Effects of Anthropomorphic Design Features on Trust and Perceived Anthropomorphism in HRI

Abstract

Undergraduate Thesis Defense:

As more robots are being introduced to industrial, household, and social domains, it is important to understand how the different features in a robot affect people’s trust in the robot and their perceived anthropomorphism. We conducted a three-phase study to investigate how trust and perceived anthropomorphism are influenced by physical appearance (more humanoid vs. less humanoid) and communication modality (Voice vs. Speech Bubble vs. Objective Dashboard) with varying levels of anthropomorphism. Our experimental results show that trust in robot was higher when 1) participants viewed a more humanoid robot, and 2) the type of task was Clean (Safe), Physically Easy, or Social. Also, participants who viewed a more humanoid robot reported higher levels of overall perceived anthropomorphism, Sociability, and Animacy. No significant relationship was found between communication modality and trust in robot, but the effect of communication modality on perceived agency was significantly different in the Voice - Objective Dashboard pair.

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