Prototyping realistic long-term human-robot interaction for the study of agent migration

Abstract

Abstract-This paper examines participants' experiences of interacting with a robotic companion (agent) that has the ability to move its "mind" between different robotic embodiments to take advantage of the features and functionalities associated with the different embodiments in a process called agent migration. In particular, we focus on identifying factors that can help the companion retain its identity in different embodiments. This includes examining the clarity of the migration behaviour and how this behaviour may contribute to identity retention. Nine participants took part in a long-term study, and interacted with the robotic companion in the smart house twice-weekly over a period of 5 weeks. We used Narrative-based Integrated Episodic Scenario (NIES) framework for designing long-term interaction scenarios that provided habituation and intervention phases while conveying the impression of continuous long-term interaction. The results show that NEIS allows us to explore complex intervention scenarios and obtain a sense of continuity of context across the long-term study. The results also suggest that as participants become habituated with the companion, they found the realisation of migration signaling clearer, and felt more certain of the identity of the companion in later sessions, and that the most important factor for this was the agent's continuation of tasks across embodiments. This paper is both empirical as well as methodological in nature.

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“…Nevertheless, this does not directly explain why the AMR proximity decreased the walking speed or increased the hesitation probability in terms of personal space. The distance between humans and robots has also been discussed from the viewpoint of participants' traits [68] and habituation, as revealed by a study conducted over several weeks [69][70][71][72]. In addition, the preferred distance changed depending on the experience with the robots [73].…”

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“…NIES works by connecting the episodic scenarios with an overall cohesive narrative, resulting in a sequence of significant events that participants may empathize with and experience during the sessions. It gives participants a more holistic, ongoing, and focused contact experience with the research prototypes (KOAY et al, 2016).…”

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“…Our motivation to include the mechanism of migration in our studies was based on the concept of one companion agent that may move between different robot embodi- ments while maintaining its memory and interaction history. Such changes in embodiment may be necessitated for example, by a breakdown of a specific robot platform or the need to access different functionalities and capabilities of another robot platform [37][38][39][40]. Moreover, future companion robots cannot be expected to have all functionalities that a user might want at that particular time or in future.…”