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

Ray LC, J. D. Zamfirescu-Pereira, Natalie Friedman, Kexue Fu, Yanheng Li, Wendy Ju

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.