Who Takes the Lead? Automated Scheduling for Human-Robot Teams

Abstract

Scheduling interactions between humans and robots presents unique challenges — while robots do not have humans' natural ability to improvise and adapt to new setbacks, humans are not able to work with the same precision as robots. Additionally, hesitation, interruptions, and anticipatory action all influence a human's perception and efficiency in social tasks, but are not inherent features of current algorithms.This paper explores both the challenges and opportunities of automated scheduling as a useful tool for human-robot interactions.We contribute an initial exploratory pilot study that suggests that when a robot takes the lead in dictating a schedule, there are gains in team efficiency without loss of humans' perceived comfort.