Shall We Dance? Resonance of Intentions with an Embodied Agent based on the Free Energy Principle

Physical joint action shapes a sense of partnership by enabling individuals to negotiate intentions through mutual coordination. However, conventional physical agents typically rely on pre-learned transition rules, which limits their ability to adapt to a partner’s improvisational interventions. To address this, we propose a physical agent grounded in the Free Energy Principle that negotiates intentions through physical interaction. The agent uses a predictive coding-based RNN to dynamically update their internal intention (μ) and time constant (τ), minimizing real-time prediction errors caused by physical contact. This mechanism allows the agent to synchronize with the human’s motion pattern and tempo. In the demonstration “Shall We Dance?”, visitors hold hands with the agent and haptically perceive the resistance at the hands disappear as the agent infers the human’s new intent.