Human-Robot Interaction for the Wild
Date:
This talk will discuss the role of human-robot interaction for small and personal unmanned aerial vehicles in public spaces. Prior personal space studies involving humans and robots have found social similarities to the ways in which humans interact with one another, but these findings have been limited to ground-based vehicles. In this presentation, it will be argued that those results may not generalize to aerial vehicles, and that human-robot interactions for small flying robots could be quite different. This has significant implications as the personal-drone movement has resulted in an accelerated diffusion of flying robots into human-centric domains such as emergency response, manufacturing and delivery, and health and fitness. Specific research questions that will be addressed include: 1) What are the appropriate parameters for three-dimensional interaction models for co-located humans and robots? 2) What operational factors are important to consider and report when conducting field-based robotics experiments to better inform future human-robot interaction? 3) What role does improved human-robot interaction play in aiding individual and team decision-making among humans? This discussion will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the robotics community, as well as those in the fields of civil and environmental engineering, human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and the social sciences.