6. Conclusion

are actual performance parameters rather than technical capabilities alone. Despite its significance, context awareness in the design and development of social robots is still in its infancy. Another limiting factor the integration of social robots in society is ethics. Interaction in social groups and relationship of a single individual with a machine is influenced by a variety of meta-principles and paradigms; thus making roboethics a challenging task. Diversity of cultures and religions make modeling of sensitive issues like human dignity and integrity, respect and family, privacy and protection, a complex task. Preservation of common principles of humanity and human rights in occasions which involve robotic intervention must be assessed

The ultimate goal of anthropomorphism is to replicate a human being. Nevertheless our pursuit of making realistic humanoids might experience Mori's "Uncanny valley effect" at some point (Figure 6). Human expectations increase with a sophistication in design of a humanoid. This can attribute to people's rejection of anthropomorphic robots and other intelligent agents. On the other hand, recent studies like [56] suggest that shortcomings like mismatch between appearance

Despite great progression in the synthetic industry and mechatronics, we are still decades away from providing richer support for speech, gestures or expressions to machines. A look at the latest generation of humanoids reveals the gap between reality and fiction. The expressive behavior of robotic faces is still not life-like due to limitations of mechatronic design and control. Even for the most sophisticated generation of robots, displaying emotions reflects a

A robot's body is a mechanical structure composed of several rigid parts, connected to each other by joints. Currently each active joint has a restricted range of motion generated by actuators. Due to the complexity of design, manufacturing cost and mechanical dynamics, even the latest line of humanoids can imitate only basic tasks in a coordinated manner.

In contrast to conventional interactive systems, an interactive social robot must take its physical environment into consideration while communicating with users. Most real-world environments are unstructured, dynamic and noisy, making it challenging for robots. Although synthesized voice quality has improved over a period of time nevertheless communication between a human and a humanoid is still constrained by several factors like speech localization, language understanding, dialog management and non-verbal cues like gaze tracking etc.

An essential prerequisite to designing an intelligent system is to outline its functional requirements. Same holds true for the field of cognitive robotics. Nevertheless, the fact that cognitive science, as a discipline, is yet to establish normative models itself that can be realized in wellengineered systems, makes it difficult to give robots a capacity for cognition [57]. Research in

keeping ethical sensitivity in view.

18 Human-Robot Interaction - Theory and Application

certain degree of artificiality.

5.2. Hardware limitations vs. human expectations

5.3. Standard models and comparability issues

and movement or voice can also create an uncanny or eerie feeling.

As we progress, the reality of socially believable robots in our daily lives is becoming more vivid. The relationship between humans and robots has crept beyond Master–Slave but instead has become that of peers. Social robots are already assisting us in health care, education and entertainment. They are serving as our tour guides and office assistants. Soon they will be our companions in our homes. Nevertheless our optimism can dampen if we are unable to overcome the challenges and limitations, we face today. It is evident that technological advancement alone cannot contribute fully without complete understanding of humans and society. Efforts must be taken to reduce the complexity of human psychology and society in order to model effective human robot social interactions.

In order to achieve success, human in the loop concept must be incorporated as frequently as possible. Defining roles and rules might make it easier for a social robot to comprehend its surroundings and respond appropriately. Furthermore a socially interactive robot requires frequent interactions with a wide range of users: different genders, different cultural and social backgrounds, different ages, etc. for it to understand the needs and dimensions of various social situations. In many current applications and experimentations, social robots engage only in short-term interactions with their human counterparts and thus treat all humans in the same manner. This usually results in a failure in HRI as perceived by its users. As robot designers and engineers tackle with issues like cost effectiveness, user acceptance and social awareness, mass integration of these mechanical companions in our everyday life might take a while.
