Safety Perception and Behaviors during Human-Robot Interaction in Virtual Environments

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) technology is increasingly used to simulate and study human-robot interaction (HRI) because of its low cost and minimal risk to participants. The current study investigated whether perceived safety and safety-related behaviors during human-robot interaction can be adequately examined in virtual environments. Two prior studies that examined perceived safety and proxemics behavior during human-robot interaction in real environments were replicated in virtual environments using Head-Mounted Display (HMD) VR. Our results indicated that although perceived safety during virtual human-robot interaction is higher than during physical interaction in some situations, the virtual simulation of robots induced safety perception and behaviors comparable to those found in real environments and some of the findings of the previous human-robot interaction studies were replicable in a virtual environment. These findings suggest that VR simulation is a valid and useful method for research and worker training; however, it may be less sensitive than real environments.