"Sit on me please": Investigating Perception of Furniture Robotic Movements Using Video Prototyping

Abstract

As robots become embedded to greater extents in human environments, mobile furniture robots could be used to create narrate expressive movement to influence user behavior in a room. To investigate how different robot movement may affect the way humans perceive the robot's expressiveness, responsiveness, and spatial presence, we created video prototypes of chair-robots (chairbots) interacting with individuals or dyads. We used crowdsourcing to evaluate how people perceive these different movements, providing a quantitative overview of which particular movements are particularly effective in engaging perception for expressiveness and responsiveness. This work provides a still-in-progress understanding of perceptions of mobile robotic furniture actions in spatial contexts, suggesting future design strategies for real-life smart furniture interventions.