Does Robot Anthropomorphism Improve Performance and User Experience in Teleoperation?

Recent research showed that enhancing robots with human-like appearance and movements can significantly improve human-robot collaboration. These improvements are mainly seen in increased trust and a better understanding of the mechanical system. In this work, we investigated the role of robot anthropomorphism in teleoperation contexts, demonstrating that it positively impacts both the users’ experience and their performance. More specifically, we focused on analyzing the contributions of anthropomorphism in reaching and grasping tasks within a virtual environment. For each task, subjects were asked to control avatars with different anthropomorphism scores. Performance and users’ feelings were collected and compared by means of a statistical analysis. All participants followed shorter trajectories in less time when controlling a human-like avatar, with mean reductions of 11.56 s and 0.44 m compared to controlling a robot-like avatar in the best-case scenario. Similarly, grasping abilities were superior when using a more anthropomorphic end-effector with respect to controlling grippers with two or three fingers.