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Abstract

This paper presents the combined results of two studies that investigated how a robot should best approach and place itself relative to a seated human subject. Two live Human Robot Interaction (HRI) trials were performed involving a robot fetching an object that the human had requested, using different approach directions. Results of the trials indicated that most subjects disliked a frontal approach, except for a small minority of females, and most subjects preferred to be approached from either the left or right side, with a small overall preference for a right approach by the robot. Handedness and occupation were not related to these preferences. We discuss the results of the user studies in the context of developing a path planning system for a mobile robot.

How Should a Robot Approach Two People?

“…In all four configurations, the direction that the robot should approach the group from is (a) located in the largest unoccupied zone in the p-space, (b) in a direction where the robot is visible to both participants, and (c) in a direction where the robot maintains a maximal distance from both participants. The results for Configuration S agree with the prior results of Dautenhahn et al (2006) and Walters et al (2007), with the most comfortable directions of robot approach being in front of the person. While the similarity of results is unsurprising, it does validate our methodology for the single-person experiment and, by extension, the experiments with pairs of people.…”

“…This trend was also observed to be independent of a participant's personality traits, as found by Syrdal, Dautenhahn, Woods, Walters, & Koay (2006). Dautenhahn et al (2006) reports that robot approaches from a front-left or front-right direction are the most comfortable, as they are often perceived to be less confrontational than a direct, front-on approach. This understanding of a person's 'comfort profile' when approached by a robot has been incorporated into path planners that guide a robot's approach to a person in a social environment (Kessler, Schroeter, & Gross, 2011;Sisbot, Marin-Urias, Broquere, Sidobre, & Alami, 2010;Torta, Cuijpers, Juola, & van der Pol, 2011).…”

“…13 show the distribution of Rank 1 for the single-person configuration. The distribution of this most comfortable rank suggests an angular tolerance for where the robot can approach from and also provides evidence contrary to the claim of Dautenhahn et al (2006) that approaches from the front-diagonal directions (directions 7 and 1) are more comfortable. This can be explained by the fact that it is possible in this work for participants to mark several directions as equally comfortable, while require an explicitly preferred direction of approach.…”

“…Dautenhahn et al (2006), Walters et al (2007) and Ball, Rye, Silvera-Tawil, and Velonaki (2015a) have shown that people find robot approaches from 'frontal' regions to be the most comfortable, and robot approaches from 'rear' regions-where they cannot see the robot-to be the least comfortable. This trend was also observed to be independent of a participant's personality traits, as found by Syrdal, Dautenhahn, Woods, Walters, & Koay (2006).…”

Effects of Human Connection through Social Drones and Perceived Safety

“…Dautenhahn and his colleagues [13] studied human comfort while interacting with a social robot. They thought that feelings of safety with a robot would be impossible to study and instead user comfort should be the focus.…”