Creating human-robot rapport with mobile sculpture

There is much discussion in the robotics community concerning the nature of people´s impressions of robots. This pilot study employed the use of mobile robots coupled with artistic elements to create an environment conducive to human participation. PhotoBot took photos of participants (n = 16) in a gallery space and provided them with a physical copy of their image, while ProjectorBot displayed 3D Kinect imagery for participants to view. Participants completed a self-report measure of rapport (Bernieri´s Rapport Criterion); the results of which suggest that they experienced a high degree of positive interaction with the robots.