A Pattern Approach to Comprehensible and Pleasant Human–Robot Interaction

Abstract

HRI designers are faced with the task of creating robots that are easy and pleasant to use for the users. The growing body of research in human–robot interaction (HRI) is still mainly focused on technical aspects of the interaction. It lacks defined guidelines that describe how behavioral expressions for social robots need to be designed to promote high usability and positive user experience. To achieve this goal, we propose to apply the concept of design patterns to HRI. We present a design process that provides step-by-step guidance and methods for HRI designers to generate high quality behavioral patterns for social robots that can be used for different robots and use cases. To document the resulting patterns, we developed a documentation format that provides a clear, standardized structure to note down all relevant aspects of a pattern so that others can understand its design recommendations and apply them to their own robot and use cases. In the present paper, we demonstrate our pattern approach based on an example and describe how we arrived at a pattern language of 40 behavioral patterns that found the basis for future social robot design and related research activities.

Zentrum für positive Service-Robotik im Kundenkontakt (PosiBot) - Förderkennzeichen 16SV8632

“…Im BMBF-Projekt NIKA wurde bereits erforscht, dass generische Interaktionsverhaltensmuster (engl. patterns) einen Mehrwert für die Entwicklung von sozialen Service-Robotern und für eine menschengerechte MRI bieten(Pollmann and Ziegler 2021). Für Unterhaltungsanwendungen für ältere Menschen im häuslichen Umfeld wurden Verhaltensmuster entwickelt, auf drei verschiedenen Robotertypen implementiert und als Verhaltensmuster-Bibliothek aufbereitet, wobei sowohl eine positive UX als auch das Einhalten ethischer Prinzipien im Fokus standen(Fronemann et al 2022).…”