As multi-robot environments become more common, it is important to assess the robots' impact on the humans interacting with them and its magnitude. We investigated whether an interaction with two simple non-humanoid robots can be perceived as an intentional collusion aimed to deceive the person interacting with them. We evaluated if such a negative interaction would result in shaping people's perception of the robots in the interaction and extend to shaping their attitudes towards robots in general. In the study, participants played a gambling game with two simple non-humanoid robots: a “Dealer” responsible for card shuffling and an “Advisor” providing recommendations. We tested participants' experience when the “Advisor” robot gave a false recommendation in the final round, causing them to lose all their winnings. Our findings indicated that this single instance of perceived deception led to a negative perception of the “Advisor” robot, and also negatively influenced people's attitudes toward robots in general, at least temporarily. This study highlights the importance of carefully designing interactions in multi-robot environments, even when the interaction involves very simple robots. Careful consideration of ingroup-outgroup effects and verifying that the robots' collaboration is not interpreted as intentional deception is essential for avoiding powerful negative effects that reach beyond the specific interaction with the robots.

Robots come in various forms and have different characteristics that may shape the interaction with them. In human-human interactions, height is a characteristic that shapes human dynamics, with taller people typically perceived as more persuasive. In this work, we aspired to evaluate if the same impact replicates in a human-robot interaction and specifically with a highly non-humanoid robotic object. The robot was designed with modules that could be easily added or removed, allowing us to change its height without altering other design features. To test the impact of the robot’s height, we evaluated participants’ compliance with its request to volunteer to perform a tedious task. In the experiment, participants performed a cognitive task on a computer, which was framed as the main experiment. When done, they were informed that the experiment was completed. While waiting to receive their credits, the robotic object, designed as a mobile robotic service table, entered the room, carrying a tablet that invited participants to complete a 300-question questionnaire voluntarily. We compared participants’ compliance in two conditions: A Short robot composed of two modules and 95cm in height and a Tall robot consisting of three modules and 132cm in height. Our findings revealed higher compliance with the Short robot’s request, demonstrating an opposite pattern to human dynamics. We conclude that while height has a substantial social impact on human-robot interactions, it follows a unique pattern of influence. Our findings suggest that designers cannot simply adopt and implement elements from human social dynamics to robots without testing them first.

Human societies rely on cooperation and mutual assistance, yet individuals often prioritize personal interests over acting prosocially in daily life. To explore the potential of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) to enhance prosocial behavior, we designed a robotic coffee machine that encourages a behavior that would benefit others. We examined the impact of embedding robotic gestures into a familiar context of making coffee in a public machine and tested participants’ willingness to fill in the water tank after making coffee. Participants’ behavior was compared to a baseline group performing the same task without the robotic gesture. Results revealed that the majority of participants in the experimental group demonstrated a willingness to fill in the water tank, indicating a prosocial inclination. Overall, participants reported a positive experience, with clear indications of their understanding of the robotic request to fill the water tank and recognition of the robot’s contribution to fostering prosocial behavior.

A main challenge in incorporating autonomous vehicles into urban environments concerns communication with pedestrians crossing in front of them. We introduce a robotic object for facilitating natural crossing interactions by leveraging pedestrians’ existing crossing habits. The robot was designed to fit on the vehicle’s dashboard and simulate head gestures to indicate if it is safe to cross. We evaluated the perception of the robot as mediating the AV’s communication and the comprehension of its gestures, in an in-person experiment. Participants were asked to cross the road in front of a vehicle that was presented as having autonomous driving capabilities. The robot was placed on the vehicle’s dashboard in a location where pedestrians habitually look. The results indicated that when asked to cross, participants immediately looked toward the driver’s seat and easily noticed the robot. They consistently categorized the robot’s gestures into ”cross” or ”do-not-cross” categories and reported a strong sense of safety. Our findings suggest that robotic objects are a promising technology for mediating natural pedestrian-AV communication.

Autonomous actuated-interfaces provide a unique research opportunity for shared-control interfaces, as the human and the interface collaborate using the physical interaction modality, manipulating the same physical elements at the same time. Prior studies show that sharing control with physical modality interfaces often results in frustration and low sense-of-control. We designed and implemented adaptive behavior for shared-control actuated-interfaces that extends prior work by providing humans the ability to anticipate the autonomous action, and then accept or override it. Results from a controlled study with 24 participants indicate better collaboration in the Adaptive condition compared with the Non-adaptive one, with improved sense-of-control, feelings of teamwork, and overall collaboration quality. Our work contributes to shared-control tangible, shape-change, and actuated interfaces. We show that leveraging minimal non-verbal social cues to physically communicate the actuated-interface’s intent, coupled with providing autonomy to the human to physically accept or override the shift-in-control, improves the shared-control collaboration.

With recent advancements in AI, there are growing concerns about human biases implemented in AI decisions. Threats posed by AI bias may be even more drastic when applied to robots that are perceived as independent entities and are not mediated by humans. Furthermore, technology is typically perceived as objective and there is a risk that people will embrace its decisions without considering possible biases. In order to understand the extent of threats brought about by such biases, we evaluated participants’ responses to a gender-biased robot mediating a debate between two participants (male and female). The vast majority of participants did not associate the robot’s behavior with a bias, despite being informed that the robot’s algorithm is based on human examples. Participants attributed the robot’s decisions to their own performance and used explanations involving gender stereotypes. Our findings suggest that robots’ biased behaviors can serve as validation for common human stereotypes.

Having a sense of security is considered a basic human emotional need. It increases confidence, encourages exploration, and enhances relationships with others. In this study we tested the possibility of leveraging the interaction with a simple non-humanoid robot for increasing participants’ sense of security. The robotic behavior was designed with a psychology expert in attachment theory and was translated into the robot’s morphology by an animator. Specifically, the robot was designed to be attentive and responsive using lean, gaze and nodding gestures. We compared participants’ experience in the secure condition to the experience of participants who interacted with a non-responsive robot. We further compared the participants’ implicit sense of security between the robotic conditions and an additional baseline condition in which participants did not interact with the robot. Our findings indicate the potential in leveraging a simple non-humanoid robot for enhancing humans’ sense of security.

Opening encounters are an integral element of everyday social interaction, and are essential for forming and maintaining social relationships between people. We present an abstract non-humanoid robotic object called the Greeting Machine, designed to communicate positive and negative social cues in the context of opening encounters. The design includes a small ball rolling on a larger dome, with a custom gear and lever mechanism that supports a variety of subtle movements. Gestures were designed with movement experts, and were evaluated using a physical first-person qualitative study. Our findings reveal that an abstract robot designed with no specific metaphor can effectively take part in opening encounters. Furthermore, a minimal brief movement, designed as an Approach or Avoid gesture, may be enough to evoke positive and negative experiences. The ability to create opening encounters with low Degree of Freedom abstract robots is promising, both due to the low complexity, low cost, and design flexibility of such devices, and due to the possible generalization of the Approach and Avoid gestures for a variety of morphologies.

We describe the design process of “Vyo”, a personal assistant serving as a centralized interface for smart home devices. Building on the concepts of ubiquitous and engaging computing in the domestic environment, we identified five design goals for the home robot: engaging, unobtrusive, device-like, respectful, and reassuring. These goals led our design process, which included simultaneous iterative development of the robot's morphology, nonverbal behavior and interaction schemas. We continued with user-centered design research using puppet prototypes of the robot to assess and refine our design choices. The resulting robot, Vyo, straddles the boundary between a monitoring device and a socially expressive agent, and presents a number of novel design outcomes: The combination of TUI “phicons” with social robotics; gesture-related screen exposure; and a non-anthropomorphic monocular expressive face. We discuss how our design goals are expressed in the elements of the robot's final design.