Evaluating Human-Robot Interaction

Abstract

The experience of interacting with a robot has been shown to be very different in comparison to people's interaction experience with other technologies and artifacts, and often has a strong social or emotional componenta difference that poses potential challenges related to the design and evaluation of HRI. In this paper we explore this difference, and its implications on evaluating HRI. We outline how this difference is due in part to the general complexity of robots' overall context of interaction, related to their dynamic presence in the real world and their tendency to invoke a sense of agency.We suggest that due to these differences HCI evaluation methods should be applied to HRI with care, and we present a survey of select HCI evaluation techniques from the perspective of the unique challenges of robots. We propose a view on social interaction with robots that we call the holistic interaction experience, and introduce a set of three perspectives for exploring social interaction with robots: visceral factors of interaction, social mechanics, and social structures. We demonstrate how our three perspectives can be used in practice, both as guidelines to discuss and categorize robot interaction, and as a component in the evaluation process. Further, we propose an original heuristic for brainstorming various possibilities of interaction experiences based on a concept we call the interaction experience map.

A Dog Tail for Utility Robots: Exploring Affective Properties of Tail Movement

“…There is a well-established application of ideas from affective computing to human-robot interaction, where impressions of robotic affect can be used to help users gain high-level state information without re- quiring them to read complex sensory information [6,11,12,31]. Some have suggested the use of facial expressions and embodied gestures, where examples include mechanized faces with eyebrows, mouths, etc.…”

Living with robots : investigating the user acceptance of social robots in domestic environments

“…It is being argued that robots, being physically embedded and enabled with sociable interaction, creates a unique and affect-charged sense of active agency similar to that of living entities (Young et al, 2011). This might cause human-robot interaction, in a sense, to be more like one is interacting with another living entity than it is like interacting with a machine.…”

“…In human-human interaction research, expectations have played an important role (Blanck, 1993). Because people react similarly to robots as they do to other people (Kerepesi et al, 2006), it could be that people hold high expectations of the robot's ability to behave as a social agent (Young et al, 2011). When expectations are not met in actual experiences with a robot, an expectation gap could arise (Lohse, 2011).…”

“…It is being argued that robots, because they are physically embodied and enabled with sociable interaction, create a unique and affectively charged sense of active agency that is similar to that of living entities (Young et al, 2011).…”

Long-Term Evaluation of a Telepresence Robot for the Elderly: Methodology and Ecological Case Study

“…Previous research in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) emphasizes that a prolonged interaction between a user and a robot can influence the attitude and behavior of the person and thus the user experience and the relationship with the adopted aid [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. An example of longitudinal study is the one related to the Paro robot, a seal-shaped robot endowed with touch sensors, able to respond to external stimuli and designed for therapeutic interventions with older people and children with genetic syndromes and developmental disorders.…”