The global labor market lost 8.8% of its working hours in 2020 – approximately 225 million full-time jobs (International Labour Organization, 2021). These disruptions have inflicted economic, social, educational, and psychological costs across all strata of society. Importantly, however, we also found that whether participants interacted with the robot in-person (but socially distanced) or remotely over a network, their experience, perception of, and attitude towards the robot were unaffected.ĬOVID-19 has disrupted the world since it was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020, with governments enforcing strict physical lockdowns in their countries to limit the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Our results showed that participants interacting with the robot remotely experienced a higher cognitive workload, which may be due to minor cultural and technical factors. An R-HRI study minimizes or eliminates in-person interaction between the experimenter and the participant and implements a new protocol for interacting with the robot to minimize physical contact. We present the results of an exploratory experiment that suggests Remote-HRI (R-HRI) studies may be a viable alternative to traditional face-to-face HRI studies. We explore the problem of how HRI research can occur in a setting where physical separation is the most reliable way of preventing disease transmission. This ability to undertake these observations was taken for granted before the COVID-19 pandemic restricted the possibilities of performing HRI study-based interactions. Observing how humans and robots interact is an integral part of understanding how they can effectively coexist.

Remote buddy 1.27