Discovery Report Following 5 Years of Research Project on Socially Assistive Robotics

This study contributes to the field of socially assistive robotics (SAR). We focus our research on the perception and projections of SAR and the interconnections between their tasks, roles, appearances, and behaviors. We explore how humanoid and non-humanoid appearance and behavior influence people’s expectations and roles they give to robots. We also tackle broader questions related to projections, identification, and interpretations of SAR in everyday life. Regarding robots’ roles, first studies on the “robotic etiquette” showed that older population saw companion robots as butlers, disabled people see robots as assistants, and only young participants gave roles as being a friend. Even if SAR has as main goal the rehabilitation or medical care, the devices built in this field will also enter people’s homes. Based on appearance and intention scenarios of human-robot experiences, design researchers propose opportunities of projection and discussions and push the human-robot interaction (HRI) community to taking into consideration the more subtle and unspoken needs, values, and expectations on social robots. A larger perspective should be considered in order to deeply understand how to well-design SAR for people and society. This report presents the results of qualitative and quantitative experimentations in a 5-year research project on socially assistive robotics—Romeo consortium. We conducted a mixed study on 72 participants on the perception, projection, and identification of three robot representations (2 humanoid and one non-humanoid). Results show strong correlations between the appearance, behavior, and roles of the robot representations.