Fast Handovers with a Robot Character: Small Sensorimotor Delays Improve Perceived Qualities

We present a system for fast and robust handovers with a robot character, together with a user study investigating the effect of robot speed and reaction time on perceived interaction quality. The system can match and exceed human speeds and confirms that users prefer human-level timing. The system has the appearance of a robot character, with a bear-like head and a soft anthropomorphic hand and uses Bezier curves to achieve smooth minimum-jerk motions. Fast timing is enabled by low latency motion capture