Title:  The Benefits of Other-oriented Robot Deception in Human-Robot Interactions

Committee:

Dr. Ronald Arkin, CS, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Ayanna Howard, ECE

Dr. Magnus Egerstedt, ECE

Dr. Tom Collings, ECE

Dr. Sonia Chernova, CoC

Dr. Alan Wagner, Penn State

Abstract:

Deception is an essential social behavior for humans, and we can observe human deceptive behaviors in a variety of contexts including sports, culture, education, war, and everyday life. Deception is also used for the purpose of survival in animals and even in plants. From these findings, it is obvious that deception is a general and essential behavior for any species, which raises an interesting research question: can deception be an essential characteristic for robots, especially social robots? Based on this curiosity, this dissertation aimed to develop a robot’s deception capabilities, especially in human-robot interaction (HRI) situations. Particularly, the goal of this dissertation was to develop a social robot’s deceptive behaviors that can produce benefits for the deceived humans (other-oriented robot deception). And, to achieve other-oriented robot deception, several scientific contributions were accomplished in this dissertation. A novel taxonomy of robot deception was defined, and a general computational model for a robot’s deceptive behaviors was developed based on criminological law. Appropriate HRI contexts in which a robot’s other-oriented deception can generate benefits were explored, and a methodology for evaluating a robot’s other-oriented deception in appropriate HRI contexts was designed, and studies were conducted with human subjects. Finally, the ethical implications of other-oriented robot deception were also explored and thoughtfully discussed.