Similarity, Complementarity, and Agency in HRI

Abstract

Robotic teammates are becoming prevalent in increasingly complex and dynamic operational and social settings. For this reason, the perception of robots operating in such environments has transitioned from the perception of robots as tools, extending human capabilities, to the perception of robots as teammates, collaborating with humans and displaying complex social cognitive processes. The goal of this paper is to introduce a discussion on an integrated set of robotic design elements, as well as provide support for the idea that human-robot interaction requires a clearer understanding of social cognitive constructs to optimize human-robot collaboration. We develop a set of research questions addressing these constructs with the goal of improving the engineering of artificial cognitive systems reliant on natural human-robot interaction.