In this paper, we investigate the use of 'prosody' (the musical elements of speech) as a communicative signal for intuitive human-robot interaction interfaces. Our approach, rooted in Research through Design (RtD), examines the application of prosody in directing a quadruped robot navigation. We involved ten team members in an experiment to command a robot through an obstacle course using natural interaction. A human operator, serving as the robot's sensory and processing proxy, translated human communication into a basic set of navigation commands, effectively simulating an intuitive interface. During our analysis of interaction videos, when lexical and visual cues proved insufficient for accurate command interpretation, we turned to non-verbal auditory cues. Qualitative evidence suggests that participants intuitively relied on prosody to control robot navigation. We highlight specific distinct prosodic constructs that emerged from this preliminary exploration and discuss their pragmatic functions. This work contributes a discussion on the broader potential of prosody as a multifunctional communicative signal for designing future intuitive robotic interfaces, enabling lifelong learning and personalization in human-robot interaction.

翻译：本文旨在探究"韵律"（即语音中的音乐性元素）作为直觉式人机交互界面的沟通信号。我们采用"基于设计的研究"（Research through Design, RtD）方法，考察韵律在四足机器人导航指令中的应用。研究团队组织十名成员参与实验，通过自然交互方式指挥机器人穿越障碍赛道。由人类操作员作为机器人的感知与处理代理，将人类语言转化为基础导航指令，模拟直观界面的运作机制。在分析交互视频时，当词汇与视觉信息不足以准确解析指令时，我们转而依赖非语言听觉线索。定性研究证据表明，参与者会本能地借助韵律控制机器人导航。我们着重揭示在此初步探索中涌现的特定韵律结构，并讨论其语用功能。本研究系统探讨了韵律作为多功能沟通信号在设计未来直观机器人交互界面中的潜在价值，为人机交互中的终身学习与个性化发展提供了新思路。