Object schemas for responsive robotic language use

The use of natural language should be added to a robot system without sacrificing responsiveness to the environment. In this paper, we present a robot that manipulates objects on a tabletop in response to verbal interaction. Reactivity is maintained by using concurrent interaction processes, such as visual trackers and collision detection processes. The interaction processes and their associated data are organized into object schemas, each representing a physical object in the environment, based on the target of each process. The object schemas then serve as discrete structures of coordination between reactivity, planning, and language use, permitting rapid integration of information from multiple sources.