Applying CSCW and HCI Techniques to Human-Robot Interaction

This paper describes our approach for human-robot interaction (HRI) research and summarizes our progress to date. We have concentrated on HRI in urban search and rescue (USAR) because it is an example of a safety-critical application. We analyzed the performance of robotic teams at two USAR robotics competitions using adaptations of techniques from the human-computer interaction (HCI) field and determined that problems experienced by the operators or robots could be traced to a lack of awareness on the part of the operator of the robots’ status, location, or immediate surroundings. To aid analysis, we developed a taxonomy of HRI-related characteristics, evaluation guidelines, a coding scheme that categorizes HRI activities, and a fine-grained definition of HRI awareness based on awareness research from computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). As a result, we are beginning to determine design guidelines for HRI that are being used in developing next-generation robots at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Author