Non-Dyadic Interaction: A Literature Review of 15 Years of Human-Robot Interaction Conference Publications

Going beyond dyadic (one-to-one) interaction has been increasingly explored in HRI. Yet we lack a comprehensive view on non-dyadic interaction research in HRI. To map out 15 years of works investigating non-dyadic interaction, and thereby identifying the trend of the field and future research areas, we performed a literature review containing all 164 publications (2006-2020) from the HRI conference investigating non-dyadic interaction. Our approach is inspired by the 4C framework, an interaction framework focusing on understanding and categorising different types of interaction between humans and digital artefacts. The 4C framework consists of eight interaction principles for multi-user/multi-artefact interaction categorised into four broader themes. We modified the 4C framework to increase applicability and relevance in the context of non-dyadic human-robot interaction. We identify an increasing tendency towards non-dyadic research (36% in 2020), as well as a focus on simultaneous studies (85% from 2006-2020) over sequential. We also articulate seven interaction principles utilised in non-dyadic HRI and provide specific examples. Last, based on our findings, we discuss several salient points of non-dyadic HRI, the applicability of the modified 4C framework to HRI and potential future topics of interest as well as open-questions for non-dyadic research.