Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is a field of study dedicated to understanding, designing, and evaluating robotic systems for use by or with humans. Interaction, by definition, requires communication between robots and humans. Communication between a human and a robot may take several forms, but these forms are largely influenced by whether the human and the robot are in close proximity to each other or not. Thus, communication and, therefore, interaction can be separated into two general categories:
Remote interaction – The human and the robot are not co-located and are separated spatially or even temporally (for example, the Mars Rovers are separated from earth both in space and time).
Proximate interactions – The humans and the robots are co-located (for example, service robots may be in the same room as humans).