Robotic gaming and user interaction: Impact of autonomous behaviors and emotional features

This paper aims to investigate the impact associated with the introduction of emotional features and autonomous behaviors in robotic games leveraging drones. To this purpose, a game named Protoman Revenge incorporating the above elements is implemented by following known guidelines regarding game design, in general, and so-called Physically Interactive Robotic Games (PIRGs), in particular. A user study is devised to evaluate how the above traits affect the individual’s experience and engagement. Obtained results could be possibly exploited to orient further research in the field of robotic gaming and other applications (not necessarily involving drones) w.r.t. to the perception of robot’s autonomy and of emotional encoding strategies.