QiChatbot¶

Creating a QiChatbot¶

Build a QiChatbot from a list of Topics. A Topic is created from a topic file (.top), and uses QiChat syntax.

See also QiChat Language.

shop.top content:

topic: ~shop()

concept:(buy) [buy purchase]

# human driven discussion with one level depth
u: (~buy) Do you want to buy wine or beer ?
    u1: (wine) Let me show you my wines. ^endDiscuss(wine)
    u1: (beer) Let me show you my beers. ^endDiscuss(beers)
    u1: (_*) i can't answer for $1 . Do you want to buy wine or beer ? ^stayInScope

Java code:

// Create a topic
val topic: Topic = TopicBuilder.with(qiContext)
                          .withResource(R.raw.shop)
                          .build()

// Create a QiChatbot
val qichatbot: QiChatbot = QiChatbotBuilder.with(qiContext)
                                      .withTopic(topic)
                                      .build()

// Create a topic
Topic topic = TopicBuilder.with(qiContext)
                          .withResource(R.raw.shop)
                          .build();

// Create a QiChatbot
QiChatbot qichatbot = QiChatbotBuilder.with(qiContext)
                                      .withTopic(topic)
                                      .build();

Ending a chat¶

Cancelling a QiChatbot does not cancel the Chat that handles it, the other chatbots will still be able to reply to user sentences. If you want to stop the chat when a qiChatbot is stopped you must track the state of the QiChatbot and manually stop the chat when the QiChatbot ends.

// Create a QiChatbot
val qichatbot: QiChatbot = QiChatbotBuilder.with(qiContext)
                                            .withTopic(topic)
                                            .build()

// Create a Chat
val chat: Chat = ChatBuilder.with(qiContext)
                             .withChatbot(qichatbot)
                             .build()

// Execute the chat asynchronously
val fchat: Future<Void> = chat.async().run()

// Stop the chat when the qichatbot is done
qichatbot.addOnEndedListener { endReason ->
    Log.i(TAG, "qichatbot end reason = $endReason" )
    fchat.requestCancellation()
}

// Create a QiChatbot
final QiChatbot qichatbot = QiChatbotBuilder.with(qiContext)
                                            .withTopic(topic)
                                            .build();

// Create a Chat
final Chat chat = ChatBuilder.with(qiContext)
                             .withChatbot(qichatbot)
                             .build();

// Execute the chat asynchronously
final Future<Void> fchat = chat.async().run();

// Stop the chat when the qichatbot is done
qichatbot.addOnEndedListener(endReason -> {
    Log.i(TAG, "qichatbot end reason = " + endReason);
    fchat.requestCancellation();
});

Managing not understood cases¶

When building your set of topics, make sure it manages correctly these different pitfalls:

• The remote speech recognition is not available (think about WiFi issue for instance),
• The human does not speak loud nor clear,
• The human says something unexpected,
• The robot answers you defined uses an undefined variable.

All these cases, should be managed systematically.

For further details, see:

• Dialog/NotUnderstood,
• Dialog/SpeakFailure,
• Dialog/Fallback.

Disabling body language while speaking¶

By default, Pepper doesn’t stay motionless while speaking, he makes relevant gestures according to what he is saying: this is his body language.

You can choose to keep this behaviour or to disable it with a setSpeakingBodyLanguage.

To disable the body language, use BodyLanguageOption.DISABLED:

qiChatbot.speakingBodyLanguage = BodyLanguageOption.DISABLED

qichatbot.setSpeakingBodyLanguage(BodyLanguageOption.DISABLED);

See also: Disabling the body language while listening.

Retrieving recommendations¶

Recommendations give you access to the verbal inputs available to the user to interact with the robot when using a QiChatbot.

The QiChatbot object provides 3 different recommendation types:

• global recommendations,
• focused topic recommendations,
• scope recommendations.

When asking for recommendations, the maxRecommendations parameter is used to indicate the maximum amount of recommendations to provide.

Global recommendations¶

Global recommendations correspond to all the activated u: rules loaded in the QiChatbot (except private rules).

val globalRecommendations: List<Phrase> = qiChatbot.globalRecommendations(3)

List<Phrase> globalRecommendations = qiChatbot.globalRecommendations(3);

Focused topic recommendations¶

Focused topic recommendations correspond to all the activated u: rules in the currently focused topic. It may include private rules.

val focusedTopicRecommendations: List<Phrase> = qiChatbot.focusedTopicRecommendations(3)

List<Phrase> focusedTopicRecommendations = qiChatbot.focusedTopicRecommendations(3);

Scope recommendations¶

Scope recommendations correspond to all the activated sub-rules of the current scope.

val scopeRecommendations: List<Phrase> = qiChatbot.scopeRecommendations(3)

List<Phrase> scopeRecommendations = qiChatbot.scopeRecommendations(3);