On the pertinence of Social Practices for Social Robotics

In the area of consumer robots that need to have rich social interactions with humans, one of the challenges is the complexity of computing the appropriate interactions in a cognitive, social and physical context. We propose a novel approach for social robots based on the concept of Social Practices. By using social practices robots are able to be aware of their own social identities (given by the role in the social practice) and the identities of others and also be able to identify the different social contexts and the appropriate social interactions that go along with those contexts and identities.