Record STMT-W63E2DCAdvisory

Is honesty the best policy for mismatched partners? Aligning multi-modal affordances of a social robot: An opinion paper

Position paper ProfessionalGlobaladopted

This opinion paper examines whether human-like affordance design is beneficial for social robots or if it creates mismatched expectations. The authors argue that human-like design can be deceptive and lead to uncertainty or failure due to mismatched capabilities. They propose that social robot affordances should instead be designed as honest signals aligned with internal capabilities and user needs in specific use cases.

Summary and content fields are drawn from the document text and are pending editorial review.

Who issued it

University of SheffieldAcademic · GB

Lead issuer

Legal forceAdvisory

Under whose authorityProfessional

Judged fromfull text

Who it governs

Researchers and academicsGeneral publicAI developers and providers

Researchers, engineers, and developers working in human-robot interaction and social robotics who want to understand the design implications of honest signaling.

Sectors

Research and science · human-robot interaction research

What the document contains

What's covered

The paper discusses the design of social robots, human-robot interaction (HRI), spoken language technology, and the ethical concerns surrounding deceptive anthropomorphic design. It evaluates the concept of honest signals as an evolutionary and social strategy for aligning robot affordances with actual internal capabilities.

What's missing

The paper does not provide binding regulatory requirements, legal standards, technical enforcement mechanisms, or compliance frameworks for social robot manufacturing.

Key takeaways

Social robots function as mismatched conversational partners compared to humans.
Human-like affordance designs can be deceptive, create unrealistic expectations, and cause the uncanny valley effect.
Designing social robot affordances as honest signals can better reflect internal capabilities and reduce communicative uncertainty.
Honest affordance design must be rooted in concrete user needs and specific use cases.
Aligning external affordances with internal capabilities improves human-robot interaction usability and user experience.

Outline

· Introduction
· Broader theoretical background of spoken interaction
· Why a social robot could be a mismatched conversational partner?
· Affordance design and its consequences
· Use of honest signals in HRI design: A hypothetical approach
· Conclusion

Issued16 September 2022

Length4,111 words · 6 pages

FormatNot recorded

Scopeglobal

Physical AI Governancesupporting

social_robots affordance_design human_robot_interaction honest_signals conversational_agents