Methodological issues using a comfort level device in human-robot interactions

This paper introduces a handheld comfort level device to measure subjects' comfort levels in human-robot interaction experiments. We discuss methodological issues of using the device in an exploratory HRI study where subjects were asked to use the device to indicate their subjective comfort level throughout the experiment. The recorded comfort data were time stamped for synchronization and analysis purposes in conjunction with the video footage to help identify certain situations in the HRI trials where subjects felt uncomfortable. In order to provide a proof-of-concept for the suitability of the handheld comfort level device for HRI studies we analyzed the data for seven selected subjects. These examples show that our method helped identifying robot behaviors that subjects felt uncomfortable with. We demonstrate that the device revealed certain uncomfortable states that are visually hidden. Limitations of the device and possible implications for future work conclude the paper.