The evaluation of different roles for domestic social robots

Robotics researchers foresee that robots will become ubiquitous in our natural environments, such as our homes. For a successful diffusion of social robots, it is important to study the user acceptance of such robots. In an online survey, we have investigated the acceptance of three different possible roles for domestic social robots and the preferred appearance. The results show that, although most people prefer a humanoid robot for domestic purposes, the role for which a social robot is build affects the choice for a robotic appearance made by potential future users. When comparing the acceptance of the three different roles, people evaluate the companion robot more negatively on the different acceptance variables. Implications of these results are discussed.