Half-way seminar, Computer Science and Engineering, Ziming Wang

The Ambivalence towards Natural Characteristics in the Interactions with Small Indoor Flying Robots

Nature and humanity have been in constant and varied interactions throughout history and technological epochs. I conjecture that there are benefits to integrating natural characteristics into robot designs for their interactions with humans. I test this conjecture experimentally with a focus on close-range interactions with flying robots, using Research through Design (RtD) and mixed-methods approaches. In my half-PhD seminar, I will discuss the two studies I have carried out, namely: 1) overlaying natural sounds, i.e. birdsong and rain sound, on a noisy flying robot at three proxemic distances (N=56), accepted by ACM THRI journal: https://doi.org/10.1145/3579859; 2) exploring potential usage scenarios of indoor drones (N=66), including investigating the notion of pet drone. In both studies, I found that participants were ambivalent towards the natural characteristics depending on given circumstances. This informs that utilising natural characteristics in human-robot interaction (HRI) may be compelling; however, there are pitfalls, and comprehensive strategies and careful considerations are required. I will also briefly present my research ideas of investigating interactions with bioinspired and biohybrid flying robots for my subsequent studies.

Discussion leader: Wendy Ju, Associate Professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, USA