DCP-HRI

Most interactive AI systems and social robots are built on a simple assumption: greater availability and faster responsiveness lead to better interaction. While this paradigm improves efficiency and short-term usability, it also removes key interactional “costs”—such as waiting, hesitation, limited availability, withdrawal, selective ignoring, and strategic disengagement—that humans naturally use to regulate participation, negotiate expectations, and distribute responsibility.

This workshop challenges that assumption. We argue that the systematic elimination of these interactional mechanisms may fundamentally reshape how coordination, accountability, and social meaning emerge in human–AI interaction.

We introduce participation regulation as a foundational problem in human–robot and human–AI systems. Beyond deciding what action to take, intelligent agents must determine whether, when, and to what extent to participate in an interaction. Treating participation as a designable variable opens new directions in conditional availability, strategic non-response, graduated engagement, and interactional pacing.

Bringing together researchers from HRI, robotics, AI, and cognitive science, this workshop explores:

• Computational and behavioral models of conditional participation

• Experimental paradigms for identifying its effects on coordination and social dynamics

• Evaluation frameworks that move beyond task performance to capture relational and normative dimensions

Through invited talks, lightning presentations, and interactive discussions, we aim to rethink the role of responsiveness and establish a shared research agenda for participation-aware interactive systems.