Safe Spot: Perceived safety of dominant and submissive appearances of quadruped robots in human-robot interactions

TL;DR

This study investigates how the perceived safety of interactions with quadruped robots is shaped by the robot's nonverbal personality, comparing a dominant vs a submissive profile on Boston Dynamics' Spot. Using a 2×2 within-subjects design across head-on and crossing encounters, the authors combine embodied ideation (bodystorming) with empirical trajectory data and subjective safety measures. The key finding is that participants rate the submissive robot as safer than the dominant one, while the interaction dynamics show no robust differences between appearances; prior in-person experience with the robot lowers perceived safety. The work contributes to HRI by highlighting how bodily expressivity and perceived safety influence social acceptance of quadruped robots, and it calls for greater emphasis on felt experiences in future research and design practice.

Abstract

Unprecedented possibilities of quadruped robots have driven much research on the technical aspects of these robots. However, the social perception and acceptability of quadruped robots so far remain poorly understood. This work investigates whether the way we design quadruped robots' behaviors can affect people's perception of safety in interactions with these robots. We designed and tested a dominant and submissive personality for the quadruped robot (Boston Dynamics Spot). These were tested in two different walking scenarios (head-on and crossing interactions) in a 2x2 within-subjects study. We collected both behavioral data and subjective reports on participants' perception of the interaction. The results highlight that participants perceived the submissive robot as safer compared to the dominant one. The behavioral dynamics of interactions did not change depending on the robot's appearance. Participants' previous in-person experience with the robot was associated with lower subjective safety ratings but did not correlate with the interaction dynamics. Our findings have implications for the design of quadruped robots and contribute to the body of knowledge on the social perception of non-humanoid robots. We call for a stronger standing of felt experiences in human-robot interaction research.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Submissive and dominant personalities for quadruped robots.
• Figure 2: Bodystorming session: one researcher impersonates the robot (highlighted in yellow) and enacts a submissive personality, while two other researchers enact a nurse and a person visiting the hospital
• Figure 3: Head-on scenario (dominant robot depicted).
• Figure 4: Crossing scenario (submissive robot depicted).
• Figure 5: Average safety ratings of the robot for the two scenarios, depending on the robot's personality and participants' previous experience with the robot.