Despite significant improvements in robot capabilities, they are likely to fail in human-robot collaborative tasks due to high unpredictability in human environments and varying human expectations. In this work, we explore the role of explanation of failures by a robot in a human-robot collaborative task. We present a user study incorporating common failures in collaborative tasks with human assistance to resolve the failure. In the study, a robot and a human work together to fill a shelf with objects. Upon encountering a failure, the robot explains the failure and the resolution to overcome the failure, either through handovers or humans completing the task. The study is conducted using different levels of robotic explanation based on the failure action, failure cause, and action history, and different strategies in providing the explanation over the course of repeated interaction. Our results show that the success in resolving the failures is not only a function of the level of explanation but also the type of failures. Furthermore, while novice users rate the robot higher overall in terms of their satisfaction with the explanation, their satisfaction is not only a function of the robot's explanation level at a certain round but also the prior information they received from the robot.

翻译：尽管机器人能力取得了显著提升，但由于人类环境的高度不可预测性以及人类期望的多样性，机器人在人机协作任务中仍可能发生故障。本研究探讨了机器人在人机协作任务中对故障进行解释的作用。我们开展了一项用户研究，将协作任务中的常见故障与人类协助解决故障相结合。研究中，机器人与人类协作完成货架物品填充任务。当故障发生时，机器人会解释故障原因及解决方案——通过递送物品或由人类直接完成任务。研究基于故障动作、故障原因及动作历史采用了不同层次的机器人解释，并在重复交互过程中采用了不同的解释策略。结果表明：故障解决的成功率不仅取决于解释层次，还与故障类型相关。此外，虽然新手用户对机器人解释的整体满意度评分较高，但其满意度不仅受特定回合中机器人解释层次的影响，还取决于此前从机器人处获取的先验信息。