Do You Mind if I Pass Through? Studying the Appropriate Robot Behavior when Traversing two Conversing People in a Hallway Setting*

Several works highlight how robots can navigate in a socially-aware manner by respecting and avoiding people’s personal spaces. But how should the robot act when there is no way around a group of persons? In this work, we explore this question by comparing three different ways to cross two conversing people in a hallway environment. In an online study with 135 participants, users rated the robot’s behavior on several items such as "social adequacy" or how "disturbing" it was. The three versions differ in the type of contact intention, i.e., no contact, nonverbal contact, and a combination of nonverbal and verbal contact. The results show that, on the one hand, users expect social behavior from the robot, so that they can anticipate its behavior, but on the other hand, they want it to be as little disruptive as possible.