The Interaction Flow Editor: A New Human-Robot Interaction Rapid Prototyping Interface

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Interaction Flow Editor (IFE), a versatile tool that simplifies designing and testing human-robot interaction flows, enabling users of varying expertise to create complex interactions efficiently.

Contribution

The IFE provides an accessible interface for users to prototype and modify robot interactions, bridging the gap between designers, developers, and end-users.

Findings

Older adults successfully designed and iterated robot interactions in real-time.

IFE facilitated rapid prototyping by non-experts, reducing development time.

The Flow Engine supported flexible execution of interaction flows.

Abstract

Human-robot interaction can be regarded as a flow between users and robots. Designing good interaction flows takes a lot of effort and needs to be field tested. Unfortunately, the interaction flow design process is often very disjointed, with users experiencing prototypes, designers forming those prototypes, and developers implementing them as independent processes. In this paper, we present the Interaction Flow Editor (IFE), a new human-robot interaction prototyping tool that enables everyday users to create and modify their own interactions, while still providing a full suite of features that is powerful enough for developers and designers to create complex interactions. We also discuss the Flow Engine, a flexible and adaptable framework for executing robot interaction flows authors through the IFE. Finally, we present our case study results that demonstrates how older adults, aged 70 and above, can design and iterate interactions in real-time on a robot using the IFE.