Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The rapid development of robotic technology has gone far beyond the traditional industrial robots which rely on limited human-robot interaction techniques to the recent development of animal-like entertainment robots, which engage in significant peer-to-peer (human-robot) interaction and manifest a wide range of social features including personality. Personality is an essential feature for creating socially interactive robots and study on this dimension will facilitate enhance human-robot interaction. Using AIBO, developed by SONY, this study examines the personality dimension in human-robot interaction.
In order to test the hypothesis that people would not only recognize robot’s personality but also socially respond to such personality accordingly, a balanced, 2 (AIBO personality: introvert vs. extrovert) x 2 (participant personality: introvert vs. extrovert) between-subjects experiment (N=48) was conducted. We believe that with accurate identification of AIBO’s personality types, the matched and mismatched personalities between robots and participants will make difference in participants’ perception of AIBO (i.e. AIBO’s intelligence, pet-likeness, physical attractiveness, social attractiveness), perception of the interaction (i.e. enjoyable, interesting, fun, entertaining, boring(reversed coded) and exciting), their self bonding to AIBO, their likeability of it and their social presence. Implications of the current study on human-robots interaction and personality literature will be discussed.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of physical embodiment in human-agent interaction. Experiment 1 (N = 32) shows positive effects of physical embodiment on the feeling of an agent’s social presence, the evaluation of the agent, the assessment of public evaluation of the agent, and the evaluation of the interaction with the agent. A path analysis reveals that the feeling of the agent’s social presence mediates the participants’ evaluation of the social agent. Experiment 2 (N = 32) shows that physical embodiment with restricted tactile interaction causes null or even negative effects in human-agent interaction. In addition, Experiment 2 indicates that lonely people feel higher social presence of social agents, and provide more positive social responses to social agents than non-lonely people. The importance of physical embodiment and tactile communication in human-agent interaction and the diverse role of social robots, especially for the lonely population, are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of physical embodiment in human-agent interaction. Experiment 1 (N = 32) shows positive effects of physical embodiment on the feeling of an agent’s social presence, the evaluation of the agent, the assessment of public opinion on the agent, and the evaluation of the interaction with the agent. A path analysis reveals that the feeling of the agent’s social presence mediates the participants’ evaluation of the social agent. Experiment 2 (N = 32) shows that physical embodiment with restricted tactile interaction causes null or even negative effects in human-agent interaction. In addition, Experiment 2 indicates that lonely people feel higher social presence of social agents, and provide more positive social responses to social agents than non-lonely people. The importance of physical embodiment and tactile communication in human-agent interaction and diverse role of social robots, especially for the lonely population, are discussed.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: The interactions between humans and robots during extended space missions will be unlike anything that NASA has designed and implemented to date. The operation of robot teams will at times be directed from ground control. For example, a lunar rover team may be assigned tactical assignments (e.g.
"inspect solar array alpha"). Surface astronauts will also communicate with in-situ robots using voice-based commands, gestures, and wireless digital communication. Rovers, in turn, will communicate with one another for team- based collaboration, and must also develop sufficient self-diagnostic introspection to request human help when appropriate.

Making human-robot interaction (HRI) effective, efficient, and natural is crucial to the success of sustained space exploration. In particular, humans and robots must be able to: (1) communicate clearly about their goals, abilities, plans, and achievements; (2) collaborate to solve problems, especially when situations exceed autonomous capabilities; and (3) interact via multiple modalities (dialogue, gestures, etc.), both locally and remotely.

Since 2005, the Intelligent Robotics Group has been developing tools to support peer-to-peer human-robot interaction. The current system supports multiple humans and robots working in a variety of team configurations.
Humans can collaborate with robots in a shared space, communicating through spoken language dialogue. Robots can be operated in combined teleoperation and autonomous modes of control from Earth or from inside a surface habitat. Coordination between ground control, crew (both EVA and IVA), and mobile robots is performed with the "Human-Robot Interaction Operating System" (HRI/OS), an agent-based system that provides a structured framework and variety of interaction services for human-robot teams.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Virtual social entities in computer interfaces have expanded the traditional social identity spectrum by including humanoid nonhuman characters such as robots. Robot characters provide a unique comparison for studying attitudes towards and preference of human races. An experiment with 105 White participants assessed the participants’ implicit and explicit racial prejudice towards the Blacks, their interest in robots, and their ordered preference among 15 White, Black and robot computer-generated characters for five different purposes. The explicit racial prejudice predicted more liking of White characters than Black ones and more preference of White to Black characters as one’s avatar, virtual friend, and virtual tutor. The implicit racial prejudice, measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT), provided further predictive utility for choosing avatar and virtual friend among participants who took less time in character selection. Interest in robots and racial prejudice predicted the preference of robots to White or Black characters for some tasks. Among the 65 participants (61.9%) who reported no interest in robots, racial prejudice negatively predicted the preference of Black to robot characters in liking and as virtual friend and tutor, showing a pattern that White individuals with high explicit racial prejudice progressively preferred robot characters to Black ones. Although the results suggest alarming strength of high racial prejudice, drawing implications about real humans and robots is cautioned against unless future research replicates the effects with images of real humans and real robots.