Roland Buchner

Exploring human-robot cooperation possibilities for semiconductor manufacturing

This paper presents notions of a novel human-centered, integrated production system based on the intelligent cooperation between humans, robots and automation systems in the clean room context. In semiconductor manufacturing and in particular for short-term interactions with robotic systems like turn taking (an operator performs some work, hands over a lot box to the robot to perform some work and so on), it is still an open issue how the ideal relationship between the human and the intelligent (autonomous) system should look like. We present two case studies conducted together with Infineon Technologies Austria AG, with the overall aim to explore the interaction scope of operators and the cooperation potential of the robotic systems in the semiconductor manufacturing context.

Ambient Rabbits Likeability of Embodied Ambient Displays

This paper discusses the possibility of using embodied Ambient Displays for presenting information in a public setting. For embodying an Ambient Display, a Nabaztag rabbit was used, the information displayed was a weather forecast. Throughout four weeks of alternating traditional visual Ambient Displays and Nabaztag testing, differences and commonalities in terms of perceived usability and likeability have been investigated. Special focus has been put on the likeability and comprehension differences. Results show a correlation between perceived usability and likeability for the traditional Ambient Display as well as a better comprehension over time for both Ambient Displays. However, significant differences in terms of perceived usability and likeability could only be revealed for the traditional Ambient Displays.

User experience evaluation with a Wizard of Oz approach: Technical and methodological considerations

User experience evaluation in human-robot interaction is most often an expensive and difficult task. To allow the evaluation of various factors and aspects of user experience, a fully functional (humanoid) robot is recommended. This work presents technical and methodological considerations on the applicability of the Wizard of Oz (WOz) approach to enable user experience evaluation in the field of Human-Robot Interaction. We briefly describe the technical aspects of the setup, the applicability of the method, and a first case study using this methodological approach to gain an early understanding of the user experience factors that are important for the development of a human-humanoid interaction scenario.

Robots in Time: How User Experience in Human-Robot Interaction Changes over Time

This paper describes a User Experience (UX) study on industrial robots in the context of a semiconductor factory cleanroom. We accompanied the deployment of a new robotic arm, without a safety fence, over one and a half years. Within our study, we explored if there is a UX difference between robots which have been used for more than 10 years within a safety fence (type A robot) and a newly deployed robot without fence (type B robot). Further, we investigated if the UX ratings change over time. The departments of interest were the oven (type A robots), the etching (type B robot), and the implantation department (type B robot). To observe experience changes over time, a UX questionnaire was developed and distributed to the operators at three defined points in time within these departments. The first survey was conducted one week after the deployment of robot B (n=23), the second survey was deployed six months later (n=21), and the third survey was distributed one and a half years later (n=23). Our results show an increasing positive UX towards the newly deployed robots with progressing time, which partly aligns with the UX ratings of the robots in safety fences. However, this effect seems to fade after one year. We further found that the UX ratings for all scales for the established robots were stable at all three points in time.

User experience of industrial robots over time

This paper reports about a User Experience (UX) study on industrial robotic arms in the context of a semiconductor factory cleanroom. The goal was to find out (1) if there is a difference in the UX between robots used over years with a strict security perimeter (robot A) and a newly installed robot without security perimeter (robot B), and (2) if the UX ratings of the new robot change over time. Therefore, a UX questionnaire was developed and handed out to the operators working with these robots. The first survey was conducted one week after the deployment of robot B (n=23), the second survey (n=21) six months later. Thereby, we found that time is crucial for experiencing human-robot interaction. Our results showed an improvement between the first and second measurement of UX regarding robot B. Although robot A was significantly better rated than robot B in terms of usability, general UX, cooperation, and stress, we assume that the differences in UX will decrease gradually with prolonged interaction.

Transferring human-human interaction studies to HRI scenarios in public space

This paper presents the contextual analysis of the user requirements for a mobile navigation robot in public space. Three human-human interaction studies were conducted in order to gain a holistic understanding of the public space as interaction context for itinerary requests. All three human-human requirement studies were analyzed with respect to retrieve guidelines for human-robot interaction. This empirical work should contribute by: (1) providing recommendations for a communication structure from a communication studies perspective, (2) providing recommendations for navigation principles for humanrobot interaction in public space from a socio-psychological and a HRI perspective, and (3) providing recommendations regarding (confounding) contextual variables from an HCI perspective.

Repair now: collaboration between maintainers, operators and equipment in a cleanroom

It is greatly aknowledged in the CSCW community that supportive technology needs to adapt to its contextual usage to increase the collaboration between different user groups. Based on a Contextual Inquiry (CI) in the cleanroom in a semiconductor factory, we identified the maintainers working routines and their usage patterns with various maintenance devices. In the cleanroom maintainance tools could bridge the physical gap between operators and maintainers. In particular reporting tools should link the information gap. In this paper we will present design implications derived from the CI towards a novel-reporting tool for maintainers to support this cooperation between maintainers and operators in the cleanroom.

Systematic analysis of video data from different human-robot interaction studies: a categorization of social signals during error situations.

Human–robot interactions are often affected by error situations that are caused by either the robot or the human. Therefore, robots would profit from the ability to recognize when error situations occur. We investigated the verbal and non-verbal social signals that humans show when error situations occur in human–robot interaction experiments. For that, we analyzed 201 videos of five human–robot interaction user studies with varying tasks from four independent projects. The analysis shows that there are two types of error situations: social norm violations and technical failures. Social norm violations are situations in which the robot does not adhere to the underlying social script of the interaction. Technical failures are caused by technical shortcomings of the robot. The results of the video analysis show that the study participants use many head movements and very few gestures, but they often smile, when in an error situation with the robot. Another result is that the participants sometimes stop moving at the beginning of error situations. We also found that the participants talked more in the case of social norm violations and less during technical failures. Finally, the participants use fewer non-verbal social signals (for example smiling, nodding, and head shaking), when they are interacting with the robot alone and no experimenter or other human is present. The results suggest that participants do not see the robot as a social interaction partner with comparable communication skills. Our findings have implications for builders and evaluators of human–robot interaction systems. The builders need to consider including modules for recognition and classification of head movements to the robot input channels. The evaluators need to make sure that the presence of an experimenter does not skew the results of their user studies.

Impact of Robot Actions on Social Signals and Reaction Times in HRI Error Situations

Human-robot interaction experiments featuring error situations are often excluded from analysis. We argue that a lot of value lies hidden in this discarded data. We analyzed a corpus of 201 videos that show error situations in human-robot interaction experiments. The aim of our analysis was to research (a) if and which social signals the experiment participants show in reaction to error situations, (b) how long it takes the participants to react in the error situations, and (c) whether different robot actions elicit different social signals. We found that participants showed social signals in 49.3% of error situations, more during social norm violations and less during technical failures. Task-related actions by the robot elicited less social signals by the participants, while participants showed more social signals when the robot did not react. Finally, the participants had an overall reaction time of 1.64 seconds before they showed a social signal in response to a robot action. The reaction times are specifically long (4.39 seconds) during task-related actions that go wrong during execution.

Assisting maintainers in the semiconductor factory: iterative co-design of a mobile interface and a situated display

Maintaining machines in semiconductor factories is a challenging task that, so far, is not sufficiently supported by mobile interactive technology. This paper describes the early development of a maintainer support system. Our goal was to develop a user-experience prototype, which consists of a mobile and a situated interface, to support maintenance activities and the coordination between maintainers and shift-leads. The interfaces are meant to reduce the amount of information and to improve awareness for defective equipment. Efforts described in this paper include the development of a conceptual user experience prototype, following an iterative user-centered design approach. Based on the requirements analysis, an initial mock-up of both interfaces was developed and later on discussed with maintainers in a workshop. With an interactive Wizard of Oz (WOz) prototype we examined the cooperative aspect as well as user experience factors (e.g., distraction, trust, usability) in a simulated factory environment.