Don’t Worry, We’ll Get There: Developing Robot Personalities to Maintain User Interaction After Robot Error

Human robot interaction (HRI) often considers the human impact of a robot serving to assist a human in achieving their goal or a shared task. There are many circumstances though during HRI in which a robot may make errors that are inconvenient or even detrimental to human partners. Using the ROBOtic GUidance and Interaction DEvelopment (ROBO-GUIDE) model on the Pioneer LX platform as a case study, and insights from social psychology, we examine key factors for a robot that has made such a mistake, ensuring preservation of individuals’ perceived competence of the robot, and individuals’ trust towards the robot. We outline an experimental approach to test these proposals.