Can Robots Keep Humans from Abusing Other Robots?
As humans encounter more and more robots in public spaces, robot abuse is likely to get increasingly frequent. Abuse can take many forms, from more benign behaviors like deliberately getting in the way of autonomous delivery robots to see what happens, to violent and destructive attacks. Sadly, humans are more willing to abuse robots than other humans or animals, and human bystanders aren’t reliable at mitigating these attacks, even if the robot itself is begging for help. Without being able to count on nearby humans for rescue, robots have no choice but to rely on themselves and their friends for safety when out in public—their friends being other robots. Researchers at the Interactive Machines Group at Yale University have run an experiment to determine whether emotionally expressive bystander robots might be able to prompt nearby humans into stepping in to prevent robot abuse.