Exploring Human-Robot Collaboration: Analysis of Interaction Modalities in Challenging Tasks

TL;DR

This study compares passive, reactive, and proactive human-robot interaction modes in a tower assembly task, finding proactive support enhances user experience despite longer completion times.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates three interaction modalities, highlighting the benefits of proactive robot assistance in collaborative tasks.

Findings

Proactive modality was most preferred by 67% of participants.

78% of participants found proactive support most useful.

Robot assistance increased task completion time.

Abstract

This work compares three interaction modalities for human-robot collaboration: passive, reactive, and proactive. We studied 18 participants assembling a seven-layer colored tower from memory while using nearby and distant blocks. In the passive modality participants worked alone; in the reactive modality a mobile robot helped only upon request; in the proactive modality it initiated brick delivery and error signaling without explicit requests. Although robot assistance increased completion time, most participants preferred collaboration: 67% preferred proactive behavior and 78% judged it most useful. These results suggest that timely proactive support can improve user experience in controlled collaborative tasks.