What do we mean by synchrony in human–robot interaction research?

Abstract Synchrony is a pervasive phenomenon in nature and interpersonal interactions. Lately, it has attracted more and more attention from the Human–Robot Interaction (HRI) community as well. The different concepts of synchrony have, however, not been formally defined in the HRI field, which lead to different interpretations and some conceptual confusion in the HRI literature. In this paper, we present a focused literature review of synchrony, highlight some ongoing conceptual ambiguity across the HRI domain and suggest a unifying framework that clarifies synchrony and related terms.