Would Humans Want to Work Side-by-Side with Autonomous Robots - The Effect of Robot Autonomy on Perceived Usefulness, Ease of Use and Desire for Contact.

The emergence of automatic machines is a hot topic in society. In this study, we examine the effects of robot autonomy on perceived usefulness, ease of use, and desire for contact. Participants watched a video of robots performing a variety of tasks -the robots were either autonomous and able to ignore human commands, or non-autonomous and could only obey human commands. The results showed that participants who watched videos of autonomous robots generally rated the robots as more useful than non-autonomous robots, but the difference was not statistically significant. On the other hand, people who watched videos of autonomous robots had lower perceived ease of use and less desire for contact than non-autonomous robots. These findings have practical implications for artificial intelligence research and raise new questions about the relationship between robot autonomy and human perception.