Would You Mind Me if I Pass by You? Socially-Appropriate Behaviour for an Omni-based Social Robot in Narrow Environment

TL;DR

This study investigates socially-appropriate crossing behaviors for an omni-based social robot in narrow environments, focusing on body rotation and sliding motion to improve human perception and comfort.

Contribution

It introduces a robot controller that varies body rotation and sliding motion, demonstrating their effects on human perception during crossing interactions.

Findings

People prefer robots that rotate their body when crossing.

Sliding motion is perceived as warmer and more friendly.

Social avoidance behaviors enhance human-robot interaction quality.

Abstract

Interacting physically with robots and sharing environment with them leads to situations where humans and robots have to cross each other in narrow corridors. In these cases, the robot has to make space for the human to pass. From observation of human-human crossing behaviours, we isolated two main factors in this avoiding behaviour: body rotation and sliding motion. We implemented a robot controller able to vary these factors and explored how this variation impacted on people's perception. Results from a within-participants study involving 23 participants show that people prefer a robot rotating its body when crossing them. Additionally, a sliding motion is rated as being warmer. These results show the importance of social avoidance when interacting with humans.