Measuring Relational Trust in Human-Robot Interactions

Abstract

Trust is an integral part of almost any human-robot interaction (HRI). The most technologically advanced robot can sit unused if a human interactant does not trust it. Conversely, a robot that is overly trusted may be assumed to be more advanced than it truly is, resulting in over-reliance on an imperfect system [8]. One of the most widely used definitions for trust in HRI is that trust is "the attitude that an agent will help achieve an individual's goals in a situation characterized by uncertainty and vulnerability." [6]. As robots initially emerged into society in factory roles, their goals were clear and their performance was concretely measurable with metrics such as time to completion, number of errors in a given behavior, and behavior consistency over time. The humans who worked with them, therefore, could base their trust in the robots on how effectively they achieved these clearly defined goals.