Robot motion as mean of communication in human-robot interaction

Task-Consistent Signaling Motions for Improved Understanding in Human-Robot Interaction and Workspace Sharing

by Benjamin Camblor, Nassim Benhabib, David Daney, Vincent Padois, Jean-Marc Salotti

Published in Proceedings of the 2022 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '22)

Paper Abstract

In this paper, the concept of signaling motions of a robot interacting with a human is presented. These motions consist in using the redundant degrees of freedom of a robot performing a task as new means of meaningful robot-human communication. They are generated through quasi-static torque control, in consistency with the main robot task. A double within-subject (N=16) study is conducted to evaluate the effects of two signaling motions on the performance of a task by participants and on their behavior towards the robot. Our results show a positive effect on both the task execution and the participants behavior. Additionally, both signaling motions seem to improve the situation awareness of the participants by fueling their mental model throughout the interaction.

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