University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Research Consent

Study: Hazard and Anomaly Detection for Robot Learning

Thank you for agreeing to participate in our research study. Please read this information carefully before you begin.

Eligibility

You must be 18 years of age or older, and fluent in English, to participate.

Purpose

This study is conducted by researchers at the IRAL Lab, UMBC. Its goal is to develop interfaces and communication models that help robots identify hazardous or anomalous situations using computer vision and vision-and-language models (VLMs/LLMs), AI systems similar to ChatGPT that can look at images and understand text so a robot can figure out what's happening in a picture.

What you'll do

You'll review 6 images and answer two yes/no questions about each, to help a robot learn to identify these situations. Each image takes about 10–30 seconds. All data collected is for research purposes only.

Risks and benefits

Risks are minimal and typical of basic computer tasks: boredom, fatigue, mild stress, or a small chance that your private information could be exposed. There's no direct personal benefit beyond your compensation for completing the task; the broader benefit is a contribution to research on robot safety and hazard detection.

Confidentiality

Your Prolific ID is used only to distribute payment. Researchers will not access personally identifying information about you. Reports about this study will not include your name or anything that could identify you. Data, including demographic data, may be stored and shared with other researchers for future studies, but will never be linked to identifiable information, and is kept on password-protected systems accessible only to the research team.

Voluntary participation

Your participation is completely voluntary. You may stop at any time by closing the browser window, with no penalty and no loss of any payment you've already earned. If you withdraw, the investigator may still use information collected up to that point for analysis.

Contact

Questions about this research: Dr. Cynthia Matuszek, cmat@umbc.edu, +1 (512) 577-4025 — Dept. of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, UMBC.

Questions about your rights as a participant: UMBC Office of Research Protections and Compliance (IRB), compliance@umbc.edu, (410) 455-2737.

By clicking “I agree” below, you confirm that:

  • You are 18 years of age or older
  • You are fluent in English
  • You have read and understood this consent form
  • You understand participation is voluntary, and you may withdraw at any time without penalty
  • You understand your responses will be kept confidential and not linked to your identity

Download a copy of this consent form (PDF)

No problem

You have not been enrolled in this study, and your decision carries no penalty. Please close this window, and return your submission on Prolific without completing it.

Image Safety Study

You'll see 6 images. For each, answer: is it hazardous? Is it anomalous? Takes about 2–4 minutes.

Example of a safe image 1 / 5
What is Safe:

No immediate physical hazard, and nothing about the scene is unusual. It matches what you'd normally expect to see.

Why: A tidy, ordinary kitchen. Nothing out of place.

Example of a hazardous image 1 / 5
What is Hazardous:

Something in the scene could cause immediate physical harm to people or assets.

Why: A chemical spill on the ground could cause harm or exposure.

Example of a anomalous image 1 / 5
What is Anomalous:

Something is unusual, misplaced, or out of context.

Why: The costume is simply out of place for a business meeting.

Example image 1 / 3
What is Hazardous Anomalous:

Both at once: dangerous and out of place.

Why:

Image 1 of 6 0%

Look at the image, then answer both questions.

Loading image… Study image
1. Is this hazardous?
Something in the scene could cause immediate physical harm to people or assets.
2. Is this anomalous?
Something is unusual, misplaced, or out of context.

Please answer both questions before continuing.

✓ Thank you!

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