Robots without faces: non-verbal social human-robot interaction .

摘要

Non-facial and non-verbal methods of affective expression are essential for naturalistic social interaction in robots that are designed to be functional and lack expressive faces (appearance-constrained) such as those used in search and rescue, law enforcement, and military applications. This research identifies five main methods of non-facial and non-verbal affective expression (body movement, posture, orientation, color, and sound). From the psychology, computer science, and robotics literature a set of prescriptive recommendations was distilled for the appropriate nonfacial and non-verbal affective expression methods for each of three proximity zones of interest (intimate: contact--0.46 m, personal: 0.46--1.22 m, and social: 1.22--3.66 m). These recommendations serve as design guidelines for adding retroactively affective expression through software with minimal or no physical modifications to a robot or designing a new robot. This benefits both the human-robot interaction (HRI) and robotics communities. A large-scale, complex human-robot study was conducted to verify these design guidelines using 128 participants, and four methods of evaluation (self-assessments, psychophysiological measures, behavioral observations, and structured interviews) for convergent validity. The study was conducted in a high-fidelity, confined-space simulated disaster site with all robot interactions performed in the dark. This research investigated whether the use of non-facial and non-verbal affective expression provided a mechanism for naturalistic social interaction between a functional, appearance-constrained robot and the human with which it interacted.;As part of this research study, the valence and arousal dimensions of the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) were validated for use as an assessment tool for future HRI human-robot studies. Also presented is a set of practical recommendations for designing, planning, and executing a successful, large-scale complex human-robot study using appropriate sample sizes and multiple methods of evaluation for validity and reliability in HRI studies.;As evidenced by the results, humans were calmer with robots that exhibited non-facial and non-verbal affective expressions for social human-robot interactions in urban search and rescue applications. The results also indicated that humans calibrated their responses to robots based on their first robot encounter.