Benchmarks for evaluating socially assistive robotics

TLDR

Socially assistive robotics is an expanding research field that raises novel evaluation challenges, ethical considerations, and questions about effectiveness across application domains. This paper describes several benchmarks for evaluating SAR systems. Benchmarks from psychology, anthropology, medicine, and human–robot interaction are proposed as measures of success in evaluating a given SAR system and its impact on the user and broader population.

Abstract

Socially assistive robotics (SAR) is a growing area of research. Evaluating SAR systems presents novel challenges. Using a robot for a socially assistive task can have various benefits and ethical implications. Many questions are important to understanding whether a robot is effective for a given application domain. This paper describes several benchmarks for evaluating SAR systems. There exist numerous methods for evaluating the many factors involved in a robot’s design. Benchmarks from psychology, anthropology, medicine, and human–robot interaction are proposed as measures of success in evaluating a given SAR system and its impact on the user and broader population.