non-facial/non-verbal methods of affective expression as applied to robot-assisted victim assessment
This work applies a previously developed set of heuristics for determining when to use non-facial/non-verbal methods of affective expression to the domain of a robot being used for victim assessment in the aftermath of a disaster. Robot-assisted victim assessment places a robot approximately three meters or less from a victim, and the path of the robot traverses three proximity zones (intimate (contact -- 0.46m), personal (0.46 -- 1.22 m), and social (1.22 -- 3.66 m)). Robot- and victim-eye views of an Inuktun robot were collected as it followed a path around the victim. The path was derived from observations of a prior robot-assisted medical reachback study. The victim's-eye views of the robot from seven points of interest on the path illustrate the appropriateness of each of the five primary non-facial/non-verbal methods of affective expression: (body movement, posture, orientation, illuminated color, and sound), offering support for the heuristics as a design aid. In addition to supporting the heuristics, the investigation identified three open research questions on acceptable motions and impact of the surroundings on robot affect.
robotic design guidelines affective computing non-verbal communication human-robot interaction proxemics