While research on human-robot interaction is ongoing as robots become more readily available and easier to use, the study of interactions between a human and a team of multiple robots represents a relatively new field of research. Furthermore, how multi-robots could be used for everyday users and how the characteristics of multi-robots would affect human perception and cognition has not been explored. In this regard, our research team developed a multi-robot based interface where a multi-robot could present a dectic cue to emphasize information with its dynamic movement. With the newly developed interface, we specifically focus on physical affordances generated by the movements of multi-robots, and investigate the effects of deictic movements of multi-robots on information retrieval by conducting a delayed free recall task.  From behavior data and interview data, we noted the kinesthetic movements of the multi-robot helped them to recognize the bonus word and recall the whole image of the board; that is, the multi-robot created a prominent affordance.

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The main contributions of this work are as follows: (1) developing a multi-robot-based interface for deictic communication, (2) designing experimental settings to investigate the effect of multi-robots on informa-tion retrieval using a delayed free recall task, (3) combining quantitative and qualitative findings to investigate how a multi-robot reshapes the way people perceive information and (4) presenting design variables that should be considered to develop a multi-robot-based display.

Research Aim

• Develop a multi-robot based interface that can be used in everyday lives

• Examine how the characteristics of a multi-robot would affect human perception and cognition

• Develop a design guideline for a multi-robot based interface