Legibility of Robot Behavior

Abstract

A key requirement for a smooth and safe human-robot collaboration is for the robot to make its intentions and goals clear to its human collaborator. Such behavior is referred to as legible robot behavior. The thesis at hand investigates legibility of robot navigation behavior in human-robot path crossing situations. We conducted five different experiments in order to explore how legible state-of- the-art navigation algorithms are perceived and how the robot should behave in a path crossing situation to be as legible as possible. Furthermore, we investigated how the spatial relationship influences human expectations in a path cross- ing scenario and which other important Human-Robot Interaction properties like perceived safety, comfort, and likability are influenced by the legibility of robot navigation behavior.