Theory of Mind for Explainable Human-Robot Interaction

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Bauer, Marie S., Gachot, Julia, Kerzel, Matthias, Weber, Cornelius, Wermter, Stefan
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Bauer, Marie S.
Gachot, Julia
Kerzel, Matthias
Weber, Cornelius
Wermter, Stefan
author_facet Bauer, Marie S.
Gachot, Julia
Kerzel, Matthias
Weber, Cornelius
Wermter, Stefan
contents Within the context of human-robot interaction (HRI), Theory of Mind (ToM) is intended to serve as a user-friendly backend to the interface of robotic systems, enabling robots to infer and respond to human mental states. When integrated into robots, ToM allows them to adapt their internal models to users' behaviors, enhancing the interpretability and predictability of their actions. Similarly, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) aims to make AI systems transparent and interpretable, allowing humans to understand and interact with them effectively. Since ToM in HRI serves related purposes, we propose to consider ToM as a form of XAI and evaluate it through the eValuation XAI (VXAI) framework and its seven desiderata. This paper identifies a critical gap in the application of ToM within HRI, as existing methods rarely assess the extent to which explanations correspond to the robot's actual internal reasoning. To address this limitation, we propose to integrate ToM within XAI frameworks. By embedding ToM principles inside XAI, we argue for a shift in perspective, as current XAI research focuses predominantly on the AI system itself and often lacks user-centered explanations. Incorporating ToM would enable a change in focus, prioritizing the user's informational needs and perspective.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_23482
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Theory of Mind for Explainable Human-Robot Interaction
Bauer, Marie S.
Gachot, Julia
Kerzel, Matthias
Weber, Cornelius
Wermter, Stefan
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Within the context of human-robot interaction (HRI), Theory of Mind (ToM) is intended to serve as a user-friendly backend to the interface of robotic systems, enabling robots to infer and respond to human mental states. When integrated into robots, ToM allows them to adapt their internal models to users' behaviors, enhancing the interpretability and predictability of their actions. Similarly, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) aims to make AI systems transparent and interpretable, allowing humans to understand and interact with them effectively. Since ToM in HRI serves related purposes, we propose to consider ToM as a form of XAI and evaluate it through the eValuation XAI (VXAI) framework and its seven desiderata. This paper identifies a critical gap in the application of ToM within HRI, as existing methods rarely assess the extent to which explanations correspond to the robot's actual internal reasoning. To address this limitation, we propose to integrate ToM within XAI frameworks. By embedding ToM principles inside XAI, we argue for a shift in perspective, as current XAI research focuses predominantly on the AI system itself and often lacks user-centered explanations. Incorporating ToM would enable a change in focus, prioritizing the user's informational needs and perspective.
title Theory of Mind for Explainable Human-Robot Interaction
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.23482