In this competition, humanoid robots will be tested on their interactive abilities. The goal of this competition is to improve the dialogue technology of robots with the aim of realizing robots that can interact naturally with people and support their activities.

In recent years, as seen in smart speakers such as Google Home and Amazon Alexa, there has been remarkable progress in spoken dialogue technology to respond to user comments with correct or human-like responses. Various competitions for this technology have also contributed to the rapid progress. In the future, such dialogue systems are expected to support our daily activities in various ways. However, dialogue in daily activities is more complex than dialogue with smart speakers, and even with current spoken dialogue technology, it is difficult to maintain a successful dialogue in various situations and achieve the desired goal. For example, in customer service through dialogue, it is necessary to respond appropriately to the different ways of speaking and requests of different customers. In this case, we humans can switch the speaking manner depending on the type of customer, and we can continue the dialogue by using not only our voice but also our gaze and facial expressions. However, this type of dialogue is not possible with the existing spoken dialogue system.

Humanoid robots can recognize not only the user's voice but also facial expressions and gestures using various sensors, and can express themselves in various ways such as gestures and facial expressions using their bodies. While more complex than spoken dialogue systems, many means of expression has the potential to successfully continue dialogue in a manner different from conventional dialogue systems. The research and development of this technology have just begun, and we hope to improve it through this competition.

In this competition, we use Android, which has a very human-like appearance. Android I can change its gaze and facial expressions, nod its head, shake its head, bow, and lean forward. The voice of Android I is a synthetic voice, and it can change the speed of speech, the pitch of the voice, and the volume of the voice.

The specification of Android I is:

• Height: 165cm

• Weight: 38kg

• Controllable degree of freedom: 18

• Actuator: Pneumatic actuator