Living withRobots: Investigating theHabituation Effect in Participants' Preferences DuringaLongitudinal Human-Robot Interaction Study
DagSverre Syrdal · 2007
This paper presents anddiscusses a longitudinal studywhichinvestigated habituation effects betweenhumans androbots over a period offiveweeks.Participants' prefer- encesfortherobot's approach distance withrespect toits ap- proach direction andappearance were investigated ina variety ofdomestic scenarios. Thesehuman-robot interaction (HRI) scenarios were alsodesigned toexplore thenotions ofauton- omy andcontrol. Theresults ofthis studyshowthatparticipants' preferences change over timeas theparticipants habituate totherobot. Thistrend was significant intermsoftherobot's appearance andapproach direction. Also, itseems toindicate thatpartici- pantswho are accustomed totherobotprefer tobemore 'in control' ofthesituation - inthattheyappreciated reduced ro- botautonomyincaseofunexpected events.