How To Train Your Drone (HTTYD) is a novel, embodied human-drone interaction demonstration that enables an individual to shape the mapping between a drone and their own body. By demonstrating this system we aim to give conference attendees the opportunity to, not only shape their own interactions with a drone, but to experience being shaped by it. We hope this demonstration inspires researchers to build systems that allow for this kind of mutual shaping. We believe that supporting such interactions is vital to real world deployments of robots as they leverage embodied ways that people can understand robots, their environments, and the people around them.

When autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) share space with humans, establishing trust becomes essential for safe, seamless, and effective interaction. Clear communication of a robot's intent is key to building trust by reducing uncertainty and enabling intuitive interaction. This study explores how AMRs can effectively communicate their intentions through simple, intuitive modalities like movement and light, making their actions more predictable and fostering trust. We designed distinct movement cues combined with light patterns to communicate two key intents; yielding (backing off) and making way (prompting humans to move), tested across four different scenarios. To evaluate the clarity and effectiveness of these behaviours, we conducted an online video study analysing qualitative feedback from open-ended responses. Additionally, we collected quantitative data assessing participants' perceptions of the safety and trustworthiness of the robot. Our findings demonstrate a strong correlation between these perceptions and the robot's ability to display socially aware behaviours.

In this paper, we aim to explore how humans give unstructured free-form natural language feedback towards correcting robot task policies. We present a qualitative study based on crowd-sourced feedback from 66 participants. Participants give feedback on the execution of three robotic tasks in the form of mobile navigation, dexterous object manipulation and a robot arm opening a door. We find through reflexive thematic analysis which features participants reference most and what other patterns are present in the feedback, including that responders do not naturally give concrete and actionable feedback. We attribute the lack of feedback concreteness to a lack of engagement with robot behavior and false assumptions about who is receiving the feedback and how much knowledge participants have. The study presents a step towards better understanding unstructured language feedback for robotic learning.

How To Train Your Drone is a novel human-drone interaction that demonstrates the generative potential of a design metaphor: the umwelt. We describe the concept of the umwelt and detail how we applied it to inform our soma design process, creating an interactive space where somatic understandings between human and drone could emerge. The system was deployed for a month into a shared household. We describe how three people explored and shaped the umwelts of their drones, leading to unique and intimate human-drone couplings. We discuss the compatibility of the umwelt to soma design practice and identify future avenues for research inspired by artificial life and evolutionary robotics. As our contribution, we illustrate how the umwelt as a design metaphor, can open up a generative new design space for human-drone interaction.

We present mechanical sympathy as a generative design concept for cultivating somaesthetic relationships with machines and machine-like systems. We identify the qualities of mechanical sympathy using the design case of How to Train your Drone (HTTYD), a unique human-drone research product designed to explore the process by which people discover and co-create the somaesthetic potential of drones. We articulate the qualities – (i) machine-agency, (ii) oscillations, and (iii) aesthetic pursuits – by using descriptive and reflective accounts of our design strategies and of our co-creators engaging with the system. We also discuss how each quality can extend soma design research; conceptualizing of appreciative, temporal, and idiosyncratic relationships with machines that can complement technical learning and enrich human-machine interaction. Finally, we ground our concept in a similar selection of works from across the HCI community.

In a long-term commitment to designing for the aesthetics of human–drone interactions, we have been troubled by the lack of tools for shaping and interactively feeling drone behaviours. By observing participants in a three-day drone challenge, we isolated components of drones that, if made transparent, could have helped participants better explore their aesthetic potential. Through a bricolage approach to analysing interviews, field notes, video recordings, and inspection of each team’s code, we describe how teams 1) shifted their efforts from aiming for seamless human–drone interaction, to seeing drones as fragile, wilful, and prone to crashes; 2) engaged with intimate, bodily interactions to more precisely probe, understand and define their drone’s capabilities; 3) adopted different workaround strategies, emphasising either training the drone or the pilot. We contribute an empirical account of constraints in shaping the potential aesthetics of drone behaviour, and discuss how programming environments could better support somaesthetic perception–action loops for design and programming purposes.

Drone Chi is a Tai Chi inspired human-drone interaction experience. As a design research project, situated within somaesthetic interaction design, where a central topic is cultivating bodily and sensory appreciation to improve one's quality of life. Drone Chi investigates the potential of autonomous micro-quadcopters as a design material for somaesthetic HCI. Through a quasi-chronological account of the design process, this pictorial articulates how the sensory experiences of Tai Chi were integrated into Drone Chi. Taking a slow and open-ended design research approach, we iteratively developed the project through somaesthetic, product design and engineering perspectives and drew heavily on design analogies and imagery for inspiration. This elevated the influence of the soma amongst narrow engineering parameters and usability requirements. This pictorial serves as a reflective resource for designers who are experimenting with merging their native discipline with someasthetic interaction design.

Prior psychology studies have shown that eating ice cream increases happiness, while human-computer interaction work has shown that interactive technology can enrich the eating experience. We explore the opportunity to combine these two through WeScream!, a playful social gustosonic system we designed-social gustosonic referring to the link between the acts of eating and listening as part of a social multisensory experience. WeScream! consists of two interdependent ice-cream cones that allow users to interact with musical sounds generated through the act of eating ice cream together. We report on an in-the-wild study that highlights how our system facilitated a "hard fun" experience through eating together, increased participants' awareness of relatedness, and drew shared attention to the ice cream's taste via increased face-to-face interaction. Drawing on these study insights, we also present three design tactics to guide designers in designing future social gustosonic experiences. Ultimately, we aim to contribute to a playful future of social eating experiences, supporting people in enjoying eating together.

Somaesthetics - motivated by improving life quality via appreciation for bodily and sensory experiences - is increasingly influencing HCI designs. Investigating the potential of drones as a material for somaesthetic HCI, we designed Drone Chi: a Tai Chi-inspired close-range human-drone interaction experience. The design process for Drone Chi has been informed by the soma design approach and the Somaesthetic Appreciation concept from HCI literature. The artifact expands somaesthetic HCI by exemplifying dynamic and intimate somaesthetic interactions with a robotic design material, and body movements in expansive 3D space. To characterize the Drone Chi experience, we conducted an empirical study with 32 participants. Analysis of participant accounts revealed 4 themes that articulate different aspects of the experience: Looping Mental States, Environment, Agency vs. Control, and Physical Narratives. From these accounts and our craft knowledge, we derive 5 design implications to guide the development of movement-based close-range drone interactions.

Human-Computer Integration (HInt) is an emerging paradigm in which computational and human systems are closely interwoven. Integrating computers with the human body is not new. however, we believe that with rapid technological advancements, increasing real-world deployments, and growing ethical and societal implications, it is critical to identify an agenda for future research. We present a set of challenges for HInt research, formulated over the course of a five-day workshop consisting of 29 experts who have designed, deployed and studied HInt systems. This agenda aims to guide researchers in a structured way towards a more coordinated and conscientious future of human-computer integration.