Follow me: Anthropomorphic appearance and communication impact social perception and joint navigation behavior

This study addresses how anthropomorphic features shape users’ social perception and trust towards service robots and whether anthropomorphic characteristics influence the way people jointly navigate with them facing several obstacles in a course. Therefore, an experimental study was conducted where two communication and appearance designs (humanlike vs. machinelike) were examined for a service robot that provides transportation of goods by semi-automated following. The results of the study indicate that the humanlike robot design is rated more competent, warmer, less discomforting, and is generally preferred. Furthermore, participants jointly navigating with the humanlike designed robot walked around obstacles significantly more often indicating a more considerate navigation behavior and better remembering of system limits; both probably evoked by the humanlike design characteristics. In sum, the results of this study provide intriguing implications on how to target HRI for the service robot examined to enhance pleasant and error-free interaction.