Human-Robot Interaction - Best practices and methods

Current challenges in sectors involving human-robot interactions (e.g. health care & assistive technologies, sustainability & transport, retail & service) require technology co-development and end-user involvement, which are currently underutilised in robotics research. Standardised methodologies for co-creating and evaluating interactive robotic systems can close this gap and provide more impactful insights. Such methods have also been identified as being particularly beneficial for researchers relatively new to the process of creating statistically significant trials and impactful insights that benefit early adopters.

Practices would include recommendations on study suitability and design, metrics for evaluation and their impacts, statistical tools for understanding and reporting the significance of trial results, and guidelines for designing the structure of the tests to optimize the quantity and quality of the test results for broad applicability.

In comparison to some other scientific disciplines, robotics research, which is often goal-driven and solution oriented, currently lacks commonly available resources to support researchers in designing statistically sound, rigorous and repeatable experiments with human subjects. While there are recent overseas attempts at standardising interactive experiments (e.g. IEEE P3108), members of UK-RAS are not commonly aware of these efforts and would greatly benefit from early access to the development of best practices.

This topic group will function as a single point of contact to discuss, develop and disseminate best practices and requirements for conducting meaningful human-robot interaction (HRI) research. We aim at mapping HRI research within the UK and providing guidance for emerging researchers in the associated fields of HRI, as well as establishing a baseline methodology that ensures the involvement of relevant user groups and supports reproducibility in HRI.

Our steering group will meet regularly online and liaise on behalf of UK-RAS with entities that facilitate patient-participant involvement and standardising bodies. For the benefit of emerging researchers, we will establish and grow the HRI Mentorship and Advisory Committee, a network of national experts to act as mentors. Moreover, we will host a professionally produced seminar series on best practices inviting internationally leading HRI researchers, and support ECR lab visits providing Research Experience Travel Grants.

The group will promote the importance of consistent methodologies and help members of the UK-RAS community to access, understand, and adopt ethical norms, rigorous standards, and recommended practices for HRI-relevant topics. We will provide expertise in HRI experimentation, including how to (co-)design, recruit for and conduct human subject studies, perform the statistical evaluation, and report experimental results.