Publications • Human-Centered Computing • Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Feeling with a Robot – The Role of Anthropomorphism by Design and The Tendency to Anthropomorphize in Human-Robot Interaction

Schömbs, Sarah; Klein, Jacobe; Roesler, Eileen

Frontiers Media SA | 2023

Appeared in: Frontiers in Robotics and AI

The implementation of anthropomorphic features in regard to appearance and framing is widely supposed to increase empathy towards robots. However, recent research used mainly tasks that are rather atypical for daily human-robot interactions like sacrificing or destroying robots. The scope of the current study was to investigate the influence of anthropomorphism by design on empathy and empathic behavior in a more realistic, collaborative scenario. In this online experiment, participants collaborated either with an anthropomorphic or a technical looking robot and received either an anthropomorphic or a technical description of the respective robot. After the task completion, we investigated situational empathy by displaying a choice-scenario in which participants needed to decide whether they wanted to act empathically towards the robot (sign a petition or a guestbook for the robot) or non empathically (leave the experiment). Subsequently, the perception of and empathy towards the robot was assessed. The results revealed no significant influence of anthropomorphism on empathy and participants’ empathic behavior. However, an exploratory follow-up analysis indicates that the individual tendency to anthropomorphize might be crucial for empathy. This result strongly supports the importance to consider individual difference in human-robot interaction. Based on the exploratory analysis, we propose six items to be further investigated as empathy questionnaire in HRI.

The Influence of Distance and Lateral Offset of Follow Me Robots on User Perception

Siebert, Felix Wilhelm; Klein, Jacobe; Rötting, Matthias; Roesler, Eileen

Frontiers Media SA | 2020

Appeared in: Frontiers in Robotics and AI

Robots that are designed to work in close proximity to humans are required to move and act in a way that ensures social acceptance by their users. Hence, a robot's proximal behavior toward a human is a main concern, especially in human-robot interaction that relies on relatively close proximity. This study investigated how the distance and lateral offset of “Follow Me” robots influences how they are perceived by humans. To this end, a Follow Me robot was built and tested in a user study for a number of subjective variables. A total of 18 participants interacted with the robot, with the robot's lateral offset and distance varied in a within-subject design. After each interaction, participants were asked to rate the movement of the robot on the dimensions of comfort, expectancy conformity, human likeness, safety, trust, and unobtrusiveness. Results show that users generally prefer robot following distances in the social space, without a lateral offset. However, we found a main influence of affinity for technology, as those participants with a high affinity for technology preferred closer following distances than participants with low affinity for technology. The results of this study show the importance of user-adaptiveness in human-robot-interaction.

Let's Not Get Too Personal – Distance Regulation for Follow Me Robots

Siebert, Felix Wilhelm; Pickl, Johannes; Klein, Jacobe; Rötting, Matthias; Roesler, Eileen

Springer International Publishing | 2020

Appeared in: HCI International 2020 – Late Breaking Posters

The spatial behavior of robots working alongside humans critically influences the experience of comfort and personal space of users. The spatial behavior of service robots is especially important, as they move in close proximity to their users. To identify acceptable spatial behavior of Follow Me robots, we conducted an experimental study with 24 participants. In a within-subject design, human-robot distance was varied within the personal space (0.5 and 1.0 m) and social space (1.5 and 2.0 m). In all conditions, the robot carried a personal item of the participants. After each condition, the subjective experience of users in their interaction with the robot was assessed on the dimensions of trust, likeability, human likeness, comfort, expectation conformity, safety, and unobtrusiveness. The results show that the subjective experience of participants during the interaction with the Follow Me robot was generally more positive in the social distance conditions (1.5 and 2.0 m) than in the personal distance conditions (0.5 and 1 m). Interestingly, the following behavior was not perceived as comparable to humanhuman following behavior in the 0.5 and 2.0 m conditions, which were rated as either closer than human following or further away. This result, in combination with the more positive user experience in the social space conditions, illustrates that an exact transfer of interaction conventions from human-human interaction to human-robot interaction may not be feasible. And while users generally rate the interaction with Follow Me robots as positive, the following-distance of robots will need to be considered to optimize robot-behavior for user acceptance.