The Disappearing Robot: An Analysis of Disengagement and Distraction During Non-Interactive Tasks

• Published in: 2018 27th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) pp. 522 - 527
• Main Authors: Rossi, Silvia, Ercolano, Giovanni, Raggioli, Luca, Savino, Emanuele, Ruocco, Martina
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.08.2018
• Subjects: Cameras; Correlation; Monitoring; Robot kinematics; Robot vision systems; Task analysis
• ISSN: 1944-9437
• DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2018.8525514

Social Assistive Robots are mainly designed for tasks requiring the interaction with the user. However, they could also be involved in other non-interactive tasks which execution may potentially distract the user from his/her current activity. In this direction, we aim at evaluating the disengagement levels caused by a robot's movements in the human's surroundings. In particular, we consider a robotic system approaching an elder person to monitor his/her behavior, while he/she is occupied in carrying out a specific daily activity. We conducted a classic video analysis of human behaviors in order to identify relevant non-verbal disengagement signals such as the human gaze and pose variation when he/she is approached by the robot. Results obtained from ambient cameras are compared with the ones from the robot camera showing a moderate correlation between them. Additionally, the role of other contextual factors, such as the activity posture, approaching distance, and cognitive load are discussed in the direction of an automatic evaluation of the user's distraction to be used by the robot to plan its motion.