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In designing and evaluating human-robot interactions and interfaces, researchers often use a simulated robot due to the high cost of robots and time required to program them. However, it is important to consider how interaction with a simulated robot differs from a real robot; that is, do simulated robots provide authentic interaction? We contribute to a growing body of work that explores this question and maps out simulated-versus-real differences, by explicitly investigating empathy: how people empathize with a physical or simulated robot when something bad happens to it. Our results suggest that people may empathize more with a physical robot than a simulated one, a finding that has important implications on the generalizability and applicability of simulated HRI work. Empathy is particularly relevant to social HRI and is integral to, for example, companion and care robots. Our contribution additionally includes an original and reproducible HRI experimental design to induce empathy toward robots in laboratory settings, and an experimentally validated empathy-measuring instrument from psychology for use with HRI.

As the proportion of older adults in the United States is growing, there is a need to develop methods that enable older adults to maintain well-being in their own homes. Stress, if not managed properly, can hinder older adults’ ability to maintain well-being. Efforts focusing on the development of novel methods of stress reduction have identified pet-type robots as being potentially efficacious. The present research will test this effect in one such robot absent of other social interactions and will disentangle the robot attributes that contribute to stress-reduction. Data collection is ongoing, but current results suggest that PARO may reduce stress, but the specific stress-reducing attributes are still unclear. Upon study completion, the results of this research will provide insights into PARO’s potential to be a therapeutic tool for older adults and inform design of such robots to maximize their stress-reduction capabilities.

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We conducted an HRI obedience experiment comparing an autonomous robotic authority to: (i) a remote-controlled robot, and (ii) robots of variant embodiments during a deterrent task. The results suggest that half of people will continue to perform a tedious task under the direction of a robot, even after expressing desire to stop. Further, we failed to find impact of robot embodiment and perceived robot autonomy on obedience. Rather, the robot's perceived authority status may be more strongly correlated to obedience.