The Perception of Robots in Everyday Life through the Diary Method and Network Analysis

Recently robots have been developed for various purposes, and are expected to become an important part of human society. Therefore, Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), the study of the relationship between humans and robots, needs to be applied to various fields. However, criteria to specify types of robots are not clear, so interaction between humans and robots remains unspecified. In this study, we investigated the types of robots which currently exist as physical or functional prototypes, then classified them using two aspects (degree of substitution of humans, range of functions). Further, on the basis of the classification criteria, we investigated situations in which human would find potential needs for robot in everyday human activities. Utilizing the technique of the diary method, a qualitative research method, participants in six different jobs freely wrote about when, why, and how they needed robots in everyday activity. Using the data obtained from the diary method we conducted a time-series analysis, a classification analysis using the International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS) of the UN Statistics Department, and Semantic Network Analysis. The result of this research was that we were able to find how people perceive and recognize the usefulness of robots.