Högskolan i Skövde

This project explores how people understand a robot’s actions when it communicates only through its movements. In many human-robot collaborative settings, robots use lights, sounds, or displays to show their intentions. While these signals can be useful, they often distract from the natural way humans read meaning from motion. This study focuses on motion intent, i.e. the idea that the robot’s movements alone can express what it is about to do. Earlier research has concentrated on visual or audio signals, leaving motion intent less explored. This project addresses that gap by studying how people interpret different gripper motions, such as opening, closing, lifting, or rotating, when no other cues are given. A qualitative approach was used so that participants could describe what they thought each motion meant and how they felt about the robot’s behaviour. The goal is to understand how clear and natural robot motions can make collaboration safer, smoother, and easier to trust. By focusing on motion as the main form of communication, this work highlights how thoughtful movement design can help robots interact more intuitively with people in shared workplaces.