What is a robot companion - friend, assistant or butler?

The study presented in this paper explored people's perceptions and attitudes towards the idea of a future robot companion for the home. A human-centred approach was adopted using questionnaires and human-robot interaction trials to derive data from 28 adults. Results indicated that a large proportion of participants were in favour of a robot companion and saw the potential role as being an assistant, machine or servant. Few wanted a robot companion to be a friend. Household tasks were preferred to child/animal care tasks. Humanlike communication was desirable for a robot companion, whereas humanlike behaviour and appearance were less essential. Results are discussed in relation to future research directions for the development of robot companions

Social robots for older users: a possibility to support assessment and social interventions

In the last decades, various researches in the field of robotics have created numerous opportunities for innovative support of the older population. The goal of this work was to review and highlight how social robots can help the daily life of older people, and be useful also as assessment tools. We will underline the aspects of usability and acceptability of robotic supports in the psychosocial work with older persons. The actual usability of the system influences the perception of the ease of use only when the user has no or low experience, while expert users’ perception is related to their attitude towards the robot. This finding should be more deeply analysed because it may have a strong influence on the design of future interfaces for elderly-robot interaction. Robots can play an important role to tackle the societal challenge of the growing older population. The authors report some recent studies with older users, where it was demonstrated that the acceptability of robotics during daily life activities, and also in cognitive evaluation, could be supported by social robot

Overcoming barriers and increasing independence: service robots for elderly and disabled people

This paper discusses the potential for service robots to overcome barriers and increase independence of elderly and disabled people. It includes a brief overview of the existing uses of service robots by disabled and elderly people and advances in technology which will make new uses possible and provides suggestions for some of these new applications. The paper also considers the design and other conditions to be met for user acceptance. It also discusses the complementarity of assistive service robots and personal assistance and considers the types of applications and users for which service robots are and are not suitable

The use of UTAUT and Post Acceptance models to investigate the attitude towards a telepresence robot in an educational setting

(1) Background: In the last decade, various investigations into the field of robotics have created several opportunities for further innovation to be possible in student education. However, despite scientific evidence, there is still strong scepticism surrounding the use of robots in some social fields, such as personal care and education; (2) Methods: In this research, we present a new tool named: HANCON model that was developed merging and extending the constructs of two solid and proven models: the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to examine the factors that may influence the decision to use a telepresence robot as an instrument in educational practice, and the Post Acceptance Model to evaluate acceptability after the actual use of a telepresence robot. The new tool is implemented and used to study the acceptance of a Double telepresence robot by 112 pre-service teachers in an educational setting; (3) Results: The analysis of the experimental results predicts and demonstrate a positive attitude towards the use of telepresence robot in a school setting and confirm the applicability of the model in an educational context; (4) Conclusions: The constructs of the HANCON model could predict and explain the acceptance of social telepresence robots in social contexts

Trusting Intentions Towards Robots in Healthcare: A Theoretical Framework

Within the next decade, robots (intelligent agents that are able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence) may become more popular when delivering healthcare services to patients. The use of robots in this way may be daunting for some members of the public, who may not understand this technology and deem it untrustworthy. Others may be excited to use and trust robots to support their healthcare needs. It is argued that (1) context plays an integral role in Information Systems (IS) research and (2) technology demonstrating anthropomorphic or system-like features impact the extent to which an individual trusts the technology. Yet, there is little research which integrates these two concepts within one study in healthcare. To address this gap, we develop a theoretical framework that considers trusting intentions towards robots based on the interaction of humans and robots within the contextual landscape of delivering healthcare services. This article presents a theory-based approach to developing effective trustworthy intelligent agents at the intersection of IS and Healthcare

Robotics Technology in Mental Health Care

This chapter discusses the existing and future use of robotics and intelligent sensing technology in mental health care. While the use of this technology is nascent in mental health care, it represents a potentially useful tool in the practitioner's toolbox. The goal of this chapter is to provide a brief overview of the field, discuss the recent use of robotics technology in mental health care practice, explore some of the design issues and ethical issues of using robots in this space, and finally to explore the potential of emerging technology

On the Matter of Robot Minds

The view that phenomenally conscious robots are on the horizon often rests on a certain philosophical view about consciousness, one we call “nomological behaviorism.” The view entails that, as a matter of nomological necessity, if a robot had exactly the same patterns of dispositions to peripheral behavior as a phenomenally conscious being, then the robot would be phenomenally conscious; indeed it would have all and only the states of phenomenal consciousness that the phenomenally conscious being in question has. We experimentally investigate whether the folk think that certain (hypothetical) robots made of silicon and steel would have the same conscious states as certain familiar biological beings with the same patterns of dispositions to peripheral behavior as the robots. Our findings provide evidence that the folk largely reject the view that silicon-based robots would have the sensations that they, the folk, attribute to the biological beings in question

A Review of Personality in Human Robot Interactions

Personality has been identified as a vital factor in understanding the quality of human robot interactions. Despite this the research in this area remains fragmented and lacks a coherent framework. This makes it difficult to understand what we know and identify what we do not. As a result our knowledge of personality in human robot interactions has not kept pace with the deployment of robots in organizations or in our broader society. To address this shortcoming, this paper reviews 83 articles and 84 separate studies to assess the current state of human robot personality research. This review: (1) highlights major thematic research areas, (2) identifies gaps in the literature, (3) derives and presents major conclusions from the literature and (4) offers guidance for future research.Comment: 70 pages, 2 figure

Service robots, customers and service employees: what can we learn from the academic literature and where are the gaps?

Purpose – Robots are predicted to have a profound impact on the service sector. The emergence of robots has attracted increasing interest from business scholars and practitioners alike. In this article, we undertake a systematic review of the business literature about the impact of service robots on customers and employees with the objective of guiding future research. Design/methodology/approach – We analyzed the literature on service robots as they relate to customers and employees in business journals listed in the Financial Times top 50 journals plus all journals covered in the cross-disciplinary SERVSIG literature alerts. Findings – The analysis of the identified studies yielded multiple observations about the impact of service robots on customers (e.g., overarching frameworks on acceptance and usage of service robots; characteristics of service robots and anthropomorphism; and potential for enhanced and deteriorated service experiences) and service employees (e.g., employee benefits such as reduced routine work, enhanced productivity and job satisfaction; potential negative consequences such as loss of autonomy and a range of negative psychological outcomes; opportunities for human-robot collaboration; job insecurity; and robot-related upskilling and development requirements). We also conclude that current research on service robots is fragmented, is largely conceptual in nature, and focused on the initial adoption stage. We feel that more research is needed to build an overarching theory. In addition, more empirical research is needed, especially on the long(er)-term usage service robots on actual behaviors, the well-being, and potential downsides and (ethical) risks for customers and service employees.Research limitations – Our review focused on the business and service literature. Future work may want to include additional literature streams, including those in computer science, engineering, and information systems.Originality/value – This article is the first to synthesize the business and service literature on the impact of service robots on customers and employees.</div

Customer Responses to (Im)Moral Behavior of Service Robots - Online Experiments in a Retail Setting

Service robots play an increasingly important role in the service sector. Drawing on moral psychology research, moral foundations theory as well as the computers-as-social-actors (CASA) paradigm, this experimental study containing of four online experiments examines the extent to which the moral or immoral behavior of a service robot affects customer responses during a service interaction. This study contributes to design science by defining, conceptualizing and operationalizing morality of service robots and developing a corresponding vignette as basis to manipulate (im)moral robotic behavior in a retail setting. To investigate possible effects of the robot’s appearance, we tested our hypotheses with two different robots, i.e., a humanoid robot and an android robot. Results from the online experiment indicate that the (im)moral behavior of service robots at the customer interface has a significant effect on customers’ trust and customers’ ethical concerns towards the robot