To Help or Not To Help a Service Robot Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Interaction and Presentation Laboratory, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm RO-MAN 2003, Millbrae, CA, USA

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh The Cero fetch’n carry project Service robot for transportation of light objects Targeted user are motion impaired office workers Research focus is on interaction design

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Cero development Platform: Nomadic Super Scout Co-operation with industrial designer Iterative, user centred design process Long-term user study per- formed (RO-MAN 2002)

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh To help or not to help a service robot? Observation from previous study: Bystanders are interested to interact with the robot [Hüttenrauch, Severinson Eklundh, 2002] Robot needs help to perform more than simple missions Research question: Will people help a service robot? Will they do so if given a demonstration? Will they help even if they are busy themselves?

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Who is a “bystander” in HRI? “A person who is present at an event without participating in it” [Webster, 2000] “Passers-by” helped robot in 70% of detected error situations [Wullschleger & Brega, 2002] “Bystander effect / apathy": describes why people do not help others in emergencies [Latané & Darley, 1970]

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Experiment scenario

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Experiment set-up (1) Purpose: Study experimentally if bystanders help a service robot 32 students of psychology or technology Median age: 29 years; 20 men, 12 women Subjects did not know the trial purpose Subjects had not encountered robot before Refreshments (e.g. coffee) were offered

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Experiment set-up (2) 2 * 2 group design: N = 32, N(group) = 8 Demon- stration No_Demon- stration TaskGroup 1Group 2 No_TaskGroup 3Group 4

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Task condition Task: Key-in lecture schedule on PDA with aplastic stylus, i.e. a task with high concentration and motor skill requirement Methodology known from studies about divided attention

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Demonstration condition Demonstration: experiment leader shows and introduces the robot as: “The Cero robot is used in the department to transport objects. There is a user with a motion impairment who mainly uses it.” Subjects were alone when robot came to the kitchen to address them with the request

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Data collection Video recording of robot request and interaction Questionnaire after robot interaction Robot’s system control log as data-file

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Findings (1) 50 % of subjects helped the robot

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Findings (2) Assistance depends upon own agenda

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Findings (3) 50% of subjects helped the robot Assisting a robot depends upon the level of occupation (how busy one is) Demonstrating the robot seems not to have an effect on the willingness to help it later

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Findings (4) 10 (of 16) subjects who helped realized robot’s transport purpose, i.e. the co-operation with another user Speech was tried to talk back to the robot, especially to reject the robot’s help request People pursue actively other, parallel activities whenever given the chance, i.e. their co-oper- ation cannot just be assumed

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Conclusions Service robots’ utility can be increased with robot initiated activation of bystanders If people are busy with a task of their own the robot’s probability of receiving help decreases Helpful: Robot / sensors that detect “idle” state (“can they be interrupted?”) Robots need to clearly communicate requests and the necessary interaction to fulfill them On-board interfaces need to be of “walk-up- and-use”-type for this functionality

Helge Hüttenrauch, Kerstin Severinson Eklundh Comments? Questions? Thank you for your attention! Suggestions?