The role of physical embodiment in human-robot interaction Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Autonomous robots are agents with physical bodies that share our environment. In this work, we test the hypothesis that physical embodiment has a measurable effect on performance and perception of social interactions. Support of this hypothesis would suggest fundamental differences between virtual agents and robots from a social standpoint and have significant implications for human-robot interaction. We measure task performance and perception of a robot's social abilities in a structured but open-ended task based on the Towers of Hanoi puzzle. Our experiment compares aspects of embodiment by evaluating: (1) the difference between a physical robot and a simulated one; (2) the effect of physical presence through a co-located robot versus a remote tele-present robot. We present data from a pilot study with 12 subjects showing interesting differences in perception of remote physical robot's and simulated agent's attention to the task, and task enjoyment. 2006 IEEE.

name of conference

  • ROMAN 2006 - The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication

published proceedings

  • ROMAN 2006 - The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication

author list (cited authors)

  • Wainer, J., Feil-Seifer, D. J., Shell, D. A., & Matari, M. J.

citation count

  • 169

complete list of authors

  • Wainer, Joshua||Feil-Seifer, David J||Shell, Dylan A||Matarić, Maja J

publication date

  • January 2006