Can you pass that tool?: Implications of Indirect Speech in Physical Human-Robot Collaboration

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Zhang, Yan, Ratnayake, Tharaka Sachintha, Sew, Cherie, Knibbe, Jarrod, Goncalves, Jorge, Johal, Wafa
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866916622426439680
author Zhang, Yan
Ratnayake, Tharaka Sachintha
Sew, Cherie
Knibbe, Jarrod
Goncalves, Jorge
Johal, Wafa
author_facet Zhang, Yan
Ratnayake, Tharaka Sachintha
Sew, Cherie
Knibbe, Jarrod
Goncalves, Jorge
Johal, Wafa
contents Indirect speech acts (ISAs) are a natural pragmatic feature of human communication, allowing requests to be conveyed implicitly while maintaining subtlety and flexibility. Although advancements in speech recognition have enabled natural language interactions with robots through direct, explicit commands -- roviding clarity in communication -- the rise of large language models presents the potential for robots to interpret ISAs. However, empirical evidence on the effects of ISAs on human-robot collaboration (HRC) remains limited. To address this, we conducted a Wizard-of-Oz study (N=36), engaging a participant and a robot in collaborative physical tasks. Our findings indicate that robots capable of understanding ISAs significantly improve human's perceived robot anthropomorphism, team performance, and trust. However, the effectiveness of ISAs is task- and context-dependent, thus requiring careful use. These results highlight the importance of appropriately integrating direct and indirect requests in HRC to enhance collaborative experiences and task performance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_11720
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Can you pass that tool?: Implications of Indirect Speech in Physical Human-Robot Collaboration
Zhang, Yan
Ratnayake, Tharaka Sachintha
Sew, Cherie
Knibbe, Jarrod
Goncalves, Jorge
Johal, Wafa
Human-Computer Interaction
Robotics
Indirect speech acts (ISAs) are a natural pragmatic feature of human communication, allowing requests to be conveyed implicitly while maintaining subtlety and flexibility. Although advancements in speech recognition have enabled natural language interactions with robots through direct, explicit commands -- roviding clarity in communication -- the rise of large language models presents the potential for robots to interpret ISAs. However, empirical evidence on the effects of ISAs on human-robot collaboration (HRC) remains limited. To address this, we conducted a Wizard-of-Oz study (N=36), engaging a participant and a robot in collaborative physical tasks. Our findings indicate that robots capable of understanding ISAs significantly improve human's perceived robot anthropomorphism, team performance, and trust. However, the effectiveness of ISAs is task- and context-dependent, thus requiring careful use. These results highlight the importance of appropriately integrating direct and indirect requests in HRC to enhance collaborative experiences and task performance.
title Can you pass that tool?: Implications of Indirect Speech in Physical Human-Robot Collaboration
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.11720