Intuitive-nonverbal and informative-verbal robot-human communication

In the INTUITIV project, a series of assistance robots, which can support both patients and nursing staff in a clinical context, were developed together with our project partners. The use of robotic assistants in hospitals or rehabilitation clinics poses a particular challenge, as the requirements for safety, but also for the intuitive comprehensibility of the robot's behaviour, are especially high here.

The aim of the project, which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, was therefore to develop robot assistants that can not only help people in their everyday lives in the clinic, but also behave in an intuitively understandable way in order to prevent insecurities or even fear among patients. In the course of the three-year project, among other things, a transport robot for luggage and a robotic walker were developed, each of which can move independently through the hospital corridors.

In addition to accompanying the development of all platforms from an engineering psychology perspective, HFC was primarily responsible for the planning, implementation and evaluation of the user tests that were performed during the entire course of the project. Extensive studies in the HFC virtual reality laboratory were conducted in the early phases of development, this also included Wizard-of-Oz studies. This was followed by the final evaluations in the real clinic environment.

Some impressions of the final robots and the successful final evaluations can be found in the video below