Abstract
Service robotics has great potential for helping people to live independent lives in their own homes. However, if this potential is to be fully exploited in the near future, research and development cannot limit itself to solving the technological challenges involved. The only way to develop service robots that people will accept is to get potential users involved in the process as early as possible. With that in mind, this study investigates human-robot interaction from the perspective of a service robot approaching the user at varying speeds. We developed an empirical study to measure the distance that humans will accept between themselves and a robot when approached by that robot. The results show that the robot’s speed and the test subject’s body position significantly affect the accepted distance. We also found that the physical appearance of humanoid service robots has no substantial bearing on the accepted distance.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the subjects who took part in the study. This paper is part of the research project “Tech4P—Strategien für die Technikintegration bei personenbezogenen Dienstleistungen”, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (funding code: 01FG1004). The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is managing the project.
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Mertens, A. et al. (2014). Human-Robot Interaction: Testing Distances that Humans will Accept Between Themselves and a Robot Approaching at Different Speeds. In: Wichert, R., Klausing, H. (eds) Ambient Assisted Living. Advanced Technologies and Societal Change. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37988-8_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37988-8_17
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