Socially Aware Robotics: Designing Apologetic Gestures for Multi-Joint Manipulators

Service robots are now common in restaurant food delivery. However, machines aren’t always stable and may encounter errors, causing a loss of trust. Typically, when people make an error, they apologize and are forgiven. We were curious about how people react when a service robot makes an error and apologizes. Before checking trust in a participant, we aimed to check for manipulative behavior and investigate which motions are suitable for apologetic gesture such as bowing, using non-anthropomorphic robot. We conducted a web-based experiment with two-way ANOVA using a 2 x 5 (End-effector: Robot hand, Human hand; Motions: 5 different motions) within-participant design. Participants indicated a willingness to accept machine apologies, but we explored how trust could change. This study contributes insights into human-robot interactions, probing the acceptance of service robots in various roles and the impact of error and apology on trust.