Half Day Workshop on Mental Models of Robots

Abstract

Robotic systems are becoming increasingly complex, hindering people from understanding the robot's inner workings [24]. Simply providing the robot's source code may be useful for software and hardware engineers who need to test the system for traceability and verification [3], but not for the non-technical user. Plus, looks can be deceiving: robots that merely resemble humans or animals are perceived differently by users [25]. This workshop aims to provide a forum for researchers from both industry and academia to discuss the user's understanding or mental model of a robot: what the robot is, what it does, and how it works. In many cases it will be useful for robots to estimate each user's mental model and use this information when deciding how to behave during an interaction. Designing more transparent robot actions will also be important, giving users a window into what the robot is thinking, feeling, and intending. We envision a future in which robots can automatically detect and correct inaccurate mental models held by users. This workshop will develop a multidisciplinary vision for the next few years of research in pursuit of that future.