Postures of a robot arm-window to robot intentions?

Body language of robot arms, have rarely been explored as a medium of conveying robot intentions. An explorative study was done focusing on two questions: one, if robot arm postures can convey robot intentions, and two, if participants coming in contact with this robot arm for the first time can associate any meaning to the postures without watching the robot in action, or working with it. Thirty five participants took part in this exploratory study. Results show significant effect of the design of postures on the interpretation of its meaning. Postures designed in tempered form of human/animal-like body language could successfully convey the desired intention to a significant number of people in the following categories: ‘Robot giving object in a friendly manner’; ‘Robot is saying Hi!’, ‘Robot has been told not to disturb’. Developers may predefine such postures in a robot to enhance its acceptability.