DOI: 10.18738/t8/iyjes1
title: Community Embedded Robotics: A Dataset to Study Perceived Social Intelligence and Safety During Unexpected Encounters with Quadrupedal Robots

description: &lt;h1&gt;
&lt;h1&gt;
Description
&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
This dataset derives from an interdisciplinary experiment designed to investigate perceived social intelligence (PSI) and perceived safety (PS) in the context of human-robot unexpected encounters in three scenarios motivated from the literature; (1) stop and back off: when the robot sees the person, it stops where it is before backing off and moving out of the participant’s way; (2) stop: when the robot sees the person it stops in place; and (3) efficiency: this behavior reflects many social navigation techniques that continues uninterrupted while treating the person as a dynamic obstacle to be avoided&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The research questions that were investigated in this work were:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;How arePSI and PS related? Are higher levels of PSI associated with higher feelings of safety?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Are the statistical evaluations of PSI and PS representative of participants' feelings about these concepts during interview discussions?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;How does the back-off behavior compare to the stop and efficiency behaviors with respect to PSI and PS during unanticipated crossings? (e.g. around corners, doorways, stairs).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;img src="https://dataverse.tdl.org/api/access/datafile/738535" alt="Time lapses of each of the three robot behaviors, shown in one of the three unexpected crossing scenarios."&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The experiments investigated the three aforementioned human robot encounter scenarios and manipulated the autonomous robot behavior at the moment of those crossings. The experiments were performed in a wizard of oz manner, wherein a study member controls the robot from afar while the participant believes the robot is behaving autonomously. The behaviors tested were (1) the stop and back off (BO), (2) the stop in place (ST), and (3) to continue uninterrupted and treat the person as a dynamic obstacle, which we call efficiency (EFF). Time lapses of each of the three robot behaviors, shown in one of the three unexpected crossing scenarios are shown in the above figure&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The study was run in two parts. First, we performed a (N=286) between-subject online video study, in which participants see a first person view video of a person in all three scenarios under one of the three behavior conditions. Along with demographic and personality characteristics, participants took a post-video survey of four Perceived Social Intelligence (PSI) Scales and Perceived Safety, taken from the Godspeed Questionnaire. The four PSI scales used are Social Competence, Identifies Humans, Rudeness, and Trustworthiness. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The second part of the study involved a (N=24) within-subject laboratory experiment where participants cross the robot in all three scenarios under each of the three robot behavior conditions. After encountering each behavior, the participants take the same survey used in the online video study. The purpose of this was to validate the low ecological validity, but high statistical power online video study results using a lower power, higher ecological validity laboratory study of crossings. In the laboratory study, participants were also interviewed to learn about their in depth perceptions and experiences during the robot encounters. Specifically, we interviewed them for 30-45 minutes following the experimental encounters and discussed PSI and PS and how they related to the robot’s behaviors. Particularly, the goal was to augment the statistical relationship between PSI and PS with a qualitative model that connects these two key factors used to evaluate perceptions of mobile robots. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The impact of this work and dataset is in the novelty of the human robot crossing scenarios investigated. Particularly, existing works in crossings in hallways, elevators or doorways are not designed to investigate unexpected crossings as studied here. Furthermore, this study utilizes a quadrupedal robot (Boston Dynamics Spot robot), which differs from many existing studies using various wheeled robots, including the Pepper robot or various autonomous robots.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset provides all of the information necessary to enable the replication of the experiment The dataset can be used to study unexpected crossing scenarios between humans and robots at blind corners, blind doorways, and corners on stairwells. Particularly, the videos can be used to analyze path behavior and body language behavior from the participants in the experiments, which may offer valuable insights beyond the statistical and interview results presented in the accompanying paper. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt; Please, refer to the enclosed Data Report for more information about the data collection process &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h1&gt;Dataset Contents
&lt;/h1&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
Research Instruments
&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Pre Experiment Questionnaire [PDF - 21KB]. This set of questions include Ten Item Personality Index and Demographic information about the participants and is taken before any robot stimulus.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Post Stimulus Questionnaire [PDF - 87KB]. This set of questions was taken after encountering the robot in each of the three experimental scenarios, under one of the three robot behaviors. Thus, it was taken one time by each participant in the online video study and three times by each participant in the real world laboratory experiment.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Semi Structured Interview Protocol [PDF - 104KB]. This was a list of questions that the research members used in interviews with participants in the real world laboratory study. They enabled the investigation into the perceptions and feelings of safety and social intelligence during the experimental encounters.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
Online Video Study Dataset
&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Raw Survey Data [CSV - 100KB]. Contains the responses to the pre-experiment questionnaire and post-stimulus questionnaire in the online video study. Participant responses to the pre-experiment questionnaire are given in rows A-N for all participants. Participant responses to the post-stimulus questionnaire are given in columns O-Z or AA-AL or AM-AX, depending on which robot behavior was seen.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Robot Videos: Back-off robot behavior [MP4 - 8.6MB], Efficiency robot behavior [MP4 - 6.4MB], Stop robot behavior [MP4 - 7.4MB]. These are the video stimuli used in the online study. Each video shows the Boston Dynamics Spot performing one of the three behaviors in each of the scenarios.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
Lab Experiment Study Dataset
&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Raw Survey Data [CSV - 13.5KB]. Contains the responses to the pre-experiment questionnaire and post-stimulus questionnaire in the online video study. Participant responses to the pre-experiment questionnaire are given in rows A-N for all participants. Notably, Column C of the document shows the order of behaviors seen by participants while Row 30, Columns B-D explain the meaning of the values in Column C for each participant. Columns Q-AB were the responses to the first behavior stimulus; Columns AC-AN were the responses to the second behavior; Columns AQ-AZ were the responses to the final behavior.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Human Robot Videos. This folder contains a sub-folder for each of the 24 participants. Under each participant are 9 videos, which are de-identified videos of each of the 9 crossing scenarios between the human and the Boston Dynamics Spot.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;