I get it already! the influence of ChairBot motion gestures on bystander response

Abstract

How could a rearranging chair convince you to let it by? This paper explores how robotic chairs might negotiate passage in shared spaces with people, using motion as an expressive cue. The user study evaluates the efficacy of three gestures at convincing a busy participant to let it by. This within-participants study consisted of three subsequent trials, in which a person is completing a puzzle on a standing desk and a robotic chair approaches to squeeze by. The measure was whether participants moved out of the robot's way or not. People deferred to the robot in slightly less than half the trials as they were engaged in the activity. The main finding, however, is that over-communication cues more blocking behaviors, perhaps because it is annoying or because people want chairs to know their place (socially speaking). The Forward-Back gesture that was most effective at negotiating passage in the first trail was least effective in the second and third trial. The more subtle Pause and the slightly loud but less-aggressive Side-to-Side gesture, were much more likely to be deferred to in later trials, but not a single participant deferred to them in the first trial. The results demonstrate that the Forward-Back gesture was the clearest way to communicate the robot's intent, however, they also give evidence that there is a communicative trade-off between clarity and politeness, particularly when direct communication has an association with aggression. The takeaway for robot design is: be informative initially, but avoid over-communicating later.