JAMES
JOINT ACTION FOR MULTIMODAL EMBODIED SOCIAL SYSTEMS

Welcome to the website of the JAMES project - Joint Action for Multimodal Embodied Social Systems, a research project funded by the European Commission through the Seventh Framework Programme from 2011-2014.

As robots become more integrated into our daily lives, they must increasingly deal with situations in which socially appropriate interaction is vital. In such settings, it is not enough for a robot simply to plan its actions to perform particular tasks; instead, the robot must also be able to satisfy social goals and obligations that arise through interactions with people in real-world settings. As a result, a robot requires not only the necessary physical skills to act in the world, but also the appropriate social skills to understand and respond to the intentions and needs of the people it interacts with.

The goal of JAMES was to develop a robot that was able to interact with humans in a socially-appropriate manner to perform tasks. The main demonstration of this behaviour was a bartending scenario in which multiple users could interact with the robot bartender to order drinks.