Ben-Gurion University studies show promise using drones to elicit emotional responses

Ben-Gurion University studies show promise using drones to elicit emotional responses

Drones – the popular name for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – can deliver pizzas or medications, but they can also cause trouble. In the recent conflict with Gaza terrorists, Israel was attacked by firebombs and explosives that entered its territory via drones from the south. 

UAVs are aircraft without any human pilot, crew or passengers on board that include a ground-based controller and a system of communications with the UAV. The flight of UAVs may operate under remote control by a human operator, as remotely-piloted aircraft or with various degrees of autonomy, such as autopilot assistance, up to fully autonomous aircraft that have no provision for human intervention. 

Drones were originally developed in the past century for military missions too “dull, dirty or dangerous” for humans. As control technologies improved and costs fall, their use in the 21st century is rapidly finding many more applications including aerial photography, policing, product deliveries, agriculture, surveillance, infrastructure inspections, science, smuggling and drone racing.UAVs use aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable and can carry a lethal or nonlethal payload. 

But drones will in the coming years increasingly interact with people, even supply them with emotional support along with conventional services. As drones become more common in public spaces, researchers at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev in Beersheba have conducted the first studies examining how people respond to various emotional facial expressions depicted on a drone, with the goal of promoting greater social acceptance of these flying robots.

The research, which was presented in May at the virtual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, revealed how people react to common facial expressions superimposed on drones.

“There is a lack of research on how drones are perceived and understood by humans, which is vastly different than ground robots,” said Prof. Jessica Cauchard and Viviane Herdel of BGU’s Magic Lab in the university’s department of industrial engineering and management. “For the first time, we showed that people can recognize different emotions and discriminate between different emotion intensities.”

The BGU researchers conducted two studies using a set of rendered robotic facial expressions on drones that convey basic emotions. The faces use four core facial features – eyes, eyebrows, pupils and mouth. The results showed that five different emotions – joy, sadness, fear, anger and surprise – can be recognized with high accuracy in static stimuli and four emotions – joy, surprise, sadness, anger – in dynamic videos. Disgust was the only emotion that was poorly recognized. 

“Participants were further affected by the drone and presented different responses, including empathy, depending on the drone’s emotion,” Cauchard explained. “Surprisingly, participants created narratives around the drone’s emotional states and included themselves in these scenarios.”

BGU researchers propose a number of recommendations that will enhance the acceptability of drones for use in emotional support and other social situations. These include adding anthropomorphic features, using the five basic emotions and using empathetic responses to drive compliance in health and behavior change applications.

“BGU is spearheading some of the most remarkable robotic research in the world,” commented Doug Seserman, chief executive officer, Americans for Ben-Gurion University. “We foresee continued innovation leveraging human-drone interaction technologies, leading to greater adoption and more beneficial applications.”