Who Am I? What Are You? Identity Construction in Encounters Between a Teleoperated Robot and People with Acquired Brain Injury

The paper highlights how the material affordances of a teleoperated robot (Telenoid) enable identity construction in interactions with people living with acquired brain injury (ABI). The focus is set on the identity construction of the robot in relation to both its operator and the interlocutors. The analysis is based on video recordings of a workshop in which people with ABI were communicating with a teleoperated robot for the first time. A detailed multimodal conversation analysis of video-recorded interactions demonstrates how identity construction (a) is embedded in the situated and interactional unfolding of the encounter and (b) is fragmented and reflexively intertwined with the identity construction of the other parties. The paper discusses how an understanding of identity as situated and interactional constructions contributes to the field of HRI and how teleoperated robots can be used in the field of communication impairment.