Theoretical Considerations and Applications for Social Robots in Virtual Reality

Abstract

While Virtual Reality (VR) has been used by researchers to investigate human-robot interaction (HRI), these efforts were largely focused on investigating HRI with industrial robots. In this current paper, we identify this gap in the literature and suggest the benefits and the limitations of investigating HRI in VR, and offer use cases for interacting with social robots in the VR space. We identify some use cases where interacting with a social robot in VR may be beneficial over interacting with a human in VR, and offer future directions and applications for this topic.