Prototyping for robot motion design through subjective and objective analyses

Abstract

This paper presents design method for a service robot's motion and an evaluation method for impressions of these motions. The procedure consists of three phases: i) 3D CG modeling and the design of motion types, ii) subjective analysis using a two-step semantic differential (SD) method, and iii) brain monitoring to objectively evaluate the subjective answers. In the first phase, several types of robot motion are prepared by considering the psychology of Anna Freud, the Kestenberg movement profile, and personal space. In the second phase, the impression of each motion is analyzed using the SD method and factor analysis (FA). Based on the FA results, motions are classified accoring to whether they provide good or bad impressions. In the third phase, objective differences in brain activity are investigated for good and bad impressions. The result showed that the changes in cerebral blood flow at Fp1 of the brain statistically differed for good and bad impressions as classified by the subjective analysis (p < 0.01). Thus, the suitability of the presented prototyping approach to robot motion design and impression analysis was validated.