The Effects of Communication Style on Robot Navigation Performance

Abstract

With the advance of computer speech recognition programs, robotic operators have a new method of robot-operator communication. An experiment was conducted using a “Wizard of Oz” paradigm to investigate how different styles of communication affect robot navigation performance. Using manual inputs, verbal commands (restricted to directions only), and verbal commands with object referent labels, participants navigated a simulated robot through various simulated indoor environments. Results indicated that manual control was faster than free form verbal commands but not faster than simple directional commands. When provided the opportunity, participants did use object labels particularly objects related to the structure of the building (doors, rooms, and halls). Discussion focuses on improving robotic communication and object recognition in a robotic control system.