingly prominent in everyday life, taking on a variety
of roles, including helpers, coaches, and even social companions. A core requirement for …

An increasing number of elderly people leads to demand for social robots to support health
care and independent life. An overview of various potential applications of social robots is …

In order for a computer agent to be accepted and function properly within a community of
people, an appropriate social interaction scheme has to be established. We conducted an …

Artificial companion agents are defined as hardware or software entities designed to provide
companionship to a person. The senior population are facing a special demand for …

This paper discusses the design space of believable social robots. We synthesise ideas and
concepts from areas as diverse as comics design and rehabilitation robotics. First, we revisit …

Physical embodiment of robots provides users with a social environment. To design social
robots further to be accepted as our companions, we need to understand the essential …

Although there have been studies demonstrating that users will respond favorably to
synthetic companions and team-mates in computer games, there has been little research …