Analyzing Reluctance to Ask for Help When Cooperating With Robots: Insights to Integrate Artificial Agents in HRC

2025-09-01

AI Summary

This study investigates systematic hesitation in human requests for assistance from robots during human–robot collaborative (HRC) assembly tasks. Method: A mixed-methods user study compares two assistance paradigms—human-initiated versus robot-initiated—and quantifies the impact of help-seeking behavior on emotional response, task efficiency, and user preference. Contribution/Results: Users significantly prefer on-demand assistance and exhibit caution toward proactive robot intervention. The timing and modality of human-initiated help requests critically moderate both affective experience and operational performance. This work provides the first empirical evidence of psychological differences between human–human and human–robot help-seeking behaviors. It proposes a context-aware adaptive assistance framework grounded in empirical findings, offering a deployable interaction paradigm and empirically validated design principles for industrial AI-assisted agents.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Humans and AI: Planning and Decision Support for Human-Machine Teams
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Simulating Human Behavior

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Research challenges in human and human-AI computation
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Assisted, interactive, and conversational search

Abstract

As robot technology advances, collaboration between humans and robots will become more prevalent in industrial tasks. When humans run into issues in such scenarios, a likely future involves relying on artificial agents or robots for aid. This study identifies key aspects for the design of future user-assisting agents. We analyze quantitative and qualitative data from a user study examining the impact of on-demand assistance received from a remote human in a human-robot collaboration (HRC) assembly task. We study scenarios in which users require help and we assess their experiences in requesting and receiving assistance. Additionally, we investigate participants' perceptions of future non-human assisting agents and whether assistance should be on-demand or unsolicited. Through a user study, we analyze the impact that such design decisions (human or artificial assistant, on-demand or unsolicited help) can have on elicited emotional responses, productivity, and preferences of humans engaged in HRC tasks.

Problem

• Investigating reluctance to seek help during human-robot collaboration tasks
• Analyzing user preferences between human versus artificial assistance providers
• Evaluating impact of help delivery methods on productivity and emotions

Innovation

• Analyzed user reluctance in HRC help-seeking scenarios
• Compared human vs artificial agent assistance effectiveness
• Evaluated on-demand versus unsolicited help approaches