The use of social robots as instruments for social mediation has been gaining traction in the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). So far, the design of such robots and their behaviors is often driven by technological platforms and experimental setups in controlled laboratory environments. To address complex social relationships in the real world, it is crucial to consider the actual needs and consequences of the situations found therein. This includes understanding when a mediator is necessary, what specific role such a robot could play, and how it moderates human social dynamics. In this paper, we discuss six relevant roles for robotic mediators that we identified by investigating a collection of videos showing realistic group situations. We further discuss mediation behaviors and target measures to evaluate the success of such interventions. We hope that our findings can inspire future research on robot-assisted social mediation by highlighting a wider set of mediation applications than those found in prior studies. Specifically, we aim to inform the categorization and selection of interaction scenarios that reflect real situations, where a mediation robot can have a positive and meaningful impact on group dynamics.

翻译：社交机器人作为社会调解工具在人机交互领域日益受到关注。迄今为止，此类机器人及其行为的设计往往受控于实验室环境下的技术平台和实验设置。为应对现实世界中复杂的社会关系，必须充分考虑实际情境中的真实需求与后果，包括理解何时需要调解者、机器人可能扮演的具体角色，以及如何调节人类社交动态。本文通过分析一组展示真实群体情境的视频，探讨了机器人调解者的六种相关角色。我们进一步讨论了调解行为及评估此类干预成功与否的目标指标。我们希望本研究能通过揭示比以往研究更广泛的调解应用场景，为未来机器人辅助社会调解研究提供启示。具体而言，我们旨在为反映真实情境的交互场景分类与选择提供参考，使调解机器人能对群体动态产生积极且有意义的正面影响。