Toward making robots invisible-in-use

Abstract

A major challenge facing human-robot interaction is understanding how people will interact and cope with increasingly agentic objects in their everyday lives. As more robotic technologies enter human environments, it is critical to consider other models of human-robot interaction that do not always demand focused attention. Drawing from the ubiquitous computing perspective and its theoretical foundations in phenomenology, we present the analysis and results from interviews (N = 19) and surveys (N = 46) regarding personal experiences with tools that became invisible-in-use, shedding light upon ways that robots might do the same, and regarding equestrian (N = 6) perspectives on working with animal agents. This chapter presents lessons learned from these studies and recommendations for designing robots to be more invisible-in-use.