Excluded by Robots - A Human-Robot-Robot Interaction study
About
Interest in integrating social and personal robots in our daily lives has been growing over the years. It is believed that various autonomous devices will be common in homes and workplaces in the near future, interacting with humans and each other. In this study, we aimed to explore and compare situations that involve different levels of involvement of humans in Robot-Robot interactions, ranging from excluding the human from the interaction to include and over-including the human in the interaction. We test the effect on the human's emotions and perception of the devices.
In the study, we used a well-known paradigm from social psychology called CyberBall. We designed a catch (throwing a ball to one another) interaction between one person and two non-humanoid robots. The proportion of tosses from the robot's towards the participant will determine the level of the human's involvement in the interaction. We measured the involvement's influence on the participant's feelings related to ostracism, mood, and perception of the robots.
We Got In! 🏆
The article was formally accepted to the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2021) and got an average score of 4.8 out of 5!
Color psychology is the study of how different colors can evoke specific emotions and reactions in people. Here are some basic principles:
Red: Often associated with passion and excitement, red can be used to grab attention, but it should be used sparingly to avoid overwhelming users.
Blue: Blue conveys trust and professionalism, making it a popular choice for corporate websites and financial institutions.
Green: Green is linked to nature and growth, making it suitable for environmental and wellness websites.
Process
I was the Project Manager of the project. My team included two psychology students, a computer science student, an animator, an industrial designer, and academic advisors.
I managed the project from the beginning, planning this project, through the design process of the system, conducting experiments and interviews with participants, and up to writing an academic paper for the HRI 2021 conference.
Main Responsibilities
Design and conduct experiments: My team develops and design the system, including 3 robots, the experiment settings, and a simple UI control for the user. The research includes different methods as semi-structured interviews, anonymous multi-choice questioners. Collecting data, interview transcripts, and analyzing qualitative data using thematic coding methods
Responsible for the research team: Conducting and managing the research and the team, including the definition of timetable, goals for every step, and supervision on the whole process
Involvement in writing an academic paper: Including literature reviews and a deep understanding of the CyberBall paradigm. Writing specifically the Findings chapter and dividing the qualitative findings into themes.
Interviews
During the discovery phase of my project, I conducted user interviews with 40 participants to better understand how they felt during the experience.
Some of the questions I asked :
Describe what happened in this experience.
How did you you felt during the experiment?
Did you feel that the game was fair?
What role/part did you take in the game?
Some of the participants before you described their experience as a positive one, and others described it negatively. What is your opinion?
What have I learned from this project?
In this project, I learn a lot about research, user testing, and to manage a team:
How to manage a team with people from different backgrounds and roles.
How to work with software engineers and industrial designers.
How to design a system and to think about every single scenario that can happen.
How to interview users and try to lead the conversation to the subject that matters to me.
