An adaptive decision-making system supported on user preference predictions for human–robot interactive communication

Adapting to dynamic environments is essential for artificial agents, especially those aiming to communicate with people interactively. In this context, a social robot that adapts its behaviour to different users and proactively suggests their favourite activities may produce a more successful interaction. In this work, we describe how the autonomous decision-making system embedded in our social robot Mini can produce a personalised interactive communication experience by considering the preferences of the user the robot interacts with. We compared the performance of Top Label as Class and Ranking by Pairwise Comparison, two promising algorithms in the area, to find the one that best predicts the user preferences. Although both algorithms provide robust results in preference prediction, we decided to integrate Ranking by Pairwise Comparison since it provides better estimations. The method proposed in this contribution allows the autonomous decision-making system of the robot to work on different modes, balancing activity exploration with the selection of the favourite entertaining activities. The operation of the preference learning system is shown in three real case studies where the decision-making system works differently depending on the user the robot is facing. Then, we conducted a human–robot interaction experiment to investigate whether the robot users perceive the personalised selection of activities more appropriate than selecting the activities at random. The results show how the study participants found the personalised activity selection more appropriate, improving their likeability towards the robot and how intelligent they perceive the system. query Please check the edit made in the article title.