Mobile Robot’s Vertical Oscillation and Body Posture Enhancing Human Perception of the Robot’s Locomotion Speed

Mobile robots have seamlessly integrated into our daily lives, providing various services to humans. The key to successful interaction between humans and these robots lies in human acceptance. To enhance this acceptance, humans must intuitively and easily grasp the intentions behind the locomotion of mobile robots. Just as humans communicate changes in their walking or running speed through vertical oscillation and body leaning, this study delves into the utilization of these behaviors by mobile robots to influence human perception of their locomotion speed. Through laboratory experiments and video analyses, we evaluated the impact of these human-like behaviors on human perception. Our findings reveal that increasing the robot’s vertical oscillation frequency as it approaches humans can affect the perception of an increase in locomotion speed and an intention to accelerate. Additionally, the robot’s forward-leaning posture can affect the human perception of an increase in locomotion speed. Conversely, decreasing the robot’s vertical oscillation frequency as it approaches humans can result in the perception of a decrease in locomotion speed and an intention to decelerate. However, the backward-leaning posture does not influence perceptions of the robot’s locomotion speed changes or intentions. These findings enable humans to anticipate the robot’s locomotion and intentions more intuitively and easily, thereby fostering acceptance in human-robot interactions.