Critical Considerations for Human-Robot Interface Development

The purpose of this paper is to draw upon the vast bank of Human Factors Research and indicate how the existing results may be applied to the field of HumanRobotic interfaces (HRIs). HRI development tends to be an after thought, as researchers approach the problem from an engineering perspective. Such a perspective implies that the HRI is designed and developed after the majority of the robotic system design has been completed. Additionally, many researchers claim that their HRI is “intuitive”, “easy to use”, etc. without including actual users in the design process or performing proper user testing. This paper attempts to indicate the importance of developing an HRI that meets the users’ needs and requirements while simultaneously developing the robot system. There exists a vast pool of Human Factors research based upon complex systems. This research contains many results and theories that may be applied to the development of HRIs.