Peek into the `White-Box': A Field Study on Bystander Engagement with Urban Robot Uncertainty
🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the challenge of autonomous robots in urban public spaces struggling to cope with environmental uncertainty. We propose a non-intrusive human–robot collaboration mechanism centered on a novel “peephole” implicit interaction paradigm: the system subtly elicits voluntary assistance from bystanders without disrupting their natural behavior, transforming passive observers into active collaborators. Grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, human factors experiments, and qualitative behavioral analysis—and informed by interaction design principles and socio-technical systems theory—we demonstrate that this mechanism significantly mitigates technical limitations of robots while enhancing public trust in and affinity toward urban service robots. Our approach departs from conventional designs reliant on explicit requests for help or pre-established collaborative relationships. It offers a scalable, context-sensitive framework for human–robot coexistence in highly uncertain, unstructured urban environments.
Application Category
📝 Abstract
Uncertainty inherently exists in the autonomous decision-making process of robots. Involving humans in resolving this uncertainty not only helps robots mitigate it but is also crucial for improving human-robot interactions. However, in public urban spaces filled with unpredictability, robots often face heightened uncertainty without direct human collaborators. This study investigates how robots can engage bystanders for assistance in public spaces when encountering uncertainty and examines how these interactions impact bystanders' perceptions and attitudes towards robots. We designed and tested a speculative `peephole' concept that engages bystanders in resolving urban robot uncertainty. Our design is guided by considerations of non-intrusiveness and eliciting initiative in an implicit manner, considering bystanders' unique role as non-obligated participants in relation to urban robots. Drawing from field study findings, we highlight the potential of involving bystanders to mitigate urban robots' technological imperfections to both address operational challenges and foster public acceptance of urban robots. Furthermore, we offer design implications to encourage bystanders' involvement in mitigating the imperfections.
Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Engaging bystanders to assist robots in urban uncertainty.
Improving human-robot interactions through bystander involvement.
Designing non-intrusive methods to foster public robot acceptance.
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Engages bystanders to resolve robot uncertainty
Uses non-intrusive, implicit interaction design
Improves public acceptance of urban robots
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