Affective robotics centers on recognizing emotional states and generating artificial emotions through embodied robotic systems. This paper surveys the current state of the field, with a particular focus on bodily expressed emotion—both in recognizing affect through body movements and postures, and in generating movement that is parsed as affect by human observers. Framed through the lens of the performing arts, this examination provides insights into the expressive potential of robots, motivates key open questions, and highlights challenging problems, as presented through an art-inspired case study and foundational background material. A close engagement with the performing arts suggests intense malleability and diversity of bodily expression, challenging some of the field's prevailing goals—such as designing generally “happy” robotic movement—and emphasizing the importance of variables such as context and interactional intent. The paper concludes by proposing future directions for bodily expressed affective robotics that integrate advances from both robotics and the performing arts.

As robots are becoming increasingly common within social settings, understanding the drivers of effective Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) becomes crucial. One factor emerging as a potential key variable in HRI is social presence, which is the extent to which a person feels connected to, or aware of, the presence of another. In the context of HRI, social presence has been identified as a factor that shapes human responses to robots, impacting outcomes such as attachment, trust, and social influence. Social presence itself appears to be influenced by factors including the nature of the embodiment. However, HRI research examining social presence is limited by the lack of consistent operationalization of social presence and conflation with the variance in embodiment of the robot. The current pilot study is designed to tease apart embodiment and social presence by exploring the relative impacts of interactions with two matched representations of a social robot (physical and virtual), finding that even controlling for size, proximity and response mechanisms, physical embodiment is associated with higher reported social presence. The study also identified both consistencies and inconsistencies in the measurement of social presence across assessments. The findings provide a foundation for further study into social presence in HRI, by clarifying mechanisms of quantifying and experimentally manipulating social presence, allowing insight into ways in which this factor drives HRI.

Social Presence (SP) is a critical factor in human-robot interaction (HRI), influencing how users perceive and engage with social robots. Traditionally, SP has been conceptualized by focusing on the user's subjective perception of a robot's social capabilities, which we label, Attributed Social Presence (ASP). However, this perspective overlooks the inherent capabilities of robots that can engender a sense of presence, which we argue can be termed, Intrinsic Social Presence (ISP). In this paper we explicitly explore and distinguish between ASP and ISP, highlighting the limitations of solely focusing on attributed user perceptions in HRI. We address the challenges associated with the conceptual ambiguity of SP, the difficulties in benchmarking due to inconsistent definitions, and the lack of research examining robot presence modulation. To overcome these issues, we propose reframing SP as a multidimensional construct encompassing three interconnected domains. By emphasizing ISP and providing a practical framework for its implementation, this paper aims to enhance the development of adaptable, responsive robots capable of meaningful engagement. This approach bridges the gap between rigid robotic behaviour and the fluid, adaptive presence characteristic of human interactions, emphasizing that genuine trust and connection are integral to the full functionality and effectiveness of social robots.