MORE | Fall 2022

Robot Intent Signaling Using Augmented Reality

Human-robot collaborations are ubiquitous ranging from assembly lines, autonomous vehicles, medical procedures, etc. In such systems, humans and robots work in shared spaces to accomplish a joint task. Successful implementation of such systems depends on each teammate’s ability to predict the actions of other collaborators. Robot intent signaling in the human-robot collaboration environment would enable this and improve the efficiency of the system. In this work, the focus is on robot-intent signaling using an AR headset. The study will be conducted with the help of a designed experiment in which the human subject (with AR headset) will place screws in assigned holes in the front of different boxes, while the robot tightens the screws. The robot’s intent would be displayed on the AR headset screen as a signal. The content of the signal is varied to understand its effects on trustworthiness, confidence, accuracy and time of completion of the task by the human subject. This study should help in understanding the effectiveness of robot intent signaling and compare different signals and their effects on task completion.