Design patterns for sociality in human-robot interaction

We propose that Christopher Alexander's idea of design patterns can benefit the emerging field of HRI. We first discuss four features of design patterns that appear particularly useful. For example, a pattern should be specified abstractly enough such that many different instantiations of the pattern can be uniquely realized in the solution to specific problems in context. Then, after describing our method for generating patterns, we offer and describe eight possible design patterns for sociality in human robot interaction: initial introduction, didactic communication, in motion together, personal interests and history, recovering from mistakes, reciprocal turn-taking in game context, physical intimacy, and claiming unfair treatment or wrongful harms. We also discuss the issue of validation of design patterns. If a design pattern program proves successful, it will provide HRI researchers with basic knowledge about human robot interaction, and save time through the reuse of patterns to achieve high levels of sociality.