Integration of the Multi-DOA Estimation Functionality to Human-Robot Interaction

Sound source localization is important in human interaction, such as in locating the origin of long-distance calls or facing other humans while in a conversation. It is of interest to apply such functionality to the core of human-robot interaction (HRI) and investigate its benefits, if any. In this paper, we propose three strategies for how to integrate the functionality of multiple directions-of-arrival (multi-DOA) estimation with a common scenario, in which the robot acts as a waiter while applying audio source localization. The proposed strategies are: a) the robot locates calls from users at a relatively long distance; b) the robot faces the user when taking the order; and c) the robot announces whether the acoustic environment is not conducive to understanding a speech command (mainly where more than one user speaks at once). It was seen that users react favourably to the functionality, and that it even has a noticeable influence on the success of the interaction