Exploring Behavioral Creativity of a Proactive Robot

Creativity, in one sense, can be seen as an effort or action to bring novelty. Following this, we explore how a robot can be creative by bringing novelty in a human–robot interaction (HRI) scenario. Studies suggest that proactivity is closely linked with creativity. Proactivity can be defined as acting or interacting by anticipating future needs or actions. This study aims to explore the effect of proactive behavior and the relation of such behaviors to the two aspects of creativity: 1) the perceived creativity observed by the user in the robot’s proactive behavior and 2) creativity of the user by assessing how creativity in HRI can be shaped or influenced by proactivity. We do so by conducting an experimental study, where the robot tries to support the user on the completion of the task regardless of the end result being novel or not and does so by exhibiting anticipatory proactive behaviors. In our study, the robot instantiates a set of verbal communications as proactive robot behavior. To our knowledge, the study is among the first to establish and investigate the relationship between creativity and proactivity in the HRI context, based on user studies. The initial results have indicated a relationship between observed proactivity, creativity, and task achievement. It also provides valuable pointers for further investigation in this domain.