Virtual Reality as a Tool for Studying Diversity and Inclusion in Human-Robot Interaction: Advantages and Challenges

TL;DR

This paper explores how Virtual Reality can be an effective tool for studying diversity and inclusion in human-robot interaction, highlighting its advantages, challenges, and potential solutions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of VR's benefits and challenges in HRI research on diversity and inclusion, proposing ways to overcome existing limitations.

Findings

VR offers controllable and flexible environments for HRI studies.

Advanced measurement methods like eye tracking enhance data collection.

Challenges include accessibility, cyber sickness, and bias in VR environments.

Abstract

This paper investigates the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) as a research tool for studying diversity and inclusion characteristics in the context of human-robot interactions (HRI). Some exclusive advantages of using VR in HRI are discussed, such as a controllable environment, the possibility to manipulate the variables related to the robot and the human-robot interaction, flexibility in the design of the robot and the environment, and advanced measurement methods related e.g. to eye tracking and physiological data. At the same time, the challenges of researching diversity and inclusion in HRI are described, especially in accessibility, cyber sickness and bias when developing VR-environments. Furthermore, solutions to these challenges are being discussed to fully harness the benefits of VR for the studying of diversity and inclusion.