A Systematic Review of Ten Years of Research on Human Interaction with Social Robots

ABSTRACT

While research and development related to robotics has been going on for decades, the past decade in particular has seen a marked increase in related efforts, in part due to technological advances, increased technological accessibility and reliability, and increased commercial availability. What have come to be known as social robots are now being used to explore novel forms of human-robot interaction, to understand social norms, and to test expectations and human responses. To capture the contributions of these research efforts, identify the current trends, and future directions, we systematically review 10 years of research in the field of social robotics between 2008 and 2018, which includes 86 publications with 70 user studies. We classify the past work based on the research topics and application areas, and provide information about the publications, their user studies, and the capabilities of the social robots utilized. We also discuss selected papers in detail and outline overall trends. Based on these findings, we identify some areas of potential future research.

Additional information

Funding

This material includes work supported in part by the Collaborative Award Numbers 1800961, 1800947, and 1800922 (Dr. Ephraim P. Glinert, IIS) to the University of Central Florida, University of Florida, and Stanford University respectively; the Office of Naval Research under Award Number N00014-17-1-2927 (Dr. Peter Squire, Code 34); and the AdventHealth Endowed Chair in Healthcare Simulation (Prof. Welch). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the supporting institutions.

Notes on contributors

Alexis Lambert

Alexis Lambert is an undergraduate student pursuing a Computer Science degree at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests include augmented reality and virtual reality applications for enhancing social engagement, education, and communication.

Nahal Norouzi

Nahal Norouzi received her B.S. from Electrical Engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology in 2015. She is a Computer Science Ph.D student at the University of Central Florida and a Graduate Research Assistant in the Synthetic Reality (SREAL) Lab. Her research interests are Augmented and Virtual reality, Human-Computer Interaction, and Agent Perception.

Gerd Bruder

Gerd Bruder is a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Münster in 2011. His research interests include mixed reality, perception and cognition, and human-computer interaction.

Gregory Welch

Gregory Welch earned his B.S. in E.E.T. from Purdue University (Highest Distinction), and his M.S. and Ph.D. in C.S. from UNC Chapel Hill. Previously, he was a research professor at UNC, and worked for NASA and Northrop. His research interests include virtual and augmented reality, and medical applications of computers.