Interactive robot programming inspired by dog training: An exploratory study

Programming a robot takes time, effort, and expert knowledge. As robots find their way to our personal spaces, it becomes urgent to investigate more intuitive methods to program them. An emerging field of research has focused on developing systems that are easy for non-expert users to understand and train. This paper explores the premise that dog training methods could inspire interactive programming methods for robots. In collaboration with dog trainers, we designed an interactive programming method for a robot. We evaluated our method in a Wizard-of-Oz study with 18 participants and compared it with programming the same behavior on a graphical programming software. Results show significant differences in usability scores, with the method inspired by dog training being perceived as more usable, easier, more fun, and more personal. This suggests that robot programming methods based on dog training could benefit a broader range of end-users, allowing them to interactively program new behaviors on robots in richer and more intuitive ways.