Authors

Nicholas Woodward and Teresa Nguyen and Lixiao Zhu and Carter Fowler and Taewoo Kim and Stacia Near and Stephen Thoemmes and Tom Williams

Venue

3rd International Workshop on Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality for Human-Robot Interaction

Publication Year

2020
In previous work, researchers in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) have demonstrated that user trust in robots depends on effective and transparent communication. This may be particularly true for robots used for transportation, due to user reliance on such robots for physical movement and safety. In this paper, we present the design of an experiment examining the importance of proactive communication by robotic wheelchairs, as compared to non-vehicular mobile robots, within a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. Furthermore, we describe the specific advantages -- and limitations -- of conducting this type of HRI experiment in VR.