Human-robot communication is key to establishing transparency of robot states, and promoting psychological safety of the people interacting with a robot. Such communication is especially challenging for appearance-constrained robots, as they do not afford to employ commonly-used anthropomorphic modalities such as facial expressions. 
We explore how an appearance-constrained quadruped robot can use LEDs and gestures to generate affective expressions in order to non-verbally communicate. Traditionally, affect has been used as a signalling paradigm in Human-Robot Interaction where expressions are designed with the goal of communicating a particular emotion such as happiness. Instead, this work explores a generalizable mapping from informative messages (e.g., "I am listening") to abstract affective expressions. We modulate the expressions by a model of affect, taking inspirations from Affect Control Theory (ACT). To explore designing the expressions, we first conducted pilot semi-structured interviews consulting stakeholders who regularly operate appearance-constrained robots (N=12) to understand the communication requirements. Then, we designed a set of six affective expressions and evaluated them in a crowdsourced study (N=450). Findings suggest that the expressions can significantly improve effective communication of a robot's awareness and intent, and promote psychological safety of people interacting with it.

User Requirements for a Robot Teleoperation system for General Medical Examination

**Session Chairs: Felix Orlando Maria Joseph, Gabriele Trovato**

Session VII: User-centered Design of Robots

technical paper

**31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication**
 This conference is a leading forum where state-of-the-art innovative results, the latest developments as well as future perspectives relating to robot and human interactive communication are presented and discussed.
 
 The conference covers a wide range of topics related to Robot and Human Interactive Communication, involving theories, methodologies, technologies, empirical and experimental studies. Papers related to the study of robotic technology, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, human factors, ethics and policies, interaction-based robot design and other topics related to human-robot interaction are welcome.
 
 **CONFERENCE THEME:**
 Social, asocial, and antisocial robots
 
 Robots are starting to populate our lives: at work, in our homes, hotels, shops. However, not everybody is comfortable with robots finding a place in society. For example, people may be afraid that robots will replace humans in their jobs. This belief is exacerbated by the media that, on one side, raise expectations of robots’ capabilities, while amplifying fears and worries on the other side.
 
 In the next years, due to the increasing request for interaction with people in social environments, academic research and market analyses predict that robots will become more and more “social”. But, at the same time, robots may incur the risk of being perceived as “asocial” as their pervasiveness in everyday environments may become an obstacle to social interaction between humans. Or they may even be rejected as “antisocial” if researchers do not take care to develop robots that behave according to the customs and habits of the communities where they are expected to operate.
 
 To prevent this from happening, robotic researchers can no longer take the luxury of being mere technicians. They must be capable of addressing all the challenges raised by future robot-populated communities in a multidisciplinary way. They need to share their knowledge with the public to make people aware of what robots really are, what expectations we can have from them, the risks we may incur, and the possible mitigation plans.
 
 While being open to any kind of contribution related to Human-Robot Interactive Communication, the RO-MAN 2022 conference will emphasize these aspects of robotic research. How can we create robots capable of being welcomed as our assistants and companions in society while, at the same time, not being perceived as “asocial” or “antisocial?” How can we create robots perceived as facilitators of the natural development of human beings and communities, rather than obstacles?
 
 Contributions from different disciplines, not exclusively related to technological development, will be welcomed as crucial to pave the way to global acceptance of future robots with an informed attitude.
 
 [![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/af259abe105b3791c498ae1552d75710.png)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/18w73BZPB_JVOgcrcdZDqYpEupwVt4CnU/view?usp=sharing)

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IEEE RO-MAN 2022

31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication
This conference is a leading forum where state-of-the-art innovative results, the latest developments as well as future perspectives relating to robot and human interactive communication are presented and discussed.

Chatchai Chirapornchai

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User Requirements for a Robot Teleoperation system for General Medical Examination

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