An explorative study on how human-robot interaction is taken into account by robot developers in praxis

TL;DR

This study investigates how robot developers consider human-robot interaction, especially non-verbal communication, revealing that user perspectives are often overlooked and knowledge on interaction methods is lacking.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into current practices and gaps in considering human-robot interaction among practitioners during robot development.

Findings

Human perspective often neglected in robot design

Knowledge on human-robot interaction methods is missing

Development teams focus less on non-verbal communication

Abstract

How is human-robot interaction considered within the development of new robotic systems by practitioners? This study sets out to inquire, whether the development teams of robotic products have been considering human factor methods in their design and implementation process. We were specifically interested in the non-verbal communication methods they were aiming to implement, and how they have approached the design process for these. Although valuable insights on tasks and communication needs during the different phases of robot operation could be gathered, the results of this study indicate, that the perspective of the human user or bystander is very often neglected and that knowledge on methods for engineering human-robot interaction is missing. The study was conducted with eleven development teams consisting of robot manufacturers and students within a robot building course representing overall 68 individual participants.