Using Design Metaphors to Understand User Expectations of Socially Interactive Robot Embodiments
This work addresses the challenge of improving human-robot interaction for designers and users by reducing expectation misalignment, though it is incremental as it builds on existing design metaphor research.
The paper tackled the problem of aligning user expectations with robot capabilities by evaluating design metaphors for various robot embodiments through three crowd-sourced studies (N=382, 803, 805). The results provide guidance for robot designers to enhance human-robot interaction by matching user expectations to actual robot functions.
The physical design of a robot suggests expectations of that robot's functionality for human users and collaborators. When those expectations align with the true capabilities of the robot, interaction with the robot is enhanced. However, misalignment of those expectations can result in an unsatisfying interaction. This paper uses Mechanical Turk to evaluate user expectation through the use of design metaphors as applied to a wide range of robot embodiments. The first study (N=382) associates crowd-sourced design metaphors to different robot embodiments. The second study (N=803) assesses initial social expectations of robot embodiments. The final study (N=805) addresses the degree of abstraction of the design metaphors and the functional expectations projected on robot embodiments. Together, these results can guide robot designers toward aligning user expectations with true robot capabilities, facilitating positive human-robot interaction.