ANDREA THOMAZ
The University of Texas at Austin

DAN SAFFER
Saffervescence Inc

DR. ANGELICA LIM
SoftBank Robotics

KAREN KAUSHANSKY

How important is it that we design robots to communicate emotions and intentions like humans? With home robots and autonomous vehicles as examples, we’ll discuss designing robot communication and how much we borrow from human qualities such as gender, voice, sounds, gestures and eye contact. And how much it even matters: some characteristics will be robot specific based on human communication but made their own – a lurch, a movement, haptic feedback, or an entirely new form of communication. Some believe robots need to be more than human to reinforce understanding, trust, loyalty, commitment. We’re building a new language: robot.