Modeling, Engendering and Leveraging Trust in Human-Robot Interaction: A Mental Model Based Framework

Trust between team members is a necessary part of any successful cooperation. Therefore, in mixed human-robot teams, the robot must possess the ability to model, assess and leverage human trust to not only successfully participate in the task but to ensure the team achieves its goals. In our research, we try to model and leverage trust in human-robot interaction, especially in situations where the human and the robot may have different models about the task at hand and thus may have different expectations. In our research, we focus on developing a comprehensive mental model-based framework. This framework captures the often-overlooked multidimensional aspects of trust, thus providing a strong foundation for various trust-aware decision-making approaches. and serves as a tool for inferring and estimating trust.