We are conducting research on ways to measure a user's trust in a robot.
OMG, how could I not participate?
So as a result, I spent a few hours yesterday at UML's Robotics Lab, where they were doing experiments to discover just how willing I was to let a robot run the show.
I got to drive this robot:
His name is "Junior."
I have to say, it was totally awesome. I didn't see it til after (I was driving remotely, actually from an entirely different floor), but it was very cool. I had to drive him through a maze in the hallway of the building, navigating around boxes using the 'bot-mounted camera. There were other tasks I had to do at the same time, making it all very complicated and stressful. It was very, very fun. I don't want to ruin their experimental design, so I won't say more, but wow, fun!
It turns out, robots=not so trustworthy. But also my driving of a robot=not so trustworthy either.
I also got to see this robot, though not in action:
It's a "telepresence" robot that lets you attend meetings. Notice its nifty necktie -- no business casual for this robot, oh no!
Incidentally, if you're local and over age 18, you too can do the robot trust study! Let me know and I'll hook you up with the researcher.
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