Robot Errors in Proximate HRI: How Functionality Framing Affects Perceived Reliability and Trust

Advancements within human-robot interaction generate increasing opportunities for proximate, goal-directed joint action (GDJA). However, robot errors are common and researchers must determine how to mitigate them. In this article, we examine how expectations for robot functionality affect people's perceptions of robot reliability and trust for a robot that makes errors. Here 35 participants (n = 35) performed a collaborative banner-hanging task with an autonomous mobile manipulator (Toyota HSR). Each participant received either a low- or high-functionality framing for the robot. We then measured how participants perceived the robot's reliability and trust prior to, during, and after interaction. Functionality framing changed how robot errors affected participant experiences of robot behavior. People with low expectations experienced positive changes in reliability and trust after interacting with the robot, while those with high expectations experienced a negative change in reliability and no change in trust. The low-expectation group also showed greater trust recovery following the robot's first error compared to the high group. Our findings inform human-robot teaming through: (1) identifying robot presentation factors that can be employed to facilitate trust calibration and (2) establishing the effects of framing, functionality, and the interactions between them to improve dynamic models of human-robot teaming.