Interpersonal distance effects on trust relationships in human-robot interaction

摘要

With the increase of robotics in military, industrial, and domestic contexts, humans are increasingly required to interact with and accept these robots. Trust is an integral part of successful interactions and acceptance in human-robot interaction (HRI) (Hancock, 2011). Multiple factors influence trust in HRI, including proxemics, which refers to the amount of personal space a robot should allow around a human to maintain comfort levels. While too great of a distance can lead to a loss of interaction quality, too small a distance can cause discomfort for the human user. In this work, we will examine differences in human trust based on robot proximity. Roles also influence trust. Scholtz (2003) classifies five different types of human roles in HRI: supervisor, operator, mechanic, peer, and bystander. The first four classifications refer to teammate relationships, each allowing the user to exercise some degree of control over the robot. The fifth role, bystander, has little to no information regarding the robot and people in this role are unable to exert any direct control over it. Differences in interaction between these two roles will be evaluated in the present study. The purpose of this work is to evaluate differences in user trust in HRI based on proximity and role. In a previous experiment, we evaluated the validity of using computer simulations in trust in HRI research, and will continue with that methodology in this experiment. For this experiment, we hypothesize that trust will be significantly higher in the teammate conditions compared to the bystander conditions. We also believe that trust will differ based on touch distance.