Perceptions of Autonomous Robot Teammates During Field Operations

Abstract

Trust remains a critical focus within human-robot interaction research with the benefits of trust including increased task performance. There is a growing body of literature that suggests that the perceived characteristics of robots play a role in trust; however, less is known about the relationship between trust and the perceived characteristics of an autonomous robot teammate in an applied military setting. We investigated the relationship between the perceived characteristics of a robot teammate and the level of trust in the robot by equipping United States Military Academy (USMA) cadets with a pseudo-autonomous quadrupedal robot teammate during field training. We found that the likability, animacy, perceived intelligence, and perceived safety of the robot positively correlated with trust.