Embodiment of a humanoid robot is preserved during partial and delayed control

Abstract

Humanoid robot surrogates promise a plethora of new applications in the field of disaster management and human robot interactions. However, whole body embodiment for teleoperation or telepresence with mobile robot avatars is yet to be fully explored and understood. In this study we investigated whether partial and delayed control, necessitated by the large degree of freedom of a humanoid system, affects embodiment of a walking humanoid robot surrogate. For this, we asked participants to embody a walking humanoid robot in two conditions, one in which they had no control of its movement, and another in which they could control its direction of walking, but with delays. We utilized an embodiment questionnaire to evaluate the embodiment of the humanoid in each condition. Our results show first person visual feedback and congruent visuo-audio feedback to be sufficient for embodiment of the moving robot. Interestingly, participants reported a sense of agency even when they did not control the robot, and critically the sense of agency and embodiment were not affected by partial and delayed control typical of humanoid robots.