From speech to emotional interaction: EmotiRob project

Abstract. This article presents research work done in the domain of nonverbal emotional interaction for the EmotiRob project. It is a com-ponent of the MAPH project, the objective of which is to give comfort to vulnerable children and/or those undergoing long-term hospitalisa-tion through the help of an emotional robot companion. It is important to note that we are not trying to reproduce human emotion and be-havior, but trying to make a robot emotionally expressive. This paper will present the different hypotheses we have used from understanding to emotional reaction. We begin the article with a presentation of the MAPH and EmotiRob project. Then, we quickly describe the speech undestanding system, the iGrace computational model of emotions and integration of dynamics behavior. We conclude with a description of the architecture of Emi, as well as improvements to be made to its next generation. Key words: emotion, interaction, companion robot, dynamic behavior