The physical design of a robot suggests expectations of that robot's functionality for human users and collaborators. When those expectations align with the true capabilities of the robot, interaction with the robot is enhanced. However, misalignment of those expectations can result in an unsatisfying interaction. This paper uses Mechanical Turk to evaluate user expectation through the use of design metaphors as applied to a wide range of robot embodiments. The first study (N=382) associates crowd-sourced design metaphors to different robot embodiments. The second study (N=803) assesses initial social expectations of robot embodiments. The final study (N=805) addresses the degree of abstraction of the design metaphors and the functional expectations projected on robot embodiments. Together, these results can guide robot designers toward aligning user expectations with true robot capabilities, facilitating positive human-robot interaction.
University of Southern California（南加州大学）；University of Wisconsin–Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校）
Physical embodiment is a required component for robots that are structurally coupled with their real-world environments. However, most socially interactive robots do not need to physically interact with their environments in order to perform their tasks. When and why should embodied robots be used instead of simpler and cheaper virtual agents? This paper reviews the existing work that explores the role of physical embodiment in socially interactive robots. This class consists of robots that are not only capable of engaging in social interaction with humans, but are using primarily their social…
The Ballad of the Bots: Sonification Using Cognitive Metaphor to Support Immersed Teleoperation of Robot Teams
Bristol VR Lab, University of the West of England（西英格兰大学布里斯托尔虚拟现实实验室）；Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England（西英格兰大学布里斯托尔机器人实验室）；Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England（西英格兰大学数字文化研究中心）；Creative Technologies Lab, University of the West of England（西英格兰大学创意技术实验室）
Socially Assistive Robot in Sexual Health: Group and Individual Student-Robot Interaction Activities Promoting Disclosure, Learning and Positive Attitudes
The use of robots in educational settings is growing increasingly popular. Yet, many of the learning tasks involving social robots do not take full advantage of their physical embodiment. MobiAxis is a proposed learning task which uses the physical capabilities of a Pepper robot to teach the concepts of positive and negative multiplication along a number line. The robot is embodied with a number of multi-modal socially intelligent features and behaviours which are designed to enhance learning. This paper is a position paper describing the technical and theoretical implementation of the task, a…
Reframing Human-Robot Interaction Through Extended Reality: Unlocking Safer, Smarter, and More Empathic Interactions with Virtual Robots and Foundation Models
Division of Robotics, Perception, and Learning, KTH Royal Institute of Technology（KTH皇家理工学院机器人、感知与学习部）；Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen（卑尔根大学临床医学系）
Engagement and Disclosures in LLM-Powered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Exercises: A Factorial Design Comparing the Influence of a Robot vs. Chatbot Over Time
Transforming Monolithic Foundation Models into Embodied Multi-Agent Architectures for Human-Robot Collaboration
Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University（计算机科学与技术系，清华大学）；School of Artificial Intelligence, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications（人工智能学院，北京邮电大学）
Mapping Embodied Affective Touch Strategies on a Humanoid Robot
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture（工程与建筑学院）；IDLab-AIRO, Ghent University – imec（IDLab-AIRO，根特大学 – imec）；Italian Institute of Technology（意大利理工学院）；School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, KTH Royal Institute of Technology（电气工程与计算机科学学院，皇家理工学院）
Socially assistive robots could help to support people's well-being in contexts such as art therapy where human therapists are scarce, by making art such as paintings together with people in a way that is emotionally contingent and creative. However, current art-making robots are typically either contingent, controlled as a tool by a human artist, or creative, programmed to paint independently, possibly because some complex and idiosyncratic concepts related to art, such as emotion and creativity, are not yet well understood. For example, the role of personalized taste in forming beauty evalua…
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev（内盖夫本-古里安大学）；Delft University of Technology（代尔夫特理工大学）
Robots' visual qualities (VQs) impact people's perception of their characteristics and affect users' behaviors and attitudes toward the robot. Recent years point toward a growing need for Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) in various contexts and functions, interacting with various users. Since SAR types have functional differences, the user experience must vary by the context of use, functionality, user characteristics, and environmental conditions. Still, SAR manufacturers often design and deploy the same robotic embodiment for diverse contexts. We argue that the visual design of SARs requires…
Are We Generalizing from the Exception? An In-the-Wild Study on Group-Sensitive Conversation Design in Human-Agent Interactions
Cologne Cobots Lab, TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences（科隆机器人实验室，TH Köln应用科学大学）；KI Park e.V. & FAU - Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg（KI Park协会与弗赖堡-艾森纳赫大学）
The body is not there to compute: Comment on "Informational embodiment: Computational role of information structure in codes and robots" by Pitti et al
Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague（控制系，电气工程学院，布拉格捷克技术大学）
RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP)（理化学研究所革新智能统合研究中心）
Intelligent agents have great potential as facilitators of group conversation among older adults. However, little is known about how to design agents for this purpose and user group, especially in terms of agent embodiment. To this end, we conducted a mixed methods study of older adults' reactions to voice and body in a group conversation facilitation agent. Two agent forms with the same underlying artificial intelligence (AI) and voice system were compared: a humanoid robot and a voice assistant. One preliminary study (total n=24) and one experimental study comparing voice and body morphologi…
