Believing in BERT:Using expressive communication to enhance trust and counteract operational error in physical Human-robot interaction

Strategies are necessary to mitigate the impact of unexpected behavior in collaborative robotics, and research to develop solutions is lacking. Our aim here was to explore the benefits of an affective interaction, as opposed to a more efficient, less error prone but non-communicative one. The experiment took the form of an omelet-making task, with a wide range of participants interacting directly with BERT2, a humanoid robot assistant. Having significant implications for design, results suggest that efficiency is not the most important aspect of performance for users; a personable, expressive robot was found to be preferable over a more efficient one, despite a considerable trade off in time taken to perform the task. Our findings also suggest that a robot exhibiting human-like characteristics may make users reluctant to ‘hurt its feelings’; they may even lie in order to avoid this

The Cognitive Correlates of Anthropomorphism

While anthropomorphism in human-robot interaction is often discussed, it still appears to lack formal grounds. We recently proposed a first model of the dynamics of anthropomorphism that reflects the evolution of anthropomorphism in the human-robot interaction over time. The model also accounts for non-monotonic effects like the so-called novelty effect. This contribution proposes to build upon this model to investigate the cognitive correlates induced by a sustained human-robot interaction and we present here our initial ideas. We propose to distinguish three cognitive phases: pre-cognitive, familiarity-based, and adapted anthropomorphism, and we outline how these phases relate to the phenomenological evolution of anthropomorphism over time

Conversational AI Agents: Investigating AI-Specific Characteristics that Induce Anthropomorphism and Trust in Human-AI Interaction

The investment in AI agents has steadily increased over the past few years, yet the adoption of these agents has been uneven. Industry reports show that the majority of people do not trust AI agents with important tasks. While the existing IS theories explain users’ trust in IT artifacts, several new studies have raised doubts about the applicability of current theories in the context of AI agents. At first glance, an AI agent might seem like any other technological artifact. However, a more in-depth assessment exposes some fundamental characteristics that make AI agents different from previous IT artifacts. The aim of this dissertation, therefore, is to identify the AI-specific characteristics and behaviors that hinder and contribute to trust and distrust, thereby shaping users’ behavior in human-AI interaction. Using a custom-developed conversational AI agent, this dissertation extends the human-AI literature by introducing and empirically testing six new constructs, namely, AI indeterminacy, task fulfillment indeterminacy, verbal indeterminacy, AI inheritability, AI trainability, and AI freewill

Breakdown: mechanical dysfunction and anthropomorphism

Breakdown: Mechanical Dysfunction and Anthropomorphism is a practice-led research project examining the role of mechanical breakdown in the anthropomorphic process. Current theoretical approaches to mechanical breakdown identify it as a homogenous, revelatory event “a sort of breach opened up by objects.” (Baudrillard, 2004: 62). Breakdown challenges this stereotyping and seeks to examine the range of gesture and affect that differing forms of mechanical breakdown exhibit. In doing so it also develops Sherry Turkle’s notion of anthropomorphism as a connective rather than ascriptive process (2005: 351) in the light of Karen Barad’s “performative account of material bodies” (2007: 139). Leading this research is Breakdown, the making, remaking, exhibition and reexhibition of 36 breaking-machines. These breaking-machines; simple mechanical devices made from reconfigured found materials; approach breakdown and fail during their exhibition. They are then repaired or reconfigured by the artist ‘live’ while still on show. Throughout the research this role of the artist as repairman became a key method. The continual recombination of human and machine responding to the call of breakdown allowed for a more detailed understanding of the gestures of mechanical breakdown. This performative relationship considers the posthuman decentring of the Vitruvian man in the writing of Rosi Braidotti (2013: 2) and Karen Barad’s agential realism (Barad, 2007: 44) both of which insist that the human, rather than bounded and individual, be considered as part of a dispersed network of interacting parts. The thesis begins by investigating the performative relationship of Breakdown in detail. It describes a machine-human body that is materialised fleetingly by mechanical dysfunction. Through an intimate relationship with one machine, it then goes on to identify a typology of breakdown: seize, play, burnout and cutting loose, concluding that each emits differing expanding and contracting forces around which bodies disperse and coalesce. Finally, employing the flicker of a thaumatrope and the making of the science fiction film robot, the thesis posits that anthropomorphism is an integral element in the dissipation and reformation of human-machine bodies

Dynamics of Human-Robot Interaction in Domestic Environments

Domestic service robots are nowadays widely available on the consumer market. As such, robots have begun entering people’s homes and daily lives. However, it seems that the dissemination of domestic robots has not happened as easily and widespread as it was anticipated in the first place. Little is known about the reasons why because long-term studies of ordinary people using real robots in their homes are rare. To better understand how people interact, use and accept domestic robots, studies of human-robot interaction require ecologically valid settings and the user and their needs have to come into the focus. In this dissertation, we propose to investigate the dynamics of human-robot interaction in domestic environments. We first explore the field by means of a 6-month ethnographic study of nine households. We provided each of the households with a Roomba vacuum cleaning robot. Our motivation is to understand long-term acceptance and to identify factors that can promote and hinder the integration of a domestic service robot in different types of households. We would like to find out how people’s perception of the robot, and the way they interact with it and use it, evolve over time. Furthermore, as social factors were highlighted in previous studies on technology adoption in homes, we shed light on to what extent people view Roomba and other types of domestic robots as a social entity and to what extent they anthropomorphize it. Findings of this research can be used to guide the design of user-oriented robots that have the potential to lastingly become a valuable part within the home ecology. Then, we pursue the idea of developing our own domestic robot prototype that could be used in a household with children. We imagine a playful robot that aims to motivate young children to tidy up their toys. In a first evaluation of the robot in 14 family homes, we study the effect of a proactive and reactive robot behavior on children’s interaction with the robot and their motivation to tidy up. A follow-up experiment explores the possibility to sustain children’s engagement by manipulating the robot’s behavior in such way that it appears unexpected. We further investigate how far this influences children’s perception of the robot in terms of anthropomorphism. Our findings emphasize the importance of research in ecologically valid settings in order to obtain a better understanding of human-robot interaction, advance further the design of user-oriented robots and foster the long-term acceptance of these devices

Vertrauen in Roboter und dessen Beeinflussbarkeit durch sprachliches Framing

Collaborative robots (cobots) enable human-robot interactions in the workplace without safety fences. An appropriate level of trust by employees is critical to the success of these interactions. Anthropomorphic perceptions and fears of technological replacement affect trust formation. They can be influenced by linguistic framing, as this interdisciplinary empirical study shows

Vertrauen in Roboter und dessen Beeinflussbarkeit durch sprachliches Framing

Collaborative robots (cobots) enable human-robot interactions in the workplace without safety fences. An appropriate level of trust by employees is critical to the success of these interactions. Anthropomorphic perceptions and fears of technological replacement affect trust formation. They can be influenced by linguistic framing, as this interdisciplinary empirical study shows