Reimagining Trustworthy Robot Fleets with Animal Analogies




Hyökki, Suvi; Phillips, Elizabeth K.; Melles, Lydia; Laakasuo, Michael

Gray, Colin M.; Ciliotta Chehade, Estefania; Hekkert, Paul; Forlano, Laura; Ciuccarelli, Paolo; Lloyd, Peter

Design Research Society Conference

PublisherDesign Research Society

2024

 Proceedings of DRS : Design Research Society International Conference

DRS2024 : Boston

196

2024

978-1-912294-62-6

2398-3132

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.718

https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.718

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/508973159



In the future, multi-agent robot fleets will be important for domains like agriculture, space exploration, and air combat. Trust of human-machine teams is needed to make the teams resilient to the faults of both human and robot teammates. Trust in multi-agent systems is often fragile: if any agent in the system is less reliable than the others, people will stop interacting with all of them. Studying relationships in human-animal systems can provide useful insights into designing humanrobot systems. We present a method for gathering insight into how humans, working with animal systems think about the relationships between the individuals and the whole, and suggest how animal system models can be used as analogies and practical design features for the design of robot systems in order to increase trust. Using a more-than-human approach in design research phase of human-robot interaction, supports more secure collaboration between humans and robot systems.


Part of the work in this study was funded by Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation. This work was also supported in part by George Mason University’s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact (ORIEI) award #215134.


Last updated on 11/02/2026 10:49:44 AM