Expectations in Human-Robot Interaction

It is acknowledged that humans expect social robots to interact in a similar way as in human-human interaction. To create successful interactions between humans and social robots, it is envisioned that the social robot should be viewed as an interaction partner rather than an inanimate thing. This implies that the robot should act autonomously, being able to ‘perceive’ and ‘anticipate’ the human’s actions as well as its own actions ‘here and now’. Two crucial aspects that affect the quality of social human-robot interaction is the social robot’s physical embodiment and its performed behaviors. In any interaction, before, during or after, there are certain expectations of what the social robot is capable of. The role of expectations is a key research topic in the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI); if a social robot does not meet the expectations during interaction, the human (user) may shift from viewing the robot as an interaction partner to an inanimate thing. The aim of this work is to unravel the role and relevance of humans’ expectations of social robots and why it is important area of study in HRI research. Moreover, I argue that the field of HRI can greatly benefit from incorporating approaches and methods from the field of User Experience (UX) in its efforts to gain a deeper understanding of human users’ expectations of social robots and making sure that the matching of these expectations and reality is better aligned.