Teaching a humanoid: A user study on learning by demonstration with HOAP-3

This article reports on the results of a user study investigating the satisfaction of nave users conducting two learning by demonstration tasks with the HOAP-3 robot. The main goal of this study was to gain insights on how to ensure a successful as well as satisfactory experience for nave users. The participants performed two tasks: They taught the robot to (1) push a box, and to (2) close a box. The user study was accompanied by three pre-structured questionnaires, addressing the users´ satisfaction with HOAP-3, the users´ affect toward the robot caused by the interaction, and the users´ attitude towards robots. Furthermore, a retrospective think aloud was conducted to gain a better understanding of what influences the users´ satisfaction in learning by demonstration tasks. A high task completion and final satisfaction rate could be observed. These results stress that learning by demonstration is a promising approach for nave users to learn the interaction with a robot Moreover, the short term interaction with HOAP-3 led to a positive affect, higher than the normative average on half of the female users.