4.6 Article

Hey Robot, Which Way Are You Going? Nonverbal Motion Legibility Cues for Human-Robot Spatial Interaction

Journal

IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
Volume 6, Issue 3, Pages 5010-5015

Publisher

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2021.3068708

Keywords

Acceptability and trust; social HRI

Categories

Funding

  1. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
  2. Government of British Columbia
  3. Australian Research Council [DP200102858]
  4. Australian Research Council [DP200102858] Funding Source: Australian Research Council

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Research shows that the successful deployment of mobile robots in public spaces is closely related to the presence and choice of motion legibility cues. Following a user study, it was found that Projected Arrows as a motion legibility cue were more socially acceptable in most experimental conditions.
Mobile robots have recently been deployed in public spaces such as shopping malls, airports, and urban sidewalks. Most of these robots are designed with human-aware motion planning capabilities but are not designed to communicate with pedestrians. Pedestrians that encounter these robots without prior understanding of the robots' behaviour can experience discomfort, confusion, and delayed social acceptance. In this work we designed and evaluated nonverbal robot motion legibility cues, which communicate a mobile robot's motion intention to pedestrians. We compared a motion legibility cue using Projected Arrows to one using Flashing Lights. We designed the cues to communicate path information, goal information, or both, and explored different Robot Movement Scenarios. We conducted an online user study with 229 participants using videos of the motion legibility cues. Our results show that the absence of cues was not socially acceptable, and that Projected Arrows were the more socially acceptable cue in most experimental conditions. We conclude that the presence and choice of motion legibility cues can positively influence robots' acceptance and successful deployment in public spaces.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available