Robots and Communication

Robots and Communication examines human-robot interactions as models of communication. Robots are intriguing communicators because they are created in such a variety of forms. Some are built to appear humanlike, while others are not humanlike in any way, with many different designs existing in the continuum between these extremes. In order to explore human interactions with robots from across this range—from familiar to radically other— this book employs a range of different communication theories and considers how each of them provides a different perspective on what happens when humans and robots meet and interact. The analysis of a variety of human-robot interactions also allows this book to take its findings full circle, to suggest new ways to think about what communication, and being a communicator, entails. Its argument therefore has implications not only for human-robot interaction design, but also for human communication theory and practice more generally.