Elizabeth K Phillips

• PhD Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology
• Professor (Assistant) at George Mason University

A vision for the future of space exploration and operation is one in which people live and work in space as members of human–multi-agent teams, comprised of humans, robots, and other artificially intelligent agents. As such, people’s opinions on robotics and AI, especially the opinions of those who will likely be users of such systems, should be ta...

Robots are being utilized in many different ways in today’s society. Teleoperated robots are robots that can be controlled from a distance. This is commonly done with remote controllers while observing the robot through a screen, but using virtual reality (VR) is also a possibility. VR teleoperation has many benefits, but if a robot is operating in...

The relationship between humans and animals is complex and influenced by multiple variables. Humans display a remarkably flexible and rich array of social competencies, demonstrating the ability to interpret, predict, and react appropriately to the behavior of others, as well as to engage others in a variety of complex social interactions. Developi...

While Virtual Reality (VR) has been used by researchers to investigate human-robot interaction (HRI), these efforts were largely focused on investigating HRI with industrial robots. In this current paper, we identify this gap in the literature and suggest the benefits and the limitations of investigating HRI in VR, and offer use cases for interacti...

Socially assistive robots (SARs) are a recent development in the field of artificial intelligence designed to assist human users through social interactions in vulnerable settings. SARs design has led to significant emotion recognition and empathy research in order to create sufficient and effective userrobot bonds. However, much of this research h...

There is a growing awareness of the need for diversity and representation in the development of ethical robots. This is essential to ensure that the ethical considerations and decision-making processes built into these robots are inclusive and considerate of the diverse communities that will interact with them. Furthermore, it is important that div...

The current work explored to what extent a robot could persuade people to participate in charitable giving by offering moral advice grounded in different ethical theories. In a laboratory, participants, who are students at a university, first performed a task to acquire lottery tickets and then received from a robot information about a charity even...

In two studies, we evaluated the trust and usefulness of automated compared to manual parking using an experimental paradigm and also by surveying owners of vehicles with automated parking features. In Study 1, we compared participants' ability to manually park a Tesla Model X to their use of the Autopark feature to complete perpendicular and paral...

To enable robots to exert positive moral influence, we need to understand the impacts of robots’ moral communications, the ways robots can phrase their moral language to be most clear and persuasive, and the ways that these factors interact. Previous work has suggested, for example, that for certain types of robot moral interventions to be successf...

Robots are increasingly taking on roles in contexts in which ethical decision making is necessary. In this paper, we offer a set of tools to study one central capacity of future moral robots: to have norm competence and, in particular, to make acceptable decisions when moral norms conflict with one another. Our efforts are in line with growing tren...

Establishing when, how, and why robots should be considered moral agents is key for advancing human-robot interaction (HRI). Robotic moral agency has significant implications for how people should and do hold robots morally responsible, ascribe blame to them, develop trust in their actions, and determine when these robots wield moral influence. In...

To enable robots to exert positive moral influence, we need to understand the impacts of robots' moral communications, the ways robots can phrase their moral language to be most clear and persuasive , and the ways that these factors interact. Previous work has suggested , for example, that for certain types of robot moral interventions to be succes...

Because robots are perceived as moral agents, they must behave in accordance with human systems of morality. This responsibility is especially acute for language-capable robots because moral communication is a method for building moral ecosystems. Language capable robots must not only make sure that what they say adheres to moral norms; they must a...

Because robots are perceived as moral agents, they must behave in accordance with human systems of morality. This responsibility is especially acute for language-capable robots because moral communication is a method for building moral ecosystems. Language capable robots must not only make sure that what they say adheres to moral norms; they must a...

As technology advances, human robot-teams are becoming increasingly commonplace with team interactions taking place in a variety of military, industrial, service, and social settings. Consequently, as HR teams evolve, novel and unique considerations for how these teams interact and perform are rising. The purpose of this panel, therefore, is to hos...

In this paper, we describe how swift trust in human-robot (HR) teams is developed through the incorporation of surface-level cues and imported information. Surface-level cues are physical characteristics whereas imported information serves to shape preconceived notions about the robot itself. A multidimensional continuum is used to explore the effe...

In two studies, we evaluated the trust and usefulness of automated compared to manual parking using an experimental paradigm and by surveying owners of vehicles with automated parking features. In Study 1, we compared participants' ability to manually park a Tesla Model X and use the Autopark feature to complete perpendicular and parallel parking m...

The uncanny valley hypothesis describes how increased human-likeness of artificial entities, ironically, could elicit a surge of negative reactions from people. Much research has studied the uncanny valley hypothesis, but little research has sought to examine people's reactions to a broad range of human-likeness manifested in real-world robots. We...

To understand how to improve interactions with dog-like robots, we evaluated the importance of “dog-like” framing and physical appearance on interaction, hypothesizing multiple interactive benefits of each. We assessed whether framing Aibo as a puppy (i.e., in need of development) versus simply a robot would result in more positive responses and in...

Human–robot collaboration is becoming increasingly common in factories around the world; accordingly, we need to improve the interaction experiences between humans and robots working in these spaces. In this article, we report on a user study that investigated methods for providing information to a person about a robot’s intent to move when working...

Previous research has shown that the fairness and the legitimacy of a moral decision-maker are important for people's acceptance of and compliance with the decision-maker. As technology rapidly advances, there have been increasing hopes and concerns about building artificially intelligent entities that are designed to intervene against norm violati...

This paper describes a research study that aims to investigate changes in effective communication during human-AI collaboration with special attention to the perception of competence among team members and varying levels of task load placed on the team. We will also investigate differences between human-human teamwork and human-agent teamwork. Our...

Although non-verbal cues such as arm movement and eye gaze can convey robot intention, they alone may not provide enough information for a human to fully understand a robot's behavior. To better understand how to convey robot intention, we conducted an experiment (N = 366) investigating the need for robots to explain, and the content and properties...

Robots are entering various domains of human societies, potentially unfolding more opportunities for people to perceive robots as social agents. We expect that having robots in proximity would create unique social learning situations where humans spontaneously observe and imitate robots’ behaviors. At times, these occurrences of humans’ imitating r...

Robots are entering various domains of human societies, potentially unfolding more opportunities for people to perceive robots as social agents. We expect that having robots in proximity would create unique social learning situations where humans spontaneously observe and imitate robots' behaviors. At times, these occurrences of humans' imitating r...

We examined whether a robot that proactively offers moral advice promoting the norm of honesty can discourage people from cheating. Participants were presented with an opportunity to cheat in a die-rolling game. Prior to playing the game, participants received from either a NAO robot or a human, a piece of moral advice grounded in either deontologi...

With the increased availability of commercially automated vehicles, trust in automation may serve a critical role in the overall system safety, rate of adoption, and user satisfaction. We developed and integrated a novel measurement system to better calibrate human-vehicle trust in driving. The system was designed to collect a comprehensive set of...

Type 1 diabetes (T1D), previously known as juvenile diabetes, has a large impact on everyday life and can pose a number of challenges for both children and their parents. A patient-centered design company, Sproutel, has designed and developed Jerry the Bear®—an interactive augmented reality (AR) stuffed animal toy bear designed to provide children...

In two surveys of adults in the United States (N=723), we asked about perceptions of the degree to which a variety of behaviors, when engaged in with a sex robot or a human, would constitute monogamous relationship infidelity (Study 1), and also asked respondents to consider monogamous partner behavior when committed with a robot that was matched t...

We examined how robots can successfully serve as moral advi-sors for humans. We evaluated the effectiveness of moral advice grounded in deontological, virtue, and Confucian role ethics frameworks in encouraging humans to make honest decisions. Participants were introduced to a tempting situation where extra monetary gain could be earned by choosing...

Because robots are perceived as moral agents, they hold significant persuasive power over humans. It is thus crucial for robots to behave in accordance with human systems of morality and to use effective strategies for human-robot moral communication. In this work, we evaluate two moral communication strategies: a norm-based strategy grounded in de...

Advances in the capabilities of technologies like virtual reality (VR) and their rapid proliferation at consumer price points, have made it much easier to integrate them into existing robotic frameworks. VR interfaces are promising for robotics for several reasons, including that they may be suitable for resolving many of the human performance issu...

Swift trust is a type of trust that is necessary when temporary group members rapidly develop a working relationship and interact with each other to perform team tasks. These teams are characterized by a lack of prior history of collaboration, experiences, or interactions to judge each other's trustworthiness and little prospect of working together...

Robots are being used in a host of different work environments currently. However, to date there has been very little broad exploration into the designs of systems and how that affects users’ perception of fit for the robots in different job categories. In the present experiment we showed participants images of 252 robots and asked them to make ass...

The use of simulation has become a popular way to develop knowledge and skills in aviation, medicine, and several other domains. Given the promise of human-robot teaming in many of these same contexts, the amount of research in human-autonomy teaming has increased over the last decade. The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), for example, has d...

Robotic systems are becoming increasingly complex, hindering people from understanding the robot's inner workings [24]. Simply providing the robot's source code may be useful for software and hardware engineers who need to test the system for traceability and verification [3], but not for the non-technical user. Plus, looks can be deceiving: robots...

Efficient motion intent communication is necessary for safe and collaborative work environments with collocated humans and robots. Humans efficiently communicate their motion intent to other humans through gestures, gaze, and social cues. However, robots often have difficulty efficiently communicating their motion intent to humans via these methods...

Robots are entering a wide range of society’s private and public settings, often with a strikingly humanlike appearance and emulating a humanlike mind. But what constitutes humanlikeness—in both body and mind—has been conceptually and methodologically unclear. In three studies based on a collection of 251 real-world robots, we report the first prog...

Prior studies have shown research projects completed as part of undergraduate curricula are not only becoming more commonplace, but they also provide substantial benefit to student learning. Given this evidence, the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership (DFBL) at the United States Air Force Academy has recently required capstone research...

Cheating is a universally salient and disliked behavior. Previous research has shown that a cheating robot dramatically increases perception of its perceived agency. However, this original research did not directly compare human cheating to robot cheating. We examined whether the human and the robot were evaluated differently in terms of reactionar...

Teleoperation allows a human to remotely operate a robot to perform complex and potentially dangerous tasks such as defusing a bomb, repairing a nuclear reactor, or maintaining the exterior of a space station. Existing teleoperation approaches generally rely on computer monitors to display sensor data and joysticks or keyboards to actuate the robot...

Gone are the days of robots solely operating in isolation, without direct interaction with people. Rather, robots are increasingly being deployed in environments and roles that require complex social interaction with humans. The implementation of human-robot teams continues to increase as technology develops in tandem with the state of human-robot...

Mixed Reality (MR) is a promising interface for robot programming because it can project an immersive 3D visualization of a robot's intended movement onto the real world. MR can also support hand gestures, which provide an intuitive way for users to construct and modify robot motions. We present a Mixed Reality Head-Mounted Display (MR-HMD) interfa...

Virtual reality (VR) systems let users intuitively interact with 3D environments and have been used extensively for robotic teleoperation tasks. While more immersive than their 2D counterparts, early VR systems were expensive and required specialized hardware. Fortunately, there has been a recent proliferation of consumer-grade VR systems at afford...

Virtual reality (VR) systems let users intuitively interact with 3D environments, and have been used extensively for robotic teleopera-tion tasks. Successful robot teleoperation requires operators to have sufficient contextual understanding of a robot's environment. While more immersive than their 2D counterparts, early VR systems were expensive an...

Anthropomorphic robots, or robots with human-like appearance features such as eyes, hands, or faces, have drawn considerable attention in recent years. To date, what makes a robot appear human-like has been driven by designers» and researchers» intuitions, because a systematic understanding of the range, variety, and relationships among constituent...

Teleoperation allows a human to remotely operate a robot to perform complex and potentially dangerous tasks such as defusing a bomb, repairing a nuclear reaction, or maintaining the exterior of a space station. Existing teleoperation approaches generally rely on computer monitors to display sensor data and joysticks or keyboards to actuate the robo...

Future autonomous robots that operate in teams with humans should have capabilities that facilitate intuitive and/or implicit communication, for example in the form of emotional expressions. These emotional expressions should be presented clearly to the human to promote adequate understanding of robot behaviors and intent. In this paper, we present...

Robot design is a critical component of human-robot interaction. A robot’s appearance shapes people’s expectations of that robot, which in turn affect human-robot interaction. This paper reports on an exploratory analysis of 155 drawings of robots that were collected across three studies. The purpose was to gain a better understanding of people’s a...

Efficient motion intent communication is necessary for safe and collaborative work environments with collocated humans and robots. Humans efficiently communicate their motion intent to other humans through gestures, gaze, and social cues. However, robots often have difficulty efficiently communicating their motion intent to humans via these methods...

Efficient motion intent communication is necessary for safe and collaborative work environments with collocated humans and robots. Humans efficiently communicate their motion intent to other humans through gestures, gaze, and social cues. However, robots often have difficulty efficiently communicating their motion intent to humans via these methods...

In order to create effective human-robot teams, robots must possess social capabilities that match the expectations of their human teammates. However the ability of robots to approximate human capacities is limited due to technological constraints. Human-animal teams have thus been suggested as a suitable analog for modeling teaming between humans...

In order to create effective human-robot teams, robots must possess social capabilities that match the expectations of their human teammates. However the ability of robots to approximate human capacities is limited due to technological constraints. Human-animal teams have thus been suggested as a suitable analog for modeling teaming between humans...

A field assessment of multimodal communication (MMC) was conducted as part of a program integration demonstration to support and enable bi-directional communication between a dismounted Soldier and a robot teammate. In particular, the assessment was focused on utilizing auditory and visual/gesture based communications. The task involved commanding...

Our work posits that existing human-animal teams can serve as an analog for developing effective human-robot teams. Existing knowledge of human-animal partnerships can be readily applied to the HRI domain to foster accurate mental models and appropriately calibrated trust in future human-robot teams. Human-animal relationships are examined in terms...

A field assessment of multimodal communication (MMC) was conducted as part of a program integration demonstration to support and enable bi-directional communication between a dismounted Soldier and a robot teammate. In particular, the assessment was focused on utilizing auditory and visual/gesture based communications. The task involved commanding...

In this paper, we describe an ongoing exploratory study investigating human mental models of tactical robot movement under different combinations of mission commands, constraints, and environmental features. In particular, we are assessing the relationship between participants’ mental models of robot form and their expectations for robot movement....

The future vision of military robotics is one in which robots will serve as integrated members of Soldier—robot teams. Robots will possess capabilities that will transition their role from functional tools to working teammates. Because robots and Soldiers will be deployed in environments characterized by uncertainty, complexity, and violence, it is...

This paper presents initial insights from an exploratory analysis of human decision making in a human—robot teaming scenario. A cognitive model in the form of a decision tree was developed using local and national police foot pursuit protocols. Participants were asked to read through a series of hypothetical scenarios involving a Soldier and a robo...

Hazardous noise in workplaces is a leading cause of preventable hearing loss among American workers. Traditionally, studies of hazardous noise have been conducted in industrial and manufacturing settings. However, there exists a void in research concerning the prevalence of hazardous noise and the means by which HF/E experts can work to mitigate ha...

The impact of climate change should be a key concern of those in the human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) discipline. Our specialized knowledge and expertise can be applied toward mitigating the effects of climate change. In this article, we unite two perspectives to illustrate how HF/E can more productively contribute to the research and practice of su...

The transition of robots from valuable tools to useful teammates to humans is contingent upon successful communication methods. Effective communication has been shown to have a positive effect on the development and quality of shared mental models and on performance within human-human teams. Likely, effective communication will have a similarly pos...

Across the domains in which robots are prevalent, it is possible to imagine many different forms and functions of robots. The purpose of this investigation was to gain a better understanding of the scope and type of a priori knowledge structures humans hold of robots, among novice users of robotic systems. Participant mental models of a hypothetica...

Future robotic systems are expected to transition from tools to teammates, characterized by increasingly autonomous, intelligent robots interacting with humans in a more naturalistic manner, approaching a relationship more akin to human-human teamwork. Given the impact of trust observed in other systems, trust in the robot team member will likely b...

In order for autonomous robots to succeed as useful teammates for humans, it is necessary to examine the lens through which human users view, understand, and predict robotic behavior and abilities. To further study this, we conducted an experiment in which participants viewed video segments of a robot in a task-oriented environment, and were asked...

Neuroethics is a burgeoning interdisciplinary field that integrates the sciences of biology, genetics, psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy (Churchland 2006). As technology continues to advance we must be vigilant about the way new devices and human— technology systems are integrated into society, workplaces, and the human condition. It is o...

The purpose of the present study is to conduct an empirical design and user perception analysis of the website for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), and to use this information to make relevant design recommendations for improving the quality of the website. As the central hub for online interactions with the society, it is important...

Current military robotics research aims to transition the robot from tool to teammate, one that is more autonomous and acts with limited supervision within a highly complex and demanding environment. Investigating likely analogs to the human-robot team can provide guidance an inspiration into the simultaneous development of robot design and human t...

As robotic technologies become more autonomous, the way human-robot interaction is studied in the laboratory is going to need to change. Currently, the use of robots in the present day is almost entirely via tele-operation. As robots become more intelligent, they will need less human supervisory control. One approach is to liken near future human-r...

A transition in robotics from tools to teammates is underway, but, because it is in an early state, experience with intelligent robots and agents is limited. As such, human mental models of intelligent robots are primitive, easily influenced by superficial characteristics, and often incomplete or inaccurate. This paper investigates the factors that...

Understanding team cognition requires a multifaceted research approach, aimed at understanding individual and team cognition within and across humans and agents. Measurement and prediction of mental models and situation awareness (SA) of humans, robotic agents, and teams are needed to understand the knowledge required for advanced human-robot team...