Perceptual Control Theory for Engagement and Disengagement of Users in Public Spaces.

This paper presents Perceptual Control Theory-a model that explains behaviour as an attempt to keep sensory inputs in a desired range and demonstrates that it can be used to develop an approach designed to make robots capable of human interaction. In particular, we present an approach that embodies the most salient features of the theory through a feedback loop. This approach has been implemented on a Pepper robot, and a preliminary experiment has been performed by deploying the robot in the entrance hall of a university building. The results show that the robot effectively engages and disengages the attention of people in 43% and 39% of cases, respectively. This result has been obtained in a fully natural setting where people were unaware of being involved in an experiment and therefore behaved spontaneously.