The Effect of Time Delay on Emotion, Arousal, and Satisfaction in Human-Robot Interaction

This study investigates the influence of time delay on user emotion, arousal, and satisfaction in human-robot interaction (HRI). Time delay is a gap between an input from a user and the corresponding feedback response from the system, and its negative consequence on performance has been documented in various areas including psychology and HRI. On the contrary, the effects of time delay on user emotion and satisfaction have been difficult to establish due to the fluctuations in the emotional aspect of the physiological state of the user. In this study, the hypothesis of whether time delay during robot vehicle operation increases user arousal and negative emotions while lowering user satisfaction was tested. Participants were asked to remote-control a robot vehicle to navigate different mazes in a remote location. Time delay was manipulated by introducing lags into system feedback. Subjective and objective measures included emotion tracking through face recognition, and electrodermal activity (EDA). User frustration, anger, and arousal increased while user satisfaction decreased. A better understanding of how time delay influences user’s emotion and how change in emotion is expressed in physiological signals would be of crucial importance to designing an affect-aware robotic systems that have the ability to appropriately respond to user emotional state.