From Preventing Robot Misalignments to Responding to Children's Interpretations of Them

Abstract

Social robots deployed in children's group activities inevitably encounter moments where interaction becomes locally problematic. These moments are often treated as system errors to be prevented, yet they are a normal feature of social interaction. Drawing on conversation-analytic video analysis of robot-mediated photo-sharing activities with children, this paper examines how misalignment unfolds in real time and how it is managed by participants. First, we identify a recurrent interactional trajectory in which a robot action produces local trouble that children detect and manage through social and embodied repair practices, while the robot does not participate in repair and may persist in the same course of action. Second, we develop an interactional model that captures this trajectory and specifies where repair-sensitive robot participation becomes relevant. The model reframes robot agency in terms of monitoring projected outcomes, recognizing participants' orientations to trouble, and engaging in contingent repair. This perspective shifts human-robot interaction design from preventing misalignment toward enabling robots to participate as accountable agents in interactional repair.