Understanding the Uncertainty Loop of Human-Robot Interaction

TL;DR

This paper explores how socially assistive robots can recognize and communicate their uncertainties during human-robot interactions to improve understanding and response in conversational contexts.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for identifying and expressing uncertainties in human-robot communication using verbal and non-verbal cues.

Findings

Humans frequently encounter unexpected responses in conversations.

Humanoid robots can effectively communicate their uncertainties.

Communicating uncertainty can enhance human-robot interaction quality.

Abstract

Recently the field of Human-Robot Interaction gained popularity, due to the wide range of possibilities of how robots can support humans during daily tasks. One form of supportive robots are socially assistive robots which are specifically built for communicating with humans, e.g., as service robots or personal companions. As they understand humans through artificial intelligence, these robots will at some point make wrong assumptions about the humans' current state and give an unexpected response. In human-human conversations, unexpected responses happen frequently. However, it is currently unclear how such robots should act if they understand that the human did not expect their response, or even showing the uncertainty of their response in the first place. For this, we explore the different forms of potential uncertainties during human-robot conversations and how humanoids can, through verbal and non-verbal cues, communicate these uncertainties.