Personal Safety is More Important Than Cost of Damage During Robot Failure

Abstract

As robots become more common in everyday life it will be increasingly important to understand how non-experts will view robot failure. In this study, we found that severity of failure seems to be tightly coupled with perceived risk to self rather than risk to the robot's task and object. We initially thought perceived severity would be tied to the cost of damage. Instead, participants placed falling drinking glasses above a laptop when rating the severity of the failure. Related results reinforce the primacy of personal safety over the financial cost of damage and suggest the results were tied to proximity to breaking glass.