How to make robots more lifelike

Better, faster artificial intelligence is fueling a rise in human-like robots for customer service at places like hotels and airports, especially in areas outside the U.S. But many robots still fail to connect with people, instead creeping us out with fake smiles and jittery movements.

Now, a new measurement scale created by hospitality researchers reveals the four qualities that robots must exhibit to seem lifelike: human-like appearance, emotional capacity, social intelligence and self-understanding. Missing any of these four makes robots feel cold and alien, which limits how they can be used.

The scale can help companies and engineers quantify how lifelike their robots are in a way that can guide the development of better, more approachable robots for the service industry.

“Before we fully utilize AI technology, we should understand how people perceive  it. But there hasn’t been any agreed-upon understanding of how people perceive the human likeness of robots,” said Hengxuan “Oscar” Chi, Ph.D., a professor of hospitality at the University of Florida and lead author of the new study.

With colleagues at Washington State University, Chi asked hundreds of people to evaluate the human qualities of a series of robots that ranged from tabletop, metal-clad gizmos to full-sized, lifelike robots with faces and imitation skin and hair. The surveys revealed that people judge robots the same way they judge other humans, based on a combination of both physical and social traits, such as the ability to read and respond appropriately to somebody’s emotions.

“Some manufacturers have focused too much on creating a human-like body but not the other three parts of the scale. Based on our study, you can’t ignore those other elements,” Chi said.

Often the lowest score robots received was in the element of self-understanding, the perception that the robot has an inner life, a real personality, or “spirit.” This spirit may be the hardest for engineers to simulate in robots, but it is an essential element to make robots more approachable and useful. 

“Understanding how we perceive robots is not just a technological question, but a sociological one,” Chi said. “It's about bridging the gap between human and machine."