Trust on Service Robots: A Pilot Study on the Influence of Eyes in Humanoid Robots During a VR Emergency Egress

Abstract

Robots are found to be good, capable and trustworthy companions in various areas, including high-risk situations or emergencies, but some limitations regarding their acceptance have been reported. Amongst other aspects of the Human-Robot Interaction, trust in the robot has been considered as a main indicator of acceptance. Thus, to investigate the dynamics of human-robot acceptance, this study used a virtual reality simulation of an emergency egress to assess the influence of the robot’s appearance on trust. In particular, we were interested in examining the influence of the eyes in the robot on the participants’ decision to follow it to the exit. Since the type of interaction scenario is also a factor with an impact on trust, two environmental affordance conditions (favourable vs. unfavourable) were tested because of their well-established impact on wayfinding decisions. The results show the participants trusted the robot and followed it to the exit but, although the results favour the robot with eyes, no statistically significant differences were found in either environmental affordance. Moreover, despite perceiving the robot as machinelike and artificial, the majority of the participants felt compelled to follow it, also considering it friendly, kind, pleasant, nice, competent, knowledgeable, responsible, intelligent and sensible. Regardless of the existence of eyes, the service robot tested seems to be a promising solution for emergency egress situations in complex buildings.