Medical patients would probably be OK with semi-autonomous robots tending to them, but only if the robots don’t talk to them first.

Robotics researchers tested whether a verbal explanation from a robot would help people feel more comfortable with the robot administering care, but found that precisely the opposite is true.

“Robotics has mostly been about teaching machines how to not touch people, walls, chairs and other objects,” said robotics researcher Tiffany Chen of the Georgia Institute of Technology, part of a team that presented the study March 9 at a human-robot–interaction conference in Switzerland. “This is one of the first steps toward understanding what happens when robots touch people.”

Most semi-autonomous robots do precise or dangerous grunt work, such as assemble automobiles or help neutralize improvised bombs. Now robots have advanced to the point that they are ready to take on more delicate work, such as assisting nurses. But the bots may not be as accepted in a hospital as they are in a factory.

“If we want robots to be successful at health care, we’re going to need to think about how do we make those robots communicate their intention and how do people interpret the intentions of the robots,” biomedical engineer Charlie Kemp of the Georgia Institute of Technology said in a video about the work.

Kemp and his team programmed a robot named Cody to gently wipe its hand across volunteers’ arms, as if cleaning them, or administer a soothing touch. In some trials, Cody explained to people with a synthetic female voice what it was about to do, and in others it didn’t say anything until after touching the participants.

People generally didn’t mind being touched by Cody overall, but were less comfortable with the robot when it spoke to them beforehand. And participants were more-accepting of a potentially necessary medical touch than an attempt at a soothing touch by the robot.

“The results of the voice timing surprised us. We thought people would want to be told something like ‘I’m going to clean you,’ and then the robot cleans. But the opposite was true,” Chen said.

Image: Cody the robot touches one of 56 study participants. (Georgia Tech)

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