Effects of nonverbal communication on efficiency and robustness in human-robot teamwork

Abstract

Abstract-Nonverbal communication plays an important role in coordinating teammates' actions for collaborative activities. In this paper, we explore the impact of non-verbal social cues and behavior on task performance by a human-robot team. We report our results from an experiment where naïve human subjects guide a robot to perform a physical task using speech and gesture. The robot communicates either implicitly through behavior or explicitly through non-verbal social cues. Both selfreport via questionnaire and behavioral analysis of video offer evidence to support our hypothesis that implicit non-verbal communication positively impacts human-robot task performance with respect to understandability of the robot, efficiency of task performance, and robustness to errors that arise from miscommunication. Whereas it is already well accepted that social cues enhance the likeability of robots and animated agents, our results offer promising evidence that they can also serve a pragmatic role in improving the effectiveness human-robot teamwork where the robot serves as a cooperative partner.

Long-term assessment of a service robot in a hotel environment

“…This requires robust and versatile perception systems and solid interaction strategies to be developed. To date, much work has been dedicated to these research areas, looking for easy-to-use interfaces through which humans can communicate with robots in a natural way [19,4,6,14].…”

Role of expressive behaviour for robots that learn from people

“…turning the buttons ON), visually attending to the person's attention directing cues such as to where the human looks or points, looking back to the human once the robot presses a button to make sure its contribution is acknowledged, and pointing to buttons in the workspace to direct the human's attention towards them. Both self-report via questionnaire and behavioural analysis of video support the hypothesis that these non-verbal communication cues positively impact human -robot task performance with respect to understandability of the robot, efficiency of task performance and robustness to errors that arise from miscommunication (Breazeal et al 2005b). …”

Good Enough Yet? A Preliminary Evaluation of Human-Surrogate Interaction

“…Effective communication depends not just on the clarity and relevance of verbal utterances, but also on non-verbal cues that facilitate understanding of the speaker and regulation of the dialogue (Breazeal et al, 2005). These cues include gestures and displays of emotion.…”