Understanding Robots: Making Robots More Legible in Multi-Party Interactions

In this work we explore implicit communication between humans and robots—through movement—in multi-party (or multi-user) interactions. In particular, we investigate how a robot can move to better convey its intentions using legible movements in multi-party interactions. Current research on the application of legible movements has focused on single-user interactions, causing a vacuum of knowledge regarding the impact of such movements in multi-party interactions. We propose a novel approach that extends the notion of legible motion to multi-party settings, by considering that legibility depends on all human users involved in the interaction, and should take into consideration how each of them perceives the robot’s movements from their respective points-of-view. We show, through simulation and a user study, that our proposed model of multi-user legibility leads to movements that, on average, optimize the legibility of the motion as perceived by the group of users. Our model creates movements that allow each human to more quickly and confidently understand what are the robot’s intentions, thus creating safer, clearer and more efficient interactions and collaborations.