Team-building activities for heterogeneous groups of humans and robots

Abstract

As robots become more integrated into society and the workforce, people will be required to work cooperatively with not just other people, but robots as well. People engage in team-building activities to improve cooperation and promote positive group identity. This paper explores the effect that a team-building activity had on humans working cooperatively with human and robot teammates with the goal of better understanding how to improve cooperation between a human and a robotic agent. We conducted a 2x2 study with the presence or absence of a team-building activity and the possibility or impossibility of the cooperative task. 40 participants conducted a group search task with a robot and another human partner. Half of the participants engaged in a short team-building exercise. Surveys were used to capture participants’ perceptions before and after the session. Success and failure of the task was also measured to identify any changes related to the outcome of the team-building task. It was found that humans’ perceptions of robots improve after performing team-building activities. We also found that this effect was comparable to the change of perception when the group succeeded on the task.