Creating human-robot rapport with mobile sculpture

Abstract

There is much discussion in the robotics community concerning the nature of people's impressions of robots. This pilot study employed the use of mobile robots coupled with artistic elements to create an environment conducive to human participation. PhotoBot took photos of participants (n = 16) in a gallery space and provided them with a physical copy of their image, while ProjectorBot displayed 3D Kinect imagery for participants to view. Participants completed a self-report measure of rapport (Bernieri's Rapport Criterion); the results of which suggest that they experienced a high degree of positive interaction with the robots.