As robots increasingly permeate diverse domains like healthcare, education, service industries and homes, accurately understanding humans’ responses to and behaviour towards robots is crucial. While many human-robot interaction (HRI) studies focus on either quantitative or qualitative approaches, we advocate a mixed-method approach. This study investigated robot norm violations by implementing a scenario where a mobile manipulator robot and a human, in-person, carry out a physical, competitive task. Sixty-two participants were recruited and randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control condition (balanced for age/gender). The scenario was a competitive scavenger hunt game where participants took turns with a robot. We investigated the robot behaviours’ effects on trust, discomfort, competence, enjoyment, participant behaviour and physiological changes. The mixed-method approach integrated physiological measurements, behavioural observations and qualitative responses, thus offering a comprehensive account of HRI dynamics in the context of norm violations. Questionnaire results reveal significant shifts in human perceptions and attitudes when social norms are violated by robots, compared to a norm-compliant control condition. Specifically, trust and enjoyment decrease, discomfort increases and the robot’s perceived competence is compromised. These findings are extended through additional analyses of participants’ physiological changes, behaviours and responses to open-ended questions. Behavioural observations indicated increased verbal engagement and emotional responses, while physiological data showed elevated stress levels in the experimental group. Our study highlights the advantage of a mixed-methods approach combining different qualitative and quantitative data, providing a more comprehensive picture of participants’ perceptions of a robot, and how they react and respond to robot norm violations.

Between 2% to 5% of children are affected by Developmental Coordination Disorders in Canada and have been diagnosed with upper limb impairments, which affect their daily lives and reduces their autonomy. Motor impairments can be part of progressive disorders, so despite regular therapy, progress remains fleeting. Affected individuals therefore consistently face many barriers, including entertainment opportunities, as availability of off-the-shelf inclusive technology is very limited. Our long-term goal is to develop a play-mediator robot, which would facilitate play between children with motor impairments and their peers or family members. Here, games that the robot can play are remotely controlled by the participants, using appropriate interfaces (e.g. joysticks). In this paper, we take the first step towards that goal and develop an adaptive joystick controller that can compensate for individual deficits. We monitor movement statistics to determine if re-calibration of the controller is necessary. Moreover, we propose a computational model of data ‘distortion’, as a tool for developers to test their technology in the very early stages of prototype development, without requiring access to participants. This work is validated with data from healthy adults and children with upper limb impairments.

Play is valuable in making therapy more enjoyable, and has been studied intensively in human-robot interaction. However, the use of robots as play-mediators in multiplayer games, and the study of the dynamics of players have barely been explored. In this work, pairs of participants played with the MyJay robot in a game with two collaborative conditions (Shared and Fusion). In the Shared condition, participants shared the tasks and in the Fusion condition, participants had to synchronize their commands for the robot. In previous work, we analyzed the video recordings and questionnaires and observed that participants perceived the Fusion condition as more challenging, and requiring more coordination, while the Shared condition was perceived as more enjoyable. This paper will report on new analyses based on physiological and joystick data. The results revealed different patterns of heart rate and usage of the joysticks in the two conditions, while no link between physiological data and enjoyment was found.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of norm-violating behaviour on human perception and attitudes towards robots. Specifically, we examined the impact of a robot performing social norm violations in the context of a competitive scavenger hunt game. During the game, the robot was programmed to engage in predefined behaviours considered as social norm violations, including both injunctive and descriptive norm violations (e.g., cheating, and making loud noises). The study used an experimental and control group, with participants either exposed to norm-violating behaviour or not, respectively. The results indicated that participants in the experimental group had a strong awareness of the norm-violating behaviour according to self-reported assessments. Additionally, post-questionnaire results revealed a significant difference in trust, overall enjoyment, and discomfort between the two groups. These findings show that in our study, participants expected robots to abide by both types of social norms (i.e., injunctive and descriptive) and that violations of them negatively impacted participants’ perceptions and attitudes towards robots. This further emphasizes the importance of considering social norms in the design and programming of robots for human-robot interactions.

Students with a learning disability (LD) generally require supplementary one-to-one instruction and support to acquire the foundational academic skills learned at school. Because learning is more difficult for students with LD, students can frequently display off-task behaviours to avoid attempting or completing challenging learning tasks. Re-directing students back to their learning task is a frequent strategy used by educators to support students. However, there have been limited studies investigating the use of assistive technology to support student re-direction, specifically in a "real-world" educational setting. In this in situ study, we investigate the impact of integrating socially assistive robot to provide re-direction strategies to students. A social robot, QT, was employed within the existing learning program during one-to-one remedial instruction sessions. The study comprised two phases, "Instruction as usual" (IAU) and "Robot-mediated instructions" (RMI). Both followed the students' one-to-one instructional program where students get personalised learning support from their instructors, except for the RMI phase which included a social robot as a tool. We investigated the impact of the robot on students' on-task behaviours and progress towards learning goals. The results of our mixed method analysis suggest that the robotic intervention supported students in staying on-task and completing their learning goal.