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Supporting Shared Leadership in Human-robot Teams with Minimal Robot BehavioursIn my master thesis research I explored how minimal robot behaviors in human robot teams could support shared in a human robot teams. For this research I designed and validated minimal robot behaviors, then tested them in a lab setting were two people collaborate with a robot. You can read more here.
Abstract: In this thesis we explore how a minimal robot in a human-robot team can influence shared leadership. The robots currently working in human-robot teams are minimal robots: functional robots that have limited social affordances and communicate only with simple, non-verbal behaviors. Shared leadership allows every team member, including the robot, to join in the decision making process giving them voice. Thus, using the knowledge of different team members including the robot. A robot could support shared leadership in a human-robot team through constructive behaviors, but can be constructive in multiple ways. For example by showing active behaviors, by taking initiative, and passive behaviors, by following orders. In order to answer how robot behaviors in a human-robot team exactly influence shared leadership, we designed and validated (n = 107) active and passive constructive interaction patterns. We also designed and executed an experiment (n = 68) to test the influence of the two interaction patterns on shared leadership. We found a significant difference, namely participants rate each other higher in problem solving in the passive condition, and participants talk more in the active condition. Our findings suggest that an active robot is able to achieve voice and share in leadership, which can reduce the voice of the human team members. This thesis contributes to HRI research by showing how a robot could share in leadership of a human-robot team through voice, and provides design implications for a robot to share in leadership using non-verbal behaviors by showing minimal behavior designs and their effects on shared leadership in a team. |