Do Robots Need Body Language? Comparing Communication Modalities for Legible Motion Intent in Human-Shared Spaces

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Cohen, Jonathan Albert, Shimizu, Kye, Song, Allen, Bharath, Vishnu, Larson, Kent, Maes, Pattie
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Cohen, Jonathan Albert
Shimizu, Kye
Song, Allen
Bharath, Vishnu
Larson, Kent
Maes, Pattie
author_facet Cohen, Jonathan Albert
Shimizu, Kye
Song, Allen
Bharath, Vishnu
Larson, Kent
Maes, Pattie
contents Robots in shared spaces often move in ways that are difficult for people to interpret, placing the burden on humans to adapt. High-DoF robots exhibit motion that people read as expressive, intentionally or not, making it important to understand how such cues are perceived. We present an online video study evaluating how different signaling modalities, expressive motion, lights, text, and audio, shape people's ability to understand a quadruped robot's upcoming navigation actions (Boston Dynamics Spot). Across four common scenarios, we measure how each modality influences humans' (1) accuracy in predicting the robot's next navigation action, (2) confidence in that prediction, and (3) trust in the robot to act safely. The study tests how expressive motions compare to explicit channels, whether aligned multimodal cues enhance interpretability, and how conflicting cues affect user confidence and trust. We contribute initial evidence on the relative effectiveness of implicit versus explicit signaling strategies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_03451
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Do Robots Need Body Language? Comparing Communication Modalities for Legible Motion Intent in Human-Shared Spaces
Cohen, Jonathan Albert
Shimizu, Kye
Song, Allen
Bharath, Vishnu
Larson, Kent
Maes, Pattie
Robotics
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
Robots in shared spaces often move in ways that are difficult for people to interpret, placing the burden on humans to adapt. High-DoF robots exhibit motion that people read as expressive, intentionally or not, making it important to understand how such cues are perceived. We present an online video study evaluating how different signaling modalities, expressive motion, lights, text, and audio, shape people's ability to understand a quadruped robot's upcoming navigation actions (Boston Dynamics Spot). Across four common scenarios, we measure how each modality influences humans' (1) accuracy in predicting the robot's next navigation action, (2) confidence in that prediction, and (3) trust in the robot to act safely. The study tests how expressive motions compare to explicit channels, whether aligned multimodal cues enhance interpretability, and how conflicting cues affect user confidence and trust. We contribute initial evidence on the relative effectiveness of implicit versus explicit signaling strategies.
title Do Robots Need Body Language? Comparing Communication Modalities for Legible Motion Intent in Human-Shared Spaces
topic Robotics
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.03451