The Social Context of Human–Robot Interactions

The human–robot interaction (HRI) community often highlights the social context of an interaction as a key consideration when designing, implementing, and evaluating robot behavior. Unfortunately, researchers use the term “social context” in varied ways. This can lead to miscommunication, making it challenging to draw connections between related work on understanding and modeling the social contexts of human–robot interactions. To address this gap, we survey the HRI literature for existing definitions and uses of the term “social context.” Then, we propose a conceptual model for describing the social context of a human–robot interaction. We apply this model to existing work, and we discuss a range of attributes of social contexts that can help researchers plan for interactions, develop behavior models for robots, and gain insights after interactions have taken place. We conclude with a discussion of open research questions in relation to understanding and modeling the social contexts of human–robot interactions.