arXiv subjects

Amy Koike

Publications and source records attributed to Amy Koike.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Elements of Robot Morphology: Supporting Designers in Robot Form Exploration

Robot morphology, the form, shape, and structure of robots, is a key design space in human-robot interaction (HRI), shaping how robots function, express themselves, and interact with people. Yet, despite its importance, little is known about how design frameworks can guide systematic form exploration. To address this gap, we introduce Elements of Robot Morphology, a framework that identifies five fundamental elements: perception, articulation, end effectors, locomotion, and structure. Derived from an analysis of existing robots, the framework supports structured exploration of diverse robot forms. To operationalize the framework, we developed Morphology Exploration Blocks (MEB), a set of tangible blocks that enable hands-on, collaborative experimentation with robot morphologies. We evaluate the framework and toolkit through a case study and design workshops, showing how they support analysis, ideation, reflection, and collaborative robot design.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2026

Practical Insights into Designing Context-Aware Robot Voice Parameters in the Wild

Voice is an essential modality for human-robot interaction (HRI). The way a robot sounds plays a central role in shaping how humans perceive and engage with it, influencing factors such as intelligibility, understandability, and likability. Although prior work has examined voice design, most studies occur in controlled labs, leaving uncertainty about how results translate to real-world settings. To address this gap, we conducted two naturalistic deployment studies with a guidance robot in a shopping mall: (1) in-depth interviews with six participants, and (2) an eight-day field deployment using a 3x3 design varying speech rate and volume, yielding 725 survey responses. Our results show how real-world context shapes voice perception and inform adaptive, context-aware voice design for social robots in public spaces.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

What you reward is what you learn: Comparing rewards for online speech policy optimization in public HRI

Designing policies that are both efficient and acceptable for conversational service robots in open and diverse environments is non-trivial. Unlike fixed, hand-tuned parameters, online learning can adapt to non-stationary conditions. In this paper, we study how to adapt a social robot's speech policy in the wild. During a 12-day in-situ deployment with over 1,400 public encounters, we cast online policy optimization as a multi-armed bandit problem and use Thompson sampling to select among six actions defined by speech rate (slow/normal/fast) and verbosity (concise/detailed). We compare three complementary binary rewards--Ru (user rating), Rc (conversation closure), and Rt (>=2 turns)--and show that each induces distinct arm distributions and interaction behaviors. We complement the online results with offline evaluations that analyze contextual factors (e.g., crowd level, group size) using video-annotated data. Taken together, we distill ready-to-use design lessons for deploying online optimization of speech policies in real public HRI settings.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

What Drives You to Interact?: The Role of User Motivation for a Robot in the Wild

In this paper, we aim to understand how user motivation shapes human-robot interaction (HRI) in the wild. To explore this, we conducted a field study by deploying a fully autonomous conversational robot in a shopping mall over two days. Through sequential video analysis, we identified five patterns of interaction fluency (Smooth, Awkward, Active, Messy, and Quiet), four types of user motivation for interacting with the robot (Function, Experiment, Curiosity, and Education), and user positioning towards the robot. We further analyzed how these motivations and positioning influence interaction fluency. Our findings suggest that incorporating users' motivation types into the design of robot behavior can enhance interaction fluency, engagement, and user satisfaction in real-world HRI scenarios.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Tangible Scenography as a Holistic Design Method for Human-Robot Interaction

Traditional approaches to human-robot interaction design typically examine robot behaviors in controlled environments and narrow tasks. These methods are impractical for designing robots that interact with diverse user groups in complex human environments. Drawing from the field of theater, we present the construct of scenes -- individual environments consisting of specific people, objects, spatial arrangements, and social norms -- and tangible scenography, as a holistic design approach for human-robot interactions. We created a design tool, Tangible Scenography Kit (TaSK), with physical props to aid in design brainstorming. We conducted design sessions with eight professional designers to generate exploratory designs. Designers used tangible scenography and TaSK components to create multiple scenes with specific interaction goals, characterize each scene's social environment, and design scene-specific robot behaviors. From these sessions, we found that this method can encourage designers to think beyond a robot's narrow capabilities and consider how they can facilitate complex social interactions.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Sprout: Designing Expressivity for Robots Using Fiber-Embedded Actuator

In this paper, we explore how techniques from soft robotics can help create a new form of robot expression. We present Sprout, a soft expressive robot that conveys its internal states by changing its body shape. Sprout can extend, bend, twist, and expand using fiber-embedded actuators integrated into its construction. These deformations enable Sprout to express its internal states, for example, by expanding to express anger and bending its body sideways to express curiosity. Through two user studies, we investigated how users interpreted Sprout's expressions, their perceptions of Sprout, and their expectations from future iterations of Sprout's design. We argue that the use of soft actuators opens a novel design space for robot expressions to convey internal states, emotions, and intent.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2023

Exploring the Design Space of Extra-Linguistic Expression for Robots

In this paper, we explore the new design space of extra-linguistic cues inspired by graphical tropes used in graphic novels and animation to enhance the expressiveness of social robots. To achieve this, we identified a set of cues that can be used to generate expressions, including smoke/steam/fog, water droplets, and bubbles. We prototyped devices that can generate these fluid expressions for a robot and conducted design sessions where eight designers explored the use and utility of the cues in conveying the robot's internal states in various design scenarios. Our analysis of the 22 designs, the associated design justifications, and the interviews with designers revealed patterns in how each cue was used, how they were combined with nonverbal cues, and where the participants drew their inspiration from. These findings informed the design of an integrated module called EmoPack, which can be used to augment the expressive capabilities of any robot platform.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2019

Sonovortex: Aerial Haptic Layer Rendering by Aerodynamic Vortex and Focused Ultrasound

In this paper, a method of rendering aerial haptics that uses an aerodynamic vortex and focused ultrasound is presented. Significant research has been conducted on haptic applications based on multiple phenomena such as magnetic and electric fields, focused ultrasound, and laser plasma. By combining multiple physical quantities; the resolution, distance, and magnitude of force are enhanced. To combine multiple tactile technologies, basic experiments on resolution and discrimination threshold are required. Separate user studies were conducted using aerodynamic and ultrasonic haptics. Moreover, the perception of their superposition, in addition to their resolution, was tested. Although these fields cause no direct interference, the system enables the simultaneous perception of the tactile feedback of both stimuli. The results of this study are expected to contribute to expanding the expression of aerial haptic displays based on several principles.

cs.HC↗