Gracefully Mitigating Breakdowns in Robotic Services - Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University

Gracefully Mitigating Breakdowns in Robotic Services

Min Kyung Lee, Sara Kiesler, Jodi Forlizzi, Siddhartha Srinivasa, and Paul Rybski
Conference Paper, Proceedings of 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '10), pp. 203 - 210, March, 2010

Abstract

Robots that operate in the real world will make mistakes. Thus, those who design and build systems will need to understand how best to provide ways for robots to mitigate those mistakes. Building on diverse research literatures, we consider how to mitigate breakdowns in services provided by robots. Expectancy-setting strategies forewarn people of a robot's limitations so people will expect mistakes. Recovery strategies, including apologies, compensation, and options for the user, aim to reduce the negative consequence of breakdowns. We tested these strategies in an online scenario study with 317 participants. A breakdown in robotic service had severe impact on evaluations of the service and the robot, but forewarning and recovery strategies reduced the negative impact of the breakdown. People's orientation toward services influenced which recovery strategy worked best. Those with a relational orientation responded best to an apology; those with a utilitarian orientation responded best to compensation. We discuss robotic service design to mitigate service problems.

Notes
(Best Paper Award)

BibTeX

@conference{Lee-2010-10398,
author = {Min Kyung Lee and Sara Kiesler and Jodi Forlizzi and Siddhartha Srinivasa and Paul Rybski},
title = {Gracefully Mitigating Breakdowns in Robotic Services},
booktitle = {Proceedings of 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '10)},
year = {2010},
month = {March},
pages = {203 - 210},
}