"I was Confused by It; It was Confused by Me:" Exploring the Experiences of People with Visual Impairments around Mobile Service Robots

Abstract

Mobile service robots have become increasingly ubiquitous. However, these robots can pose potential accessibility issues and safety concerns to people with visual impairments (PVI). We sought to explore the challenges faced by PVI around mainstream mobile service robots and identify their needs. Seventeen PVI were interviewed about their experiences with three emerging robots: vacuum robots, delivery robots, and drones. We comprehensively investigated PVI's robot experiences by considering their different roles around robots---direct users and bystanders. Our study highlighted participants' challenges and concerns about the accessibility, safety, and privacy issues around mobile service robots. We found that the lack of accessible feedback made it difficult for PVI to precisely control, locate, and track the status of the robots. Moreover, encountering mobile robots as bystanders confused and even scared the participants, presenting safety and privacy barriers. We further distilled design considerations for more accessible and safe robots for PVI.

Robot in the Loop: An Ethnography-Based Approach to Robotics and Reinforcement Learning to Support On-Site Construction Work

“…Fields including HCI/CSCW and HRI have explored ethnography as a method to study work practices, technology use contexts, and accordingly guide the design of robotic technologies. In HCI/CSCW, for example, ethnography has been used to understand people's perception of robots [36][37][38], examine users' encounters with existing robots [39][40][41], co-design conceptual scenarios for human-robot collaboration [42], or reveal robots' impact on collaboration in surgery and manufacturing contexts [43][44][45]. To a lesser degree, the field of HRI also engaged with ethnographic approaches to guide technology design [46][47][48][49][50][51][52].…”

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