The concept of the “user” is central to research in Human- Robot Interaction (HRI). Drawing on the field studies of functional service robots in public spaces, the paper contributes a conceptual framework for describing positions and roles humans can take beyond being robot users. We rely on the concept of “subject position” from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to map out people beyond users into three ecologies: Service, Street Life, and Public Discourse. Through the lens of these ecologies, we highlight how people encounter the robot as (i) an actor in service provision, (ii) a (social and material) actor moving with other members of the street, and (iii) a matter of public concern. The paper contributes a vocabulary for describing the diverse roles of humans and offers methodological suggestions for more holistic research and design of HRI. Further, we outline disciplinary and ethical considerations relating to designing with ecologies in mind.

Increasing encounters between people and autonomous service robots may lead to conflicts due to mismatches between human expectations and robot behaviour. This interactive online study (N = 335) investigated human-robot interactions at an elevator, focusing on the effect of communication and behavioural expectations on participants’ acceptance and compliance. Participants evaluated a humanoid delivery robot primed as either submissive or assertive. The robot either matched or violated these expectations by using a command or appeal to ask for priority and then entering either first or waiting for the next ride. The results highlight that robots are less accepted if they violate expectations by entering first or using a command. Interactions were more effective if participants expected an assertive robot which then asked politely for priority and entered first. The findings emphasize the importance of power expectations in human-robot conflicts for the robot’s evaluation and effectiveness in everyday situations.

The rapid advancement of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology has opened up new possibilities and challenges in the domain of human–agent interaction. As AVs become increasingly prevalent on our roads, it is crucial to understand how humans perceive and interact with these intelligent systems. This workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to explore the perception of cars as social agents. We explore the shift in user perception and the implications for interactions between autonomous vehicles, human drivers, and vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, etc.). Additionally, we investigate the communication of goals and intentions between cars and humans, as well as issues related to mixed agency, stakeholder perspectives, in-vehicle avatars, and human–vehicle power dynamics. The workshop aims to uncover the benefits, risks, and design principles associated with this emerging paradigm.

As automated shuttle buses gradually become a part of urban traffic solutions, their interactions with vulnerable road users need careful consideration. However, the cyclists’ perspectives on autonomous shuttle buses have not been explored extensively. This research addresses this gap by surveying 50 cyclists who regularly encounter automated shuttle buses. The results show that, in general, cyclists exhibit a high level of trust in the safety of the buses. Nevertheless, approximately one-third of the cyclists expressed disapproval as the buses tend to drive on the bicycle lane, leading them to wish for infrastructural solutions to avoid forcing cyclists to divert to pedestrian walkways. Identifying potential conflicts like these is vital for the development of effective and acceptable human-agent interactions in road traffic environments.

As autonomous service robots will become increasingly ubiquitous in our daily lives, human-robot conflicts will become more likely when humans and robots share the same spaces and resources. This thesis investigates the conflict resolution of robots and humans in everyday conflicts in the domestic and public context. Hereby, the acceptability, trustworthiness, and effectiveness of verbal and non-verbal strategies for the robot to solve the conflict in its favor are evaluated. Based on the assumption of the Media Equation and CASA paradigm that people interact with computers as social actors, robot conflict resolution strategies from social psychology and human-machine interaction were derived. The effectiveness, acceptability, and trustworthiness of those strategies were evaluated in online, virtual reality, and laboratory experiments. Future work includes determining the psychological processes of human-robot conflict resolution in further experimental studies.

Domestic service robots become increasingly prevalent and autonomous, which will make task priority conflicts more likely. The robot must be able to effectively and appropriately negotiate to gain priority if necessary. In previous human-robot interaction (HRI) studies, imitating human negotiation behavior was effective but long-term effects have not been studied. Filling this research gap, an interactive online study ($N=103$) with two sessions and six trials was conducted. In a conflict scenario, participants repeatedly interacted with a domestic service robot that applied three different conflict resolution strategies: appeal, command, diminution of request. The second manipulation was reinforcement (thanking) of compliance behavior (yes/no). This led to a 3×2×6 mixed-subject design. User acceptance, trust, user compliance to the robot, and self-reported compliance to a household member were assessed. The diminution of a request combined with positive reinforcement was the most effective strategy and perceived trustworthiness increased significantly over time. For this strategy only, self-reported compliance rates to the human and the robot were similar. Therefore, applying this strategy potentially seems to make a robot equally effective as a human requester. This paper contributes to the design of acceptable and effective robot conflict resolution strategies for long-term use.

Human-robot conflicts might occur in the future, for instance, if a robot requests a public resource (e.g., an elevator). It needs to be investigated how the robot's request can be designed acceptably and effectively regarding the robot type, modality, and politeness. In this interactive video-based online study (N = 390), a robot requested priority over an elevator either using a polite or an assertive conflict resolution strategy presented via speech or on the robot's display. The robot was either humanlike, zoomorphic, or mechanoid. The mechanoid robot achieved more compliance than the humanoid robot if it used a verbal command. When the humanoid robot displayed the command instead of using its voice, more participants granted the robot priority. This might indicate that politeness norms are triggered more by a humanoid design and that if a robot makes a command, the modality should match the robot type.

For designing the interaction with robots in healthcare scenarios, understanding how trust develops in such situations characterized by vulnerability and uncertainty is important. The goal of this study was to investigate how technology-related user dispositions, anxiety, and robot characteristics influence trust. A second goal was to substantiate the association between hospital patients' trust and their intention to use a transport robot. In an online study, patients, who were currently treated in hospitals, were introduced to the concept of a transport robot with both written and video-based material. Participants evaluated the robot several times. Technology-related user dispositions were found to be essentially associated with trust and the intention to use. Furthermore, hospital patients' anxiety was negatively associated with the intention to use. This relationship was mediated by trust. Moreover, no effects of the manipulated robot characteristics were found. In conclusion, for a successful implementation of robots in hospital settings patients' individual prior learning history - e.g., in terms of existing robot attitudes - and anxiety levels should be considered during the introduction and implementation phase.

When service robots will be employed in private and public spaces, conflicts in human-robot interaction (HRI) might arise. To gain priority and continue its tasks, the robot would benefit from conflict resolution strategies (CRS) that are acceptable and effective. Previous studies have mainly investigated verbal or text-based CRS. As verbal interaction might not suit every application context or robot type, movement-based CRS were investigated. First, four possible implementations were pre-tested in an online study (N = 101). Then two CRS varying in modality (verbal vs. motoric) and assertiveness (submissive vs. dominant) were tested for acceptance and compliance in a lab study (N = 31) and compared for three robot types (humanoid, zoomorphic, and mechanoid). The verbal appeal was the most effective strategy to achieve user compliance. The motoric dominant strategy (moving back and forth) was perceived as most assertive and least polite if applied by the mechanoid cleaning robot but was not more effective than the verbal strategy. These studies provide insights into the influence of robot type on the acceptability and effectiveness of robot conflict resolution behavior depending on the modality.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the opportunity to reduce accident and injury rates in urban areas and improve safety for vulnerable road users (VRUs). To realize these benefits, AVs have to communicate with VRUs like pedestrians. While there are proposed solutions concerning the visualization or modality of external human-machine interfaces, a research gap exists regarding the AVs’ communication strategy when interacting with pedestrians. Our work presents a comparative study of an autonomous delivery vehicle with three communication strategies ranging from polite to dominant in two scenarios, at a crosswalk or on the street. We investigated these strategies in an online-based video study in a German (N = 34) and a Chinese sample (N = 56) regarding compliance, acceptance and trust. We found that a polite strategy led to more compliance in the Chinese but not the German sample. However, the polite strategy positively affected trust and acceptance of the AV in both samples equally.

Automated driving has the potential to reduce road fatalities. However, the public opinion to use automated driving can be described as skeptical. To increase the use of automated driving features, we investigate the persuasion principle of opt-out permission policies for enabling the automation, meaning automatically enabling the automation if users do not veto. In a driving simulator study (n = 19), participants drove on three different tracks (city, highway, rural). Three different interface concepts (opt-out, opt-in, control) were examined regarding their effects on automation use, trust, and acceptance. We found that an opt-out activation policy may increase automation usage for some participants. However, opt-out was perceived as more persuasive and more patronizing than the other conditions. Most importantly, opt-out can lead to mode confusion and therefore to dangerous situations. When such an opt-out policy is used in an automated vehicle, mode confusion must be addressed.

Simulator studies have been conducted in the automotive domain since the 1960s. Recently, automated driving studies have become more popular as real-world automated cars start to emerge but at this time not all levels of automation can be realized. A simulation does not entail all details of real driving, creating a realistic simulation experience - both on a psychological and physical level - proposes recurring challenges. These are among others: sample acquisition, simulator sickness, simulator training, interface design, take-over requests and secondary tasks in automated driving simulator studies. In this paper, we review existing literature and summarize important lessons from simulations in the domain of driving automation to provide considerations for studies investigating driver behavior in the age of highly automated driving.