Do People Trust Robots that Learn in the Home?

Nina Moorman, Matthew Gombolay. 2022

[ArXiv]    

It is not scalable for assistive robotics to have all functionalities pre-programmed prior to user introduction. Instead, it is more realistic for agents to perform supplemental on site learning. This opportunity to learn user and environment particularities is especially helpful for care robots that assist with individualized caregiver activities in residential or nursing home environments. Many assistive robots, ranging in complexity from Roomba to Pepper, already conduct some of their learning in the home, observable to the user. We lack an understanding of how witnessing this learning impacts the user. Thus, we propose to assess end-user attitudes towards the concept of embodied robots that conduct some learning in the home as compared to robots that are delivered fully-capable. In this virtual, between-subjects study, we recruit end users (care-givers and care-takers) from nursing homes, and investigate user trust in three different domains: navigation, manipulation, and preparation. Informed by the first study where we identify agent learning as a key factor in determining trust, we propose a second study to explore how to modulate that trust. This second, in-person study investigates the effectiveness of apologies, explanations of robot failure, and transparency of learning at improving trust in embodied learning robots.