Practical and methodological challenges in designing and conducting human-robot interaction studies

Abstract

Human-robot interaction is a rapidly growing research area which more and more roboticists and computer scientists are moving into. Publications on work resulting from such studies rarely consider in detail the practical and methodological problems encountered. This paper aims to highlight and critically discuss such problems involved in conducting human-robot interaction studies. We provide some examples by discussing our experiences of running two trials that involved humans and robots physically interacting in a common space. Our discussion emphasises the need to take safety requirements into account, and minimise the risk of physical harm to human subjects. Ethical considerations are considered, which are often within a formal or legal framework depending on the host country or institution. We also discuss future improvements for features of our trials and make suggestions as to how to overcome the challenges we encountered. We hope that the lessons learnt will be used to improve future human-robot interaction trials.