Embodied Expressive Gestures in Telerobots: A Tale of Two Users

Despite their technical advancements, commercially available telerobots are limited in social interaction capabilities for both pilot and local users, specifically in nonverbal communication. Our group hypothesizes that the introduction of expressive gesturing and tangible interaction capabilities (e.g., handshakes, fist bumps) will enhance telerobotic interactions and increase social connection between users. To investigate the affordances to social connection that gestures and tangible interactions provide in telerobot-mediated interactions, we designed and integrated a lightweight manipulator terminating in an anthropomorphic end effector onto a commercially available telerobot (Anybots QB 2.0). Through virtual reality tracking of the pilot user’s arm and hand, expressive gestures and social contact interactions are recreated via the manipulator, enabling a pilot user and a local user to engage in a tangible exchange. To assess the usability and effectiveness of the gesturing system, we present evaluations from both the local and pilot user perspectives. First, we present a validation study to assess usability of the control system by the pilot user. Our results demonstrate that pilot user interactions can be replicated with a greater than 80% pass rate and mean ease of use rating of \(7.08 \pm 1.32\) (out of 10) with brief training. Finally, we present a user study to assess the social impacts of (1) using the telerobot without the manipulator from both the pilot user and local user perspectives and (2) using the control system and telerobotic manipulator from both the pilot user and local user perspectives. Results demonstrate that the robot with the manipulator elicited a more positive social experience than the robot without the arm for local users but no significant difference in conditions for pilot users. Future work will focus on improving the pilot user experience to support social contact interactions.