Socially assistive robots (SARs) are becoming more prevalent in everyday life, emphasizing the need to make them socially acceptable and aligned with users’ expectations. Robots’ appearance impacts users’ behaviors and attitudes toward them. Therefore, product designers choose visual qualities to give the robot a character and to imply its functionality and personality. In this work, we sought to investigate the effect of cultural differences on Israeli and German designers’ perceptions of SARs’ roles and appearance in four different contexts: a service robot for an assisted living/retirement residence facility, a medical assistant robot for a hospital environment, a COVID-19 officer robot, and a personal assistant robot for domestic use. The key insight is that although Israeli and German designers share similar perceptions of visual qualities for most of the robotics roles, we found differences in the perception of the COVID-19 officer robot’s role and, by that, its most suitable visual design. This work indicates that context and culture play a role in users’ perceptions and expectations; therefore, they should be taken into account when designing new SARs for diverse contexts.

Socially assistive robots (SARs) aim to provide assistance through social interaction. Previous studies contributed to understanding users’ perceptions and preferences regarding existing commercially available SARs. Yet very few studies regarding SARs’ appearance used designated SAR designs, and even fewer evaluated isolated visual qualities (VQs). In this work, we aim to assess the effect of isolated VQs systematically. To achieve this, we first conducted market survey and deconstructed the VQs attributed to SARs. Then, a reconstruction of body structure, outline, and color scheme was done, resulting in the creation of 30 new SAR models that differ in their VQs, allowing us to isolate one character at a time. We used these new designs to evaluate users’ preferences and perceptions in two empirical studies. Our empirical findings link VQs with perceptions of SAR characteristics. These can lead to forming guidelines for the industrial design processes of new SARs to match user expectations.

This study examines whether allowing a certain level of user customization of a socially assistive robot (SAR) affects users' perception of the robot and improves acceptance. Two hundred thirty-nine respondents participated in an online study of a telepresence-assistive robot. We formed three groups of respondents who differed in their ability to manipulate the SAR design. Results suggested that allowing mass customization positively affects users' acceptance of the SAR, perceived enjoyment, intention for future use, and perceived robot usefulness.

A socially assistive robot (SAR) can support children in developmental and well-being aspects. Children's tendency to anthropomorphize and pretend play contributes to their ability to engage with robots and establish relationships. The robot's visual aesthetics influences users' initial judgments and is essential for creating first impressions, trust, and desirability. SAR's visual appearance may lead the child to desired assumptions about its capabilities. Beyond aesthetics per se, designers must address the robots' visual qualities necessary to affect users' perceptions and expectations. This paper proposes and demonstrates a methodology for evaluating children's perception of visual qualities in SARs, aiming to pave the way for new design tools to support robotic designers and developers. Design tools can improve the SAR design process by forming means for designers and roboticists to consider and create a user experience for specific contexts, tasks, or use-case scenarios relevant to particular SARs. By this, to form the design of more use-oriented, acceptable, trustworthy, and desirable robots.