Robo-Tooltips: Understandable Robots for Trustworthy Interactions

Abstract

Trust is a factor that can positively influence human-robot interactions. Transparent robot design and appropriately timed explanations have the potential to help users calibrate their trust in a robotic system. We introduce the idea of robo-tooltips, physical markers that signal to users that additional information about the robot is available, which they can access at their own discretion. We showcase the concept, which is similar to the tooltips used in desktop environments, by attaching QR codes to a robot. When the user interacts with the QR code, descriptions on the capabilities and behavior of the respective part of the robot are displayed. We present scenarios during which the user retrieves information using robo-tooltips. Further, we discuss some opportunities and challenges of offering optional explanations during human-robot interaction and outline directions for future work.