Title :
Are Robots Appropriate for Troublesome and Communicative Tasks in a City Environment?
Author :
Hayashi, Kotaro ; Shiomi, Masahiro ; Kanda, Takayuki ; Hagita, Norihiro
Author_Institution :
ATR Intell. Robot. & Commun. Labs., Japan Sci. & Technol. Agency, Kyoto, Japan
fDate :
6/1/2012 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
We studied people´s acceptance of robots that per- form tasks in a city. Three different beings (a human, a human wearing a mascot costume, and a robot) performed tasks in three different scenarios: endless guidance, responding to irrational complaints, and removing an accidentally discarded key from the trash. All of these tasks involved beings interacting with visitors in troublesome situations: dull, stressful, and dirty. For this paper, 30 participants watched nine videos (three tasks performed by three beings) and evaluated each being´s appropriateness for the task and its human-likeness. The results indicate that people prefer that a robot rather than a human perform these troublesome tasks, even though they require much interaction with people. In addition, comparisons with the costumed-human suggest that people´s beliefs that a being deserves human rights rather than having a human-like appearance and behavior or cognitive capability is one explanation for their judgments about appropriateness.
Keywords :
human-robot interaction; accidentally discarded key removal; city environment; cognitive capability; communicative tasks; costumed-human; endless guidance; human-like appearance; human-like behavior; irrational complaint response; robot people acceptance; troublesome situation; visitor interaction; Cities and towns; Ethics; Humanoid robots; Humans; Urban areas; Videos; Human factor; human–robot interaction; troublesome tasks;
Journal_Title :
Autonomous Mental Development, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TAMD.2011.2178846