Human-Robot Interaction

The nature and success of the human-robot interaction are heavily influenced by the design and the appearance of the robot. All humanoid robots are built to resemble or completely imitate the human body. It is believed that this helps create an initial bond with humans. However, as they approach this goal, the expectations people have of them increase as well. The problems occur when their abilities cannot attain the illusion of humanness that their body creates. Professor Masahiro Mori produced a theory that states that in these circumstances, the initial empathy can quickly shift to resentment. Once people “recognize” that the robot is not human, or cannot behave like a human, they start to see it as a dead body or zombie as want to stay away. Mori explains it as a part of our self-preservation instinct. People have learnt through evolution to avoid dead bodies. Since human perception can suddenly plummet from an initial peak, this phenomenon is known as the Uncanny Valley.

Although Mori's theory was published in the 1970s, it was long overlooked by researchers. In his publication, Mori cautioned designers not to strive for unrealistic goals: "…I recommend that designers instead take the first peak as their goal, which results in a moderate degree of human likeness and a considerable sense of affinity. In fact, I predict that it is possible to create a safe level of affinity by deliberately pursuing a nonhuman design."

- Uncanny Valley graph - By Smurrayinchester - self-made, based on image by Masahiro Mori and Karl MacDorman at http://www.androidscience.com/theuncannyvalley/proceedings2005/uncannyvalley.html, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2041097

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