It is not clear how robots affect core group processes such as conflict, emotion regulation or power dynamics, and how the impact of a robot on these processes shapes short and long-term group outcomes. One of our key research questions is to better understand how robots affect these processes and outcomes, which is increasingly pressing as several companies have announced autonomous robots for group settings.
Little is known about how robots impact the ways in which people interact with each other and even less is known about how robots impact or should impact the way people interact with each other in more complex group settings. To investigate this question we perform behavioral studies that examine how a robot’s behavior shapes human-human interactions in dyads, teams and larger groups.
Given that the social and emotional functioning of groups and teams has been shown to be crucial for group performance, we see an opportunity for robot to improve group performance by acting on teamwork processes that ensure the social functioning of teams. We use iterative design approaches to develop robots that employ social behaviors to improve team performance.
We conduct research through design, behavioral science approaches, and field observations. Our work seeks to contribute to our basic understanding of group dynamics and how group dynamics can be shaped by robots implicitly and by design. . Of our research is conducted within the Information Science Department on Cornell's Ithaca campus.. If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch below.
8/2018 We are about to be opening the doors of our lab to kids from 7 to 11 years old. From 8/20 trough 9/9 we are going to run a robot design workshop. Parents, educators and younger and older siblings can tag along too and the event is completely free as it is part of our research on designing developmentally appropriate toy robots for children. You can sign up at this link http://bit.ly/robotkidsevent or contact Cristina Zaga (cz444@cornell.edu)
6/2018 Gabe has succesfully defenced his thesis, congratulations Gabe! Best of luck in your new role at Google.
5/2018 Rei passed her A-exam and will continuing building her sketching robots into the fall, congratulations!
12/2017 Solace's paper on cultural differences in the behaviour of telepresence robot operators got accepted into CHI 2018! Congratulations Solace.
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Malte Jung: Robots in the Wild: A Time for More Robust Theories of Human-Robot Interaction
Robots in the Wild: A Time for More Robust Theories of Human-Robot Interaction
Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI) [Full Paper]
We have a limited understanding of how people will respond to robots in complex social settings and howrobots will affect social dynamics in situ. In particular, our theories reflect an oversimplified view of HRI. The time is ripe for studies that tackle HRI in these complex settings and build generalizable theories about what to expect of HRI in the wild
Yoyo Tsung-Yu Hou: Robots in Power
While power affects interactions in every work group, we know little about its role in human-robot teams. In this paper, we propose a framework to address power in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).
Houston Claure: Understanding Social Dynamics in Robot-Human Handovers Through the Lens of Expectancy Violations Theory: Go
Understanding Social Dynamics in Robot-Human Handovers Through the Lens of Expectancy Violations Theory
Human Robot Interaction 2018 (HRI) [Extended Abstract]
We use expectancy violation theory to understand people’s response to such violations of expectation and investigate how this impacts task completion and the experience of the task. We propose that a violation of expectation may not always lead to detrimental effects on the experience of the task but may impact the overall task completion.
Solace Shen: My Telepresence, My Culture? An Intercultural Investigation of Telepresence Robot Operators’ Interpersonal Distance Behaviors
My Telepresence, My Culture? An Intercultural Investigation of Telepresence Robot Operators’ Interpersonal Distance Behaviors
CHI 2018 [Full Paper]
Interpersonal distance behaviors can vary significantly across countries and impact human social interaction. Do these crosscultural differences play out when one of the interaction partners participates through a teleoperated robot?
Hamish Tennent: Good Vibrations, How Consequential Sounds Affect Perception of Robotic Arms
How does a robot’s sound shape our perception of it? We overlaid sound from high-end and low-end robot arms on videos of the high-end KUKA youBot desktop robotic arm moving a small block in functional (working in isolation) and social (interacting with a human) contexts.
Gabriel Culbertson: Facilitating Development of Pragmatic Competence through a Voice-driven Video Learning Interface
Facilitating Development of Pragmatic Competence through a Voice-driven Video Learning Interface
CHI 2017 [Full Paper]
In this paper we present a voice-driven system where learners practice and learn a foreign language by repeating phrases out loud from any video. Utterances are transcribed and translated and, if captions are available, the system indicates the correctness of the utterance.
Malte Jung: Robots in Group Context: Rethinking Design, Development and Deployment
This panel brings together experts on design, robotics, organizational behavior, team dynamics and science and technology studies to discuss challenges and opportunities arising from the increased participation of robots in teams groups and organizations.
Malte Jung: Affective Grounding in Human-Robot Interaction
The paper contributes a review and critique of current perspectives on emotion in HRI. Further it outlines how research on emotion in HRI can benefit from taking an affective grounding perspective and outlines implications for the design of robots capable of participating in the coordination on affect in interaction.
Solace Shen: A Benefit of Thinking Like a Robot
Picture a scenario in the not too distant future where home assistant robots provide social support such as engaging people in conflict reappraisal practices in the event of emotional conflicts. What should the robot say and/or do to effectively help people regulate emotions and navigate interpersonal conflicts?
Robots in Groups and Teams Workshop @ CSCW 2017
The goal for the workshop is therefore to advance research in computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and human robot interaction (HRI) by raising awareness for the social and technical challenges that surround the placement of robots within work-groups and teams.
Malte Jung: Coupling Interactions and Performance: Predicting Team Performance from Thin Slices of Conflict
Coupling Interactions and Performance: Predicting Team Performance from Thin Slices of Conflict
TOCHI 2016 [Full Paper]
Do teams show stable conflict interaction patterns that predict their performance hours, weeks, or even months in advance? Two studies demonstrate that two of the same patterns of emotional interaction dynamics that distinguish functional from dysfunctional marriages also distinguish high from low-performance design teams.
Gabriel Culbertson, Shiyu Wang, Malte Jung, Erik Andersen: Social Situational Language Learning through an Online 3D Game
Learning a second language is challenging. Becoming fluent requires learning contextual information about how language should be used as well as word meanings and grammar. The majority of existing language learning applications provide only thin context around content.
Gabriel Culbertson, Erik Andersen, Walker White, Daniel Zhang, Malte Jung: Crystallize: An Immersive, Collaborative Game for Second Language Learning
Learning a second language is challenging. Becoming fluent requires learning contextual information about how language should be used as well as word meanings and grammar. The majority of existing language learning applications provide only thin context around content.
Malte Jung: Using Robots to Moderate Team Conflict: The Case of Repairing Violations
We explore whether robots can positively influence conflict dynamics by repairing interpersonal violations that occur during a team-based problem-solving task.
Gabriel Culbertson: Crystallize: Simulating Language Immersion through Gameplay
Crystallize: Simulating Language Immersion through Gameplay
CHI Extended Abstracts 2015 [Extended Abstract]
Crystallize takes a first step towards this goal by providing a structured immersive experience. Instead of memorizing vocabulary words and grammar, the player solves linguistic puzzles, interacts with the environment, and infers word meanings from context.
Malte Jung: Participatory Materials: Having a Reflective Conversationwith an Artifact in the Making
Participatory Materials: Having a Reflective Conversation with an Artifact in the Making
DIS 2014 [Full Paper]
Drawing from a notion of designing as a conversation with the materials of the situation we built an artifact that could actively engage in its own making by embedding a Wizard of Oz operated animated agent into an Arduino prototyping platform.
We're located in Cornell's Information Science department.
343 Campus Rd