An investigation into the social acceptance of using contact for inducing an obstructing human

In densely populated scenarios with cramped spaces, it is very difficult to achieve safe and efficient navigation without cooperation from humans. One way in which we can seek cooperation from humans is by using contact to influence them to give way. However, such a method may incur certain psychological implications and therefore requires an acceptability check to ensure whether such action is acceptable or not. For this purpose, we investigate the participant's subjective response towards robot-initiated touch during the course of navigation. We conducted a 2 (robotic experience vs. none) x 2 (warning vs. none) between-subject experiment with 44 people in which a mobile robotic platform exerted contact on an unaware and obstructing participant to make way towards its goal. Our results show that prior experience with robots produces slightly better response even though the results are not statistically significant. However, a verbal warning prior to contact yielded much more favorable response. In general, the participants did not find contact to be uncomfortable and were not opposed to robot-initiated contact if deemed necessary.