Toward understanding social cues and signals in human–robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior

Abstract

As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human–robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot AvaTM mobile robotics platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot’s proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot’s social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot’s gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot’s mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals.

A bellboy robot: Study of the effects of robot behaviour on user engagement and comfort

“…To date, experimentation in user acceptance towards social and service robots has mainly been done in laboratory environments or under controlled conditions. Although simulations and modelling techniques have been common methods in Human-Robot Interaction studies (Marcos et al, 2009(Marcos et al, , 2013, nowadays it is common practice for experiments in the lab to include fully functional robots (Fiore et al, 2013). However, the environment the robot is planned to operate in adds another level of complexity, which should be taken into account when performing service robot related studies.…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Social Robotics Research: Identifying Research Trends and Knowledgebase

“…This cluster is about robotics working with humans in hostile environments, rescue strategies and multi-agent teamwork coordination [35]. It also includes advanced cognition technologies for fully-autonomous robots [52]. Pattern recognition techniques are also of relevance [53,54].…”

A Large-Scale Study of Surrogate Physicality and Gesturing on Human–Surrogate Interactions in a Public Space

“…Kiesler et al (2008) presented preliminary results, indicating that eating habits could be influenced by the presence of robotic or virtual agents. Fiore et al (2013) studied how the gaze and proxemic behavior of a mobile robot could be perceived as social signals in human-robot interactions and affect one's sense of social presence with the robot. Siegel et al (2009) studied the effect of a robotic human's gender in persuading individuals to make a monetary donation.…”