Feedback guidelines for multimodal human-robot interaction: How should a robot give feedback when asking for directions?

It is the aim of our research to explore how multimodal feedback can help a robot to carry out itinerary requests effectively and satisfactory for a human interaction partner. We conducted two studies to evaluate the feedback setup of the Interactive Urban Robot (IURO), which navigates through public space autonomously and finds its way by asking pedestrians for directions. In a Wizard-of-Oz (WOz) experiment with novice users, different feedback modalities and various combinations of them were tested against each other to ascertain the ideal setup of the robot. Subsequently, a cognitive walkthrough with HRI experts was performed to validate the results from the experiment. The results from both studies show that for itinerary requests verbal feedback is most prominent but other feedback modalities may support the conversation by providing reassurance or positive emotions.