Non-facial/non-verbal methods of affective expression as applied to robot-assisted victim assessment

This work applies a previously developed set of heuristics for determining when to use non-facial/non-verbal methods of affective expression to the domain of a robot being used for victim assessment in the aftermath of a disaster. Robot-assisted victim assessment places a robot approximately three meters or less from a victim, and the path of the robot traverses three proximity zones (intimate (contact - 0.46 m), personal (0.46 - 1.22 m), and social (1.22 - 3.66 m)). Robot- and victim-eye views of an Inuktun robot were collected as it followed a path around the victim. The path was derived from observations of a prior robot-assisted medical reachback study. The victim's-eye views of the robot from seven points of interest on the path illustrate the appropriateness of each of the five primary non-facial/non-verbal methods of affective expression: (body movement, posture, orientation, illuminated color, and sound), offering support for the heuristics as a design aid. In addition to supporting the heuristics, the investigation identified three open research questions on acceptable motions and impact of the surroundings on robot affect.