Exploratory Study of a Robot Approaching a Person in the Context of Handing Over an Object

Multidisciplinary Collaboration for Socially Assistive Robotics

Volume

Papers from the 2007 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

This paper presents the results from a Human-Robot Interaction study that investigates the issues of participants' preferences in terms of the robot approach direction, robot base approach interaction distance, robot handing over hand distance, robot handing over arm gesture, and the coordination of both the robot approaching and robot handing over arm gesture in the context of a robot handing over an object to a seated person. The results from this study aim at informing the development of a Human Aware Manipulation Planner. Twelve participants with some previous human-robot interaction experience were recruited for the trial. The results show that a majority of the participants prefer the robot to approach from the front and hand them a can of soft drink in the front sector of their personal zone. The robot handing over hand position had the most influence on determining from where the robot should approach. Legibility and perception of risk seem to be the deciding factor on how participants choose their preferred robot arm-base approach coordination for handing over a can. Detailed discussions of the results conclude the paper.