A proxemic-based HRI testbed

Abstract

This paper describes a novel, low cost HRI testbed for the evaluation of robot movement, gaze, audio style, and media content as a function of proximity. Numerous human-robot interaction studies have established the importance of proxemics in establishing trust and social consonance, but each has used a robot capable of only some component, for example gaze but not audio style. The Survivor Buddy proxemics testbed is expected to serve as blueprint for duplication or inspire the creation of other robots, enabling researchers to rapidly develop and test new schemes of proxemic based control. It is a small, four-degree of freedom, multi-media "head" costing approximately $2,000 USD to build and can be mounted on other robots or used independently. To enable proxemics support, Survivor Buddy can be coupled with either a dedicated range sensor or distance can be extracted from the embedded camera using computer vision. The paper presents a sample demonstration of proxemic competence for Survivor Buddy mounted on a search and rescue robot following the victim management scenario developed by Bethel and Murphy.