Modeling human-like robot personalities as a key to foster socially aware navigation

This work aims to investigate if a "robot's personality" can affect the social perception of the robot in the navigation task. To this end, we implemented a dedicated human-aware navigation system that adapts the configuration of the navigation parameters (i.e. proxemics and velocity) based on two different human-like personalities, extrovert (EXT) and introvert (INT), and we compared them with a no social behavior (NS). We evaluated the system in a dynamic scenario in which each participant needed to pass by a robot moving in the opposite direction, showing a different personality each time. The Eysenck Personality Inventory and a modified version of the Godspeed questionnaire were administered to assess the user’s and the perceived robot’s personalities, respectively. The results show that 19 out of 20 subjects involved in the study perceived a difference among the personalities exhibited by the robot, both in terms of proxemics and velocity. Furthermore, the results highlight a general preference of a complementary robot’s personality, helping to suggest some guidelines for future works in the human-aware navigation field.