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Communicating robot state | Composed | General Communication

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Preamble

Type

Composed Pattern, Communicating robot state

Ranking

* (tentative)

Version

1

Author

Kathrin Pollmann (kathrin.pollmann@iao.fraunhofer.de)

Design Challenge

Interaction Situation

The user is occupied with an activity that does not involve the robot. The robot is in a kind of „sleeping mode“ indicating that it is inactive and will neither execute any actions nor initiate any interactions in this state. The robot’s presence fades into the background for the user, and it does not disturb her. In particular, the user needs to understand that the robot is not surveilling them and their actions in this state. However, some of its sensors are still actively recording and the robot can be “woken up” from this state by predefined triggers (e.g. a user request or context information such as time, weather or a certain user state). This is the default pattern when the robot is not engaged in interaction with the user for a longer period of time, but not turned off either.

Communication
Goal

„I am currently not engaged in interaction and not capable of initiating an interaction with you. But I am here for you, and I can start interacting in an instance, if required. Let me know if you need anything.”

Design Solution

Solution

Let the robot express that:
  • It is focused on internal processing through a body posture that is averted from the user and the room (Inside turn).
  • Position the robot close to the wall of the room, in a reachable distance to the user, but out of their way (Passively available).
  • Its operation mode is set to by letting the status light pulsate. Only part of the robot’s sensors are active – make it visible that it is not surveilling the user (Operation mode standby).

    • Rationale

    When maintaining an inactive status that can result in longer periods where there is no interaction between robot and user, the robot needs to communicate three aspects: First, that its focus is away from the user, so that the user does not feel observed and it is clear that no initiation of interaction is to be expected from the robot at this time. Second, a state of passive availability (as opposed to being completely turned off) that allows the user to bring the robot back to an active state and start an interaction at any time. Third, that its operation mode is currently in standby. Detailed for design those three aspects can be found in the Atomic Patterns “Inside turn”, “Passively available” (https://patternwiki.iao.fraunhofer. de/?p=833) and “Operation mode standby” (https://pattern-wiki.iao.fraunhofer.de/?p=568).

    References and
    Context

    Needs: Passively available AND Operation mode standby AND Inside turn

    Opposed patterns: all other composed patterns – two composed patterns can never be executed at the same time

    Light

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