Multi-party open-ended conversation with a social robot
. Participants reported clear social presence and positive engagement, although technical barriers such as audio-based speaker recognition errors and response latency affected the fluidity of group interactions. The results highlight both the promise and limitations of LLM-based multi-party interaction and outline concrete directions for improving multimodal cue integration and responsiveness in future social robots.
Authors
- Giulio Antonio Abbo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6301-0028)
- Martijn Catrycke
- Maria Jose Pinto-Bernal
- Tony Belpaeme
Institutions
- Ghent University (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Frontiers in Robotics and AI
- Published
- 2026-04-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2026.1766383
- Primary Topic
- Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Universiteit Gent
- Vlaamse regering
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds UGent
- HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council