Abstract

This paper suggests to turn to the performative arts for insights that may help the fluent coordination and jointaction timing of human-robot interaction (HRI). We argue that theater acting and musical performance robotics could serve as useful testbeds for the development and evaluation of action coordination in robotics. We also offer two insights from theater acting literature for HRI: the maintenance of continuous subsurface processes that manifest in motor action, and an emphasis on fast, inaccurate responsiveness using partial information and priming in action selection.