EICA: Combining Interactivity with Autonomy for Social Robots

The success of social robots in achieving natural coexistence with humans depends on both their level of autonomy and their interactive abilities. Although many robotic architectures have been suggested and many researchers have focused on human-robot interaction, a robotic architecture that can effectively combine interactivity and autonomy is still unavailable. In this paper a robotic architecture called EICA (Embedded Interactive Control Architecture) is presented that tries to fill this gap. The proposed architecture can help robotic designers in creating sociable robots that can combine both natural interactivity with humans and reactive fast response to the physical and social environmental changes. The resulting robots can then be more socially intelligent than the robots designed using current deliberative, reactive or even hybrid architectures.