Design and Evaluation of a Nonverbal Communication Platform between Assistive Robots and their Users

• Published in: Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions pp. 505 - 513
• Main Authors: Threatt, Anthony L., Green, Keith Evan, Brooks, Johnell O., Merino, Jessica, Walker, Ian D., Yanik, Paul
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2013
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: assistive robotics; human factors; human-centered design; nonverbal communication
• ISBN: 3642393500; 9783642393501
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-39351-8_55

Inevitably, assistive robotics will become integral to the everyday lives of a human population that is increasingly mobile, older, urban-centric and networked. How will we communicate with such robots, and how will they communicate with us? We make the case for a relatively “artificial” mode of nonverbal human-robot communication [NVC] to avoid unnecessary distraction for people, busily conducting their lives via human-human, natural communication. We propose that this NVC be conveyed by familiar lights and sounds, and elaborate here early experiments with our NVC platform in a rehabilitation hospital. Our NVC platform was perceived by medical staff as a desirable and expedient communication mode for human-robot interaction [HRI] in clinical settings, suggesting great promise for our mode of human-robot communication for this and other applications and environments involving intimate HRI.