How Do Communication Cues Change Impressions of Human–Robot Touch Interaction?

Communication cues, e.g., gaze behaviors and touch styles, are essential factors in the close interaction of people with social robots. Even though the communication cues are broadly investigated in human–robot interaction, it remain unknown how they change human impressions of social robots in haptic interaction situations. For better understanding of communication cues in human–robot touch interaction, we conducted an experiment with 28 participants who interacted with a robot with gaze behaviors and touch styles. We prepared two gaze behaviors and three touch styles based on past research works. Our experimental results showed that participants preferred a gaze behavior more that only looks at their faces during a touch than a gaze behavior that looks at their faces, hands and returns to their face. They also preferred a touch style in which they touched the robot more than touch styles where a robot touches them.