Céline Jost - Human-Robot Interaction: Evaluation Methods and Their Standardization

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Robotic agents and the related domains we think of spontaneously (AI, robotics, mechanics, computer science, etc.) are in the heart of a growing number of debates in our society, as the industrial, economic and technological challenges are crucial. However, if these stakes are obviously essential, the current or future presence of these robotic agents in all our living spaces (e.g. industry, hospital, institutions for elderly people, at home, at school) raises questions related to the human factors: what interactions with us? What are the impacts on our behaviours and our activities? What ethical dimensions must be taken into account? How to evaluate for better design?

Beyond extreme opinions and positions (techno-phobia versus technophilia), it is, therefore, necessary to study and especially to anticipate expectations, uses, mental representations and human behaviours during IHR (Human-Robot Interactions). Indeed, if some technological barriers still limit robot design, the real barriers are linked to human and societal barriers in terms of acceptability, trust, emotional relationships, impact on performance and behaviour, and impact on organisations. It is these human dimensions that this book proposes to the reader to address through chapters produced by experts in these different domains.

Concretely, the introduction of robots in our homes or in our institutions questions above all the human and ethical dimensions since it profoundly modifies our relationships not only with objects but also with other individuals: indeed, these robots are supposed to provide monitoring functions (e.g. fall detection), cognitive stimulation functions (e.g. offering and initiating interactions), social functions (e.g. prevent social isolation) or play functions. But how can these functions be reconciled with respect for the human individual? In addition, how do these robots impact on the relationships between individuals in these different environments?

Robots are not only technical objects; they are socio-technical objects in the sense where on the one hand, they influence the relationships between other agents in the environment (whether these agents are humans or other socio-technical objects) and on the other hand, are themselves modified by these same relationships. In other words, robots first and foremost raise human questions. Moreover, the interactions we have or will have with robots question mainly in the case of so-called social robots, assistance or companions, i.e. in the case of robots with which physical proximity will be strong, frequent exchanges and important interdependencies. The replacement of humans by robots in tasks considered dangerous or in extreme environments is commonly accepted (e.g. industrial robots, for underwater exploration, for space exploration); their presence in our daily and intimate living spaces is much less accepted a priori.