The global housing crisis has led to the widespread adoption of micro-apartments, which present significant challenges due to their limited space. To address these issues, we developed oOoBOT, a modular robotic furniture system capable of transforming its form and function to meet diverse user needs. The design incorporates a Hoberman mechanism for expandable structures and an umbrella-inspired tabletop for flexible use. Enhanced mobility and reconfigurability are achieved through modular components. By optimizing space efficiency, oOoBOT enables multifunctional activities such as sleeping, working, and socializing, offering a practical solution for confined living environments.

This study investigates how nudge design in robotic plates can improve children's eating habits. Establishing healthy dietary habits in childhood is crucial for their growth and development and can decrease the risk of developing diseases later in life. Traditional coercive methods for dietary change have been largely ineffective. In contrast, nudge design, which respects user autonomy and reduces negative reactions, appears to be a promising strategy for positively influencing children's dietary behaviors. We developed a robotic plate based on nudge design principles, incorporating rainbow metaphors, to encourage children to explore a variety of foods and mitigate picky eating tendencies. The study included comparative experiments with two control groups. The findings indicated that the robotic plate with rainbow metaphors attracted more interest, received better evaluations, and was deemed more appropriate and useful than the control plates. Although there were no significant differences in how the plates were used according to observational data, interviews with participants showed a preference for the robotic plate and an increased willingness to try new, healthy foods. The study concludes that nudge design, particularly when using rainbow metaphors, is more effective with younger children, potentially improving their dietary habits. Nonetheless, the influence of such designs on older children might be restricted due to their advanced cognitive development and greater susceptibility to external influences.

A library serves as a repository of knowledge accessible to individuals of all ages, genders, educational backgrounds, social statuses, and economic levels. It stands as a communal space where community members can gather, bridging information disparities among various societal strata. To enhance accessibility to such libraries for a broader spectrum of people, we have introduced the CollaBot system. This system offers tailored services to users through the collaboration of robots. Our investigation encompassed the acceptance of robot types by users, robot characterization, and the prioritization of robot-provided services. Over the course of three stages of user evaluation, it became evident that participants preferred product-type robots over anthropomorphic robots. Furthermore, they expressed a preference for robots that assist other robots, even if these assisting robots exhibit clumsiness, as opposed to robots that exclusively excel in their designated tasks. Lastly, service prioritization varied based on the specific limitations or deficiencies faced by individual users.

Autonomous delivery robots (ADRs) encounter incidentally copresent persons (InCoPs) during their delivery journeys. Despite the potential for ADRs' behavior to influence the behavior and cognition of InCoPs, there is limited research on the interaction between ADRs and InCoPs. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a within-participants experiment (N=30) with a 3 (confederate types: humans vs. high anthropomorphism robots vs. low anthropomorphism robots) x 2 (jaywalking status: jaywalking vs. not jaywalking) design to investigate the impact of ADRs on InCoPs’ behavioral and cognitive changes induced by the social influence of ADRs. During the experiment, participants watched a video depicting interactions between ADRs and InCoPs at a crosswalk. Each participant was immersed in the video as an InCoP, instructed to make jaywalking decisions, and subsequently completed questionnaires. Results indicated that, behaviorally, participants displayed similar levels of conformity towards jaywalking behaviors across both the human and robot confederates. Cognitively, there were significant differences in morality based on the confederate types. Additionally, robots that refrained from jaywalking received more positive ratings in terms of morality and intention to use. This study confirms that ADRs have the capacity to induce conformity similar to humans and that the ethical behavior of ADRs can positively influence InCoPs' impressions and intention to use toward ADRs.

Isolation wards operate in quarantine rooms to prevent cross-contamination caused by infectious diseases. Behind the benefits, medical personnel can have the infection risk from patients and the heavy workload due to the isolation. This work proposes a robot-assisted system to alleviate these problems in isolation wards. We conducted a survey about the medical staff's difficulties and envisioning robots. Using the investigation result, we devised three valuable services using two kinds of heterogeneous robots: telemedicine, emergency alert, and delivery services by care robots and delivery robots. Our system also provides user-interactive components such as a dashboard for medical staff and a patient app for inpatients. To manage the services efficiently, we suggest the robotic system based on a central control server and a hierarchical management architecture. Through a user study, we reviewed the usability of the developed system and its future directions.

Customer satisfaction is not only determined by how workers treat customers but also by how they treat their coworkers. In this sense, we examined whether the dynamics of robot workers influence user satisfaction. To optimize the robot team's atmosphere for Korean culture, we adopted the Korean honorific language system to express hierarchy. We set four types of relationships between two robots: Case 1) both using non honorific language, indicating intimacy and a flat hierarchy; Case 2) both using honorific language, indicating non intimacy and a flat hierarchy; Case 3) delivery robot using non honorific language and monitoring robot using honorific language, indicating non intimacy and a tall hierarchy; Case 4) vice versa. People preferred a robot team with a flat hierarchy and both robots using honorific language, common in the service industry. Interviews revealed discomfort with tall hierarchies. Case 4 was least satisfactory in service, while Case 3 was least socially intelligent. People perceive a robot team mirroring human society as socially intelligent, but negative representations like Case 4 led to less satisfaction.

Nunchi is a high context communication skill which makes an individual understand the counterpart’s indirect social cues and respond appropriately. Robotic things can perceive and recognize situations, and express appropriate responses to situations. Thus, this study was conducted with the expectation that the robotic things equipped with Nunchi, which understand the situation well and behave appropriately instead of the workers, would allow the workers to focus on their work. In order to investigate the effect of robotization of the objects on the degree to which Nunchi is required for the participant, task load, and the impression of objects according to the socio-relational context, a 2 (socio-relational context: stranger group vs. friend group) X 2 (robotization: robotic things vs. baseline things) mixed-participant experiment was designed. As a result, participants evaluated robotic things as more useful and social than baseline things. In addition, Nunchi was required less for the people in the stranger group when robotic things were used in their work than when baseline things were used. Finally, participants felt their task load reduced when the robotic things were used.

Voice cloning techniques using deep neural networks have been used for frauds, such as false financial transactions or fake news, limiting their widespread application. However, when incorporated with communication robots, voice cloning may increase social connectedness for isolated people. Herein, we suggested the concept of a voice-cloned communication robot (VCR), equipped with acquaintances’ voices to allow people in isolation to feel connected with their acquaintances. We developed a prototype VCR, conducted exploratory qualitative and quantitative studies, and verified its potential effectiveness in enhancing the mental health of isolated people.

The aim of our study was to investigate people’s preferred interaction with a robot -whether they prefer a robot that offers assistance based on its own judgment or a robot that follows specific verbal commands given by the user. To achieve this, we presented two types of sound-based interfaces. The first interface was a robot that judges the user’s needs based on the sound the user makes, without requiring any verbal commands. For example, if the user slaps a table with a pile of paper to organize it, the robot opens the drawer where the stapler is located. The second interface was a robot that follows the user’s verbal commands. In this interface, the user specifically asks the robot to find the stapler, and the robot opens the drawer accordingly. Our results showed that people preferred the verbal command interface in terms of usefulness, intelligence, appropriateness, and service evaluation. This indicates that individuals prefer to interact with a robot that follows their specific commands rather than a robot that infers people’s intention and reacts accordingly. Our findings suggest that designing robots to follow specific verbal commands may lead to more positive user experiences and perceptions of the robot’s intelligence and usefulness.

To help people use their limited space efficiently, we propose an origami-based transformable robotic space called “PopupBot.” Specifically, we developed a robotic playhouse for children. A large origami structure with a bellows pattern is controlled by a servo motor and transforms into various types of furniture. For natural child-robotic space interaction, PopupBot perceives the child's intention for the space through speech recognition and provides appropriate space by inferring the space type matching the intention. We expect the PopupBot to provide a new space for people who suffer from staying in limited space especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to prevent COVID-19 infection in the hospital environment, the medical staff is handling many treatments for patients non face-to-face, which reduces the efficiency of medical services. Robots may enable smooth non face-to-face interactions between medical staff and patients by providing cognitive and physical support to the medical staff. In this paper, we identified the medical staff's pain points and needs about the robots which would help them. In addition, researchers and medical staff together participated in generating the design concept of a robot needed in times of COVID-19 as design participants. We conducted qualitative interviews about robots with nurses working in a negative pressure isolation room (NPIR) where patients with COVID-19 are isolated while treatment. As a result, the needs for supporting increased workload including inventory monitoring, waste management, meal delivery, and medicine delivery as well as supporting communication in emergency including communication in patient's emergency and communication in medical staff's emergency were discovered. Based on the findings from the interview, we proposed a robot design concept that can satisfy medical staff's need in NPIR.

Social relations within a group are one of the factors that build the social context. Less attention has been paid to social relations within a group for human-robot interaction design. In this study, we designed different types of service behaviors for social relations in a mixed age group and conducted an experiment to investigate the effect of service behavior types (serving the elderly first versus serving the young first versus serving without priority) on a user's evaluation of a service robot. We only found that service evaluation and appropriateness of the robot were rated less positively under the condition of serving the young first than under other conditions. In addition, we found that the participants evaluated the robot serving the young first as impolite. The effect of the robot's behaviors on service evaluation and appropriateness was mediated by politeness. The current study provides an initial basis for human-robot interaction design for social norms in group-robot interaction.

With becoming an aging society rapidly, the digital divide among the elderly is expected to emerge as a social problem. In order to bridge the digital gap between the elderly and the general public, it is necessary to find out what difficulties the elderly have in using information and communication technology (ICT) and what technologies and services they need. In order to figure out those issues, we conducted three phases of study: ICT literacy survey, interview, and design workshop (N=10). This study has three major findings. First, from the physical view, the elderly found ICT that reduces their movement distance attractive. Second, from the cognitive perspective, services which reduce the gap between the real physical ability of the elderly and the perceived ability of them by themselves are needed. Lastly, from the psychological view, an intuitive and natural interface is needed for the elderly who are afraid of learning new technology.

This study explores the effects of the positioning strategy of domestic social robots on the purchase intention of consumers. Specifically, the authors investigate the effects of robot positioning as companions with as assistants and as appliances. The study results showed that the participants preferred the domestic social robots positioned as assistants rather than as companions. Moreover, for male participants, the positioning of domestic social robots as appliances was also preferred over robots positioned as companions. The study results also showed that the effects of positioning on the purchase intention were mediated by the participants’ perception of usefulness regarding the robot.

Due to advances in technology, various types of existing products can be robotized. The interaction design between the robotized objects which are the robotized products and users has become an emerging issue since how to interact affects user acceptance of the new products. Because the robots can perceive, recognize and assist the users, robotized objects can assist users by reading the context and guessing their intentions in advance, or can assist users in response to users’ clear requests. In order to explore the effective interaction strategy of robotized object, we conduct 2 × 2 mixed-participant experiment. As a result, participants were more surprised by and felt positive emotion toward robotized objects with proactive interaction than with reactive interaction. In addition, the robotized object with proactive interaction was evaluated as more intelligent and easier to use than that with reactive interaction. The influence of interaction strategies on satisfaction of robotized objects was mediated by surprise and positive emotions. Furthermore, the robotized object with proactive interaction was evaluated as more positive when the user’s intention was expressed only by action cue than when it was expressed by both verbal cue and action cue.

A non-lexical backchannel is known to be dependent on the conversational context, and its form can be distinguished by the social relation between the speaker and the listener in the Korean language. Thus, to investigate the effect of a non-lexical backchannel, we conducted a 2 (context: information-centric versus emotion-centric) × 3 (forms of backchannel: "ne" versus "eo" versus "eum") mixed-participant experiment (N = 96). After watching video stimuli, the participants evaluated a robot using one of the three forms of non-lexical backchannels under both contexts. No significant main effect of the forms of the non-lexical backchannel was found. By contrast, we found that task attraction and appropriateness of the robot were rated more positively under the information-centric context than under the emotion-centric context. The functions of the non-lexical backchannel of attentive listening and understanding were manifested more under the information-centric context than under the emotion-centric context. Furthermore, these functions mediated the effect of conversational context on the user perception of the robot in terms of task attraction and appropriateness.

Inducing a user’s behavior through social interaction is a goal that a social robot aims to achieve. It has been argued that empathy has a strong effect on behavior inducement. In human-human interaction, it has been verified that the influence of a nonverbal cue on empathy outweighs that of a verbal cue when those are used in a combined way. The objectives of this study are to explore if such outweighing effect of nonverbal cues is maintained in human-robot interaction (HRI) and to investigate the mechanism of communication cues’ effects by analyzing the mediation structure with the following mediator variables: perceived emotion, perceived intentionality, perceived malfunction, and empathy inducement. To this end, we conducted 2 (verbal type: positive verbal cue vs. negative verbal cue) × 2 (nonverbal type: positive nonverbal cue vs. negative nonverbal cue) within-participant experiment (N = 48). The experiment created a situation in which the social robot was harshly criticized during a conversation. The analysis of experiment results showed the outweighing effect of a nonverbal cue was maintained. When a nonverbal cue conveyed a negative, situation-accordant emotion, it had a decisive effect on perceived emotion, empathy, and behavior inducement. In contrast, a verbal cue induced participants’ empathy and behavior when it conveyed a positive, situation-discordant emotion. This inconsistency between verbal cue and nonverbal cue made the combination of positive verbal cue and negative nonverbal cue have the strongest effect. It implies that participants had different expectations for each of the two communication cues, just as they did in social interactions with human beings. It implies that participants might have applied normative expectations for social interaction with human beings to the social robot.

Smart speakers have different speech style depending on the installed artificial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, the AI agent’s appearances can make different impressions. Hence, it might give characters to the AI agent through speaking and appearance modalities. To determine how an AI agent’s speech and tactility types affect users’ perception, we designed a 2(speech types: assistant-like vs. companion-like) × 2(flexibility types: flexible vs. hard) × 2(roughness types: rough vs. smooth) mixed-participant experiment (N=48). As a result, when the speech style is like a companion, it is possible to give an impression of sociability through a flexible material. However, there was no significant difference by flexibility type when being an assistant. In addition, there was a significant interaction effect between speech types and flexibility types on usefulness. When the speech type is companion-like, the AI agent with flexible material was perceived as being more useful and providing better services than that with hard material. On the contrary, when the speech type is assistant-like, the opposite result was revealed. Regardless of the speech type, a flexible material increases the impression of sociability with higher service evaluation, and a rough finish gives the AI agent an impression of usefulness with higher service evaluation.

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of category labels of domestic robots on their consumer acceptance. The authors posited that compared to the label robots, a pre-existent category label such as home appliances would increase the consumers' evaluation of and purchase intention towards the products. It is suggested that the pre-existent category label helps consumers to perceive the functional values they stand to gain by consuming the product more than the label robots, which is often related to the concepts generated around cultural artifacts. The results of the study confirmed the hypotheses, and further discussions are provided in this paper.

The purpose of this study is to investigate a robot's impression perceived by users as well as the accuracy of perception of location information, which the robot provided according to the modality type of the robot. To explore this, we designed two 2 (verbal types: deictic vs. descriptive) x 2 (nose pointing: with nose vs. without nose) x 2 (eye pointing: with eyes vs. without eyes) mixed-participant studies. In the first study, we investigated the impacts of the robot's modality type in the imperative pointing situation. As a result, participants identified the robot's pointing gesture with nose as more effective, social, and positive, than the robot's pointing gesture without nose. Moreover, the descriptive speech robot was evaluated as more positive than the deictic speech robot. In terms of the accuracy of perception of location information, which the robot provided, participants identified the robot-designated chair more accurately when the robot delivered a deictic speech than when the robot delivered a descriptive speech. For the second study, we explored the effects of the robot's modality type in the declarative pointing situation. As a result, the robot's descriptive speech was rated as effective, social, natural, competent, trustworthy, and more positive than deictic speech. In the case of the robot's pointing gestures, pointing gesture with nose was evaluated as more effective, social, natural, competent, trustworthy, and positive than that without nose. In terms of the accuracy of location information perception, participants perceived the location of the object designated by the robot more accurately when the robot used descriptive speech, pointed with nose and without eyes.

In smart home environments, central interfaces that take commands from users and give orders to each relevant device appropriately are increasingly important. We investigated the type of central interface that consumers are more willing to adopt and whether these interfaces enhance the evaluation of services provided by smart home devices. This study confirms that speaker interfaces are preferred over social robots, speaker interfaces are perceived by users as more persuasive, and the adoption of central interfaces increases the overall service evaluation.

As robots and robotic things become to have more agency, IoRT which consists of robots and robotic things can be considered as a social organization. Accordingly, social organization structure of IoRT could affect users' behavior and perception of IoRT. In this study, in order to examine the effect of social organization structure on people's acceptance of IoRT, we conducted a 2 (social organization structure: flat vs. hierarchical) within-participants experiment (N=30). In the experiment, a participant was asked to take part in cooking task with the aid of a robot, a robotic measuring cup, and a robotic mixer. We executed a post-experimental survey and counted the duration of participants' following the instruction given by the platform. People gave higher scores of trustworthiness and purchase intention to the platform with flat organization structure than that with hierarchical one. On the contrary, participants were more compliant with the hierarchical IoRT service platform than a flat one. Implications for the theory and design of IoRT are discussed.

With the development of robotic technology, various types of robotic products have been developed, ranging from robotic objects that support small daily necessities (such as robotic umbrellas and frames) to robotic furniture (such as robotic chairs and drawers). Owing to consumerism, the consumer marketplace now overflows with surplus products, and storage and organizational products have been increasingly necessary. With this social stream, we focused on designing robotic storage furniture in this study. To create such a type of furniture that is acceptable by consumers, a qualitative user study was conducted with 16 subjects by analyzing the users' behaviors when using ordinary storage furniture. From this user study, we found strong user needs in terms of organizing and finding objects. Thus, we developed two types of robotic cabinets: the first one to assist users' organizing behavior and the second one to assist their finding behavior. To examine the effectiveness of the developed prototypes, we executed a 3 (behavior the robotic cabinet assists: baseline vs. organizing vs. finding) within-participants experiment. The result shows that significant effects vary depending on the type of robotic cabinet.

Robotic things and social robots have been introduced into home, and they are expected to change the relationships between humans. Our study examines whether the introduction of robotic things or social robots, and the way that they are organized, can change the social relationship between family members. To observe this phenomenon, we designed a living lab experiment that simulated a home environment and recruited two families to participate. Families were asked to conduct home activities within two different types of Internet of Robotic Things(IoRT):1)internet of only robotic things(IoRT without mediator condition), and 2)internet of robotic things mediated by a social robot(IoRT with mediator condition). We recorded the interactions between the family members and the robotic things during the experiments and coded them into a dataset for social network analysis. The results revealed relationship differences between the two conditions. The introduction of IoRT without mediator motivated younger generation family members to share the burden of caring for other members, which was previously the duty of the mothers. However, this made the interaction network inefficient to do indirect interaction. On the contrary, introducing IoRT with mediator did not significantly change family relationships at the actor-level, and the mothers remained in charge of caring for other family members. However, IoRT with mediator made indirect interactions within the network more efficient. Furthermore, the role of the social robot mediator overlapped with that of the mothers. This shows that a social robot mediator can help the mothers care for other members of the family by operating and managing robotic things. Additionally, we discussed the implications for developing the IoRT for home.

Service robots with social intelligence are starting to be integrated into our everyday lives. The robots are intended to help improve aspects of quality of life as well as improve efficiency. We are organizing an exciting workshop at HRI 2019 that is oriented towards sharing the ideas amongst participants with diverse backgrounds ranging from Human-Robot Interaction design, social intelligence, decision making, social psychology and aspects and robotic social skills. The purpose of this workshop is to explore how social robots can interact with humans socially and facilitate the integration of social robots into our daily lives. This workshop focuses on three social aspects of human-robot interaction: (1) technical implementation of social robots and products, (2) form, function and behavior, and (3) human behavior and expectations as a means to understand the social aspects of interacting with these robots and products.

HCI researchers investigating the politics of technology design have recently focused on how design practice can tackle "Matters of Concern" - complex social issues perceived and experienced in multiple ways. These researchers suggest design research can generate new networks of human and non-human actors to express and act on these issues. Prior studies, however, tend to restrict their networks within traditional boundaries (e.g. existing organizations, local communities) and categories (e.g. human/nonhuman binary) without examining their significance for participants. We suggest collaborative map making as a reflexive method for understanding current Matters of Concern from the perspectives of diverse actors, not just researchers. As case studies of the method's use, we present two studies of domestic computing technologies in the US and South Korea, which show how collaborative map making allows salient networks to expand beyond the individual actors in the home to local and global power issues outside of boundaries (e.g. physical house) and categories (e.g. private/public space) commonly recognized in HCI. Our methodology provides HCI researchers with a way to understand existing Matters of Concern, so they can position themselves to address and act on these issues.

This study aims to investigate the effects of information delivery types on users' perception toward the robot. We executed two experiments to explore appropriate information delivery types in each situation. In the first study, we compared which type of information delivery is suitable to the situation that the robot conveys environment states. In the second study, we examined a proper information delivery type in the situation that the robot conveys its internal states. We conducted a 3(information delivery types: speech vs. reflexive cue vs. none) within-participants experiment (N=24) both in the first study and in the second study. The results of the study showed that participants perceived a robot with the reflexive cue as more anthropomorphic and animate than one with speech and one without response. In addition, participants evaluated the service of the robot with the reflexive cue more positively than the robot with speech and the robot without the response in the both studies.

Even though the paper toy is a useful educational tool for enhancing perceptual space skills and creativity, it has limitations in improving technological knowledge and skills. In this study, in order to propose an educational tool which could provide both artistic creativity and technological knowledge, we proposed an intelligent paper toy, PaperBot, by applying robotic technologies into traditional paper toy. The PaperBot is composed of an intelligent product design kit and planar figures of paper toy (see Figure 1). The intelligent product design kit is a modular system consisting of a main board, input modules including magnetic sensors, static electricity sensors, light sensors, etc. and output modules, such as motors, speakers, LEDs, etc. Users can make an intelligent paper toy by folding the paper toy and attaching input and output modules to each part of the paper toy. Based on the intelligent product design kit, we developed several intelligent paper toys including an intelligent paper crocodile, an intelligent paper parrot, and an intelligent paper bear (see Figure 2).

Since a telepresence system is a system intended to be used in interpersonal communication, conveying the presence of a remote sender is an important issue. Robotic telepresence system is a newer variant of a telepresence system. Even though robot characteristics of having physical embodiment could be effective on building presence of itself, this could yield distortion of presence of a remote sender in telepresence. Thus, in order to determine effective methods of increasing sender presence during telecommunication, we perform a two within-participants experiment, considering the effects of the embodiment levels, by comparing a weakly-embodied telepresence system, a tablet and a strongly-embodied telepresence system, a telepresence robot (number of participants, N = 48). In this study, the participants engage in conversations with a remote sender either through a tablet or a telepresence robot. The results show that participants have a lesser sense of sender presence for a strongly-embodied telepresence system compared to the weakly-embodied telepresence system. On the other hand, participants perceived more presence of a telepresence system toward a strongly-embodied telepresence system than a weakly-embodied telepresence system. The implications of these findings are the weakly-embodied telepresence systems would be effectively used in settings where emotional connection is a priority. In addition, incorporating sensory modalities should be considered for neutralizing the negative effects of strong embodiment on presence.

In this paper, a STEAM education was developed by applying intelligent product design. One promising approach to improve children's STEAM attitudes, knowledge, and skills is to utilize robotics in the program. As an intelligent product is a robot with the shape of the common object, intelligent product design could allow children to learn robotics and product design. Field trial of STEAM education was held at a Korean elementary school for two weeks. After the field trial, children evaluated the perception toward a common product and a developed intelligent product. The results showed that the intelligent product was perceived more positively and intelligent than the common product.

In this article, we present two robot design types: human-like and product-like robot. A human-like robot is designed to be similar to humans in the appearance or behavior. A product-like robot is designed to maximize the functionality of a product. As well as the comparison between the human-like robot and product-like robot, cultural differences between Korea and Japan on perceived intellectual capability, robot-likeness, usefulness, overall impression and purchase intention were investigated. People evaluated the intellectual capability, usefulness and overall impression of the robots differently depending on their nationalities. The human-like robot was considered to be more robot-like than the product-like robot whereas there was no difference between the robots in both cultures on purchase intention. Implications for the robot design between Korea and Japan are discussed.

As a robot has both characteristics of humanness and productness, we explored which characteristic is more dominant between them. In order to explore the impact of communicator types on social presence and shyness in physical contact, we executed a 3 (communicator types: a human vs. a robot vs. a product) with-in participants experiment (N=30). Participants felt more social presence to a person than a robot, and a product. On the other hand, participants felt more shyness to a person than a product, and a robot.

Robots could be classified into an autonomous robot and a tele-operated robot according to the levels of autonomy. As a match between robot types and task types is important, we explored the impact of robot types and task types on social presence, trustworthiness, and willingness to follow the robot's advice in art appraising situation. We executed a 2(robot types: autonomous robot vs. tele-operated robot) X 2(task types: quantitative task vs. qualitative task) mixed-participants experiment (N=30). Participants perceived more social presence toward the tele-operated robot than the autonomous robot while the autonomous robot was perceived more trustworthy than the tele-operated robot. The robot types and the task types had an interaction effect on the perceived trustworthiness and the willingness to follow the advice. Implications for the appropriate design by the robot types and the task types regarding human-robot interaction are discussed.

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of robot types on emotional communication between a person and a robot. We executed a 2 (robot types: an autonomous robot vs. a tele-operated robot) within-participants experiment (N=36). Participants were interviewed with either autonomous robot interviewers or tele-operated robot interviewers, and asked how much they felt social presence of robot interviewers and embarrassment toward robot interviewers. Participants felt more social presence to tele-operated robots than autonomous robots. Moreover, participants felt more embarrassment when they were interviewed with tele-operated robots than autonomous robots.

According to the Hawthorne effect, when people feel someone staring at them, they tend to be moral because of psychological pressure. We applied this Hawthorne effect to the appearance design of robots and examined the effect of robot appearance types on motivating donation. We executed a 2 (appearance types: anthropomorphic vs. functional) within-participants experiment (N=20). Participants perceived more social presence to an anthropomorphic robot than a functional robot. In addition, participants were more willing to donate when interacting with an anthropomorphic robot than a functional robot.

This study explores the effect of robot design approaches on the consumers' acceptance of robots. We executed a 2-level (robot design: human-oriented vs. product-oriented) between participants experiment (N=52). Participants categorized a human-oriented robot and a product-oriented robot differently, and a product-oriented robot was more effective than a human-oriented robot for consumers' evaluation and purchase intention toward robots.

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of the robot types on emotional engagement with robots. Robots are classified into an autonomous robot and a tele-operated robot according to the levels of autonomy. On the contrary, robots could be distinguished depending on the levels of human intervention required for controlling a robot. An autonomous robot performs task by itself while a tele-operated robot requires an operator's help in task-oriented activity. In emotional communication, an autonomous robot expresses robotic emotions by itself whereas a tele-operated robot delivers an operator's emotions to a receiver. In this study, we compared the impact of the two robot types on perceived intelligence and social presence of robots. We executed a 2 (robot types: an autonomous robot vs. a tele-operated robot) within-participants experiment (N=36). Participants had an interview with either autonomous robot interviewers or tele-operated robot interviewers. They evaluated autonomous robots as more intelligent than tele-operated robots while they felt more social presence toward tele-operated robots than autonomous robots. Implications for design of social robots to increase humans' emotional engagement with robots are discussed.

As empathy is important for the emotional interaction between a human and a robot, the design factors which induce human empathy toward robots need to be explored. Human empathy toward a robot can be affected by the presence of a robot. Thus, we focused on the levels of agency and the physical embodiment of a robot, which are influential factors pertaining to social presence, by executing two experiments. In the first experiment, in a 2 (levels of agency: mediated vs. simulated) between-participants experiment, participants interacted with either a mediated robot which delivers the emotional state of a remote user or a simulated robot which expresses its own emotion. Participants empathized more with the mediated robot than with the simulated robot, demonstrating that the proper form of an emotional robot is as a mediator during emotional interaction between people. In the second study, in a 2 (physical embodiment: physically embodied vs. physically disembodied) between-participants experiment design, participants interacted with either a physically embodied robot or a physically disembodied robot. The results showed that participants empathized more with a physically embodied robot than with a physically disembodied robot, indicating the impact of physical embodiment on human empathy. Implications for the design of human-robot interactions are discussed.

The objective of this study was to develop an edutainment robot which provides multi-sensory learning experiences to improve users' space perception and creativity. In particular, we focused on developing educational content for the study of the Korean alphabet (Hangul) using the robot. On the basis of the phonemic and modular nature of Hangul, we devised a block-shaped edutainment robot for the study of Hangul. The robot known as "HangulBot" is composed of a consonant block and a vowel block. By rotating and rearranging those blocks, a user can create different characters. To enable the robot to perceive the arrangement of the blocks and the distance between a consonant block and a vowel block, IR LEDs and photo transistors were used. The eight IR LEDs in the consonant block generate different radiation signals, and the vowel block perceives the arrangement of the blocks by receiving the signals. The distance between the two blocks is estimated by measuring the thresholding, and the corresponding sound of each arrangement is then played through a speaker installed in the vowel block. We executed two short-term field trials with a twenty-seven month old child in June of 2011 and November of 2011 to ascertain children's initial reaction to HangulBot and how their reaction would change over time. While the results are preliminary, we noted several interesting findings. First, after several trials by the mother, the child felt comfortable with HangulBot. Second, the child intuitively followed the corresponding speech sounds which were generated by HangulBot according to the arrangement of the blocks. That is to say, the sound generated after the arranging the block intuitively induced the child to follow the sound. Third, the child's initial reaction to HangulBot was mostly block play, but after five months later, her reaction to the robot included not only block play but also active learning of the Korean alphabet. This result indicates that HangulBot could be an effective edutainment tool which improves space perception and creativity as well as linguistic abilities by stimulating both sides of the brain.

The rate of donations made by individuals is relatively low in Korea when compared to other developed countries. To address this problem, we propose the DONA, an urban donation motivating robot prototype. The robot roams around in a public space and solicits donation from passers-by by engaging them through a pet like interaction. In this paper, we present the prototype of the robot and our design process.

The rate of donations made by individuals is relatively low in Korea when compared to other developed countries. To address this problem, we propose the DONA, an urban donation motivating robot prototype. The robot roams around in a public space and solicits donation from passers-by by engaging them through a pet like interaction. In this paper, we present the prototype of the robot and our design process.

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of intergroup relations on robots through comparison with other objects. In an experiment, participants watched eight stimuli drawn from four types of objects (people vs. robots vs. animals vs. products) according to two types of intergroup relations (in-group vs. out-group) and rated each stimuli in terms of familiarity, reliability, and preference. Regarding familiarity and reliability, the effect of intergroup relations on robots was greater than that on animals or products, but smaller than that on people. The degree of the effect regarding reliability was larger than that regarding familiarity for all types of object. In the case of preference, the effects of intergroup relations between people and robots and between animals and products were similar, and the effect on people and robots was greater than that on animals and products.

This study describes preliminary research for designing a growing robot. To explore the interaction between a human and an object that changes physically through its growth, focus group interviews were conducted with participants who kept pets, plants, and a plant-like product. An appropriate target model for designing a growing robot, the value of raising living things, and the features of interaction that induce affinity were examined.

Keepon is a robot designed for social interaction with children for the purposes of social development research and autism therapy [1]. Keepon's capacity for rhythmic synchrony in the form of dance has resulted in the popularity of several fictional music videos on the internet [2,3]. During a research collaboration visit at the KAIST PES Design Lab in Korea, Keepon's creators added this new chapter to the story of Keepon's travels. Upon watching a video of traditional Korean "Pungmulnori" dancing, which features distinctive spinning hats, Keepon becomes enamored. The robot has many adventures as he travels around Korea in search of a dance group that finally welcomes him into their cultural performance.

The objectives of this study are to investigate the usability of the anthropomorphic sound feedback for service robot malfunction and to suggest the design guideline. Two experiments were carried out in a laboratory setting and an actual home environment. Independent variables of the experiments were two types of feedback (anthropomorphic vs. non-anthropomorphic) and two types of malfunctions (catastrophic vs. warning). The usability comprising of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction was evaluated through a questionnaire and video analysis. The results from the experiments were summarized as follows. First, the usability of anthropomorphic feedback was better than non-anthropomorphic feedback. Second, the feedback of warning malfunction displayed higher usability than the feedback of catastrophic malfunction. Third, non-anthropomorphic feedback had higher effectiveness and satisfaction on the catastrophic malfunction while anthropomorphic feedback was more effective and satisfactory on the warning malfunction. Based on the results, design guideline of anthropomorphic sound feedback for service robot malfunction was suggested.

Can humans empathize with robot that displays emotional expressions? If a human can do this, how is it possible to create an emotionally interactive robot that will induce empathy from a human? As interest in emotional interactions with robots is increasing, the answers to these questions are increasingly sought by researchers in HRI. As a starting point to find these answers, three hypotheses are investigated in this paper. An experiment with ten-year old children was performed to analyze the three hypotheses. The results showed that humans can empathize with a robot when the robot expresses emotions through the use of bruise colors and speech. It was also found that the bruised color expression as used here can induce a human to empathize with a robot as much as speech expression. Additionally, no gender difference was noted when a human empathized with an emotional expressing robot.

The objective of this study is to suggest a design guideline to build a personality for an entertainment robot, ROLLY based on basic factors of motions and their interrelations. Independent variables were the direction at two levels, the speed, the volume, and repetition at three levels as the basic factors of a motion. Dependent variables were dominance and friendliness as personality factors. Eighteen motion samples were designed with two or three levels of independent variables through the use of the orthogonal array of Taguchi. Participants watched eighteen motion samples in a random order and evaluated the personality factors (dominance and friendliness) based on each motion sample on a seven-point Likert scale. The results of the evaluation yielded basic guidelines to express robot personalities using motions while controlling the direction, speed, volume, and rate of repetition.

The objective of this study is to express the four types of personality of a robot based on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator by controlling the size, speed, and frequency of the gestures of a robot and to examine userpsila impressions of the robot by controlling the gesture design factors. The independent variables were three gesture design factors (speed, velocity, and frequency) with two levels each, producing eight gesture types. The eight gesture types were presented in two robot positions, a speaking robot and a listening robot. Participants watched a total of 16 robot gesture samples and evaluated each sample on the personality of the robot and their impressions. The evaluation results provided basic guidelines to express robot personalities through gestures, describing specific methods to control the speed, velocity, and frequency of a gesture. In addition, it was found that personality expression of a robot through gesture and the control of gesture design factors affect user impression of a robot.

The objective of this study is to examine the desirable correspondence between a robot appearance and its interaction. Based on Bales’ Interaction Process Analysis (IPA), the four types of interaction were extracted; Agree , Question , Suggestion , and Disagree. An experiment was conducted with a 4 (robot appearance types from the previous research) × 4 (interaction types from IPA) within-groups factorial design. In the experiment, participants took part in a task that involved selecting colors corresponding to 16 given words with a robot. After completing each task, they evaluated each robot. The evaluation results on subjects’ impressions of the robot and on the relationship between a user and a robot provided the proper and improper matches between robot appearance types and interaction types. Both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic robots were well-matched with Agree or Question while they were ill-matched with Suggestion or Disagree, caricatured robots displayed a desirable correspondence with Agree while they showed improper correspondence with Question; functional robots were compatible with all interaction types except Disagree.

The objectives of this study are to examine the appropriate body features for four types of social robots and to explore how the elements of body feature affect subjects’ impressions of the robot. Five body feature elements were deduced from a literature review and a preliminary survey. Based on the extracted body feature elements, various robot samples were implemented with a robot kit. In an experiment, participants evaluated each robot on the appropriateness of the robot for the four types of social robots and their impressions of the robot. The evaluation results provided the appropriate elements of body feature with the proper number of each element for each type of social robot and explained how the body feature elements affect the impressions made on people by the robot. An anthropomorphic robot with one head, two arms and legs and a body was familiar and enjoyable such that it was suitable for intimate interactions with humans. A zoomorphic robot was distinctive with one tail and four legs, which made the robot more pleasant and interesting. A caricatured robot was composed of diverse body feature elements in order to reveal an unrealistic or cartoon-like image. A functional robot had no head or arms; instead, it effectively utilized a screen to supply various services.

Studies on robotic emotions were mostly focused on facial expressions. However, in human emotion recognitions, biological signals were effectively applied in use. In this paper, we clarified the utility of biological signals as a way to express robotic emotion. We designed facial expressions and set up biological signals (heartbeat, respiration) to apply to the facial LED interface for expressing emotions. The results from two sets of experiment demonstrate that biological signals are closely connected to an arousal level and intensity of emotion. It also can be a distinctive element for emotion expression which is deficient only in facial expression.

The objective of this thesis is to suggest a design guideline for a teaching assistant robot by clarifying what images satisfy the role of a teaching assistant robot, and by finding out what elements of body feature epitomize such images. Images of teaching assistant robots were established from a literature review and factor analysis. And eight elements of body feature were extracted from human form. Robotic external form samples varied according to the elements of body feature, w hich w as modeled three-dimensionally. Children, who are the main users of teaching assistant robots, evaluated the 3D robot samples projected onto a wall in real size. The evaluation criteria were the role images of teaching assistant robots, demographic features about age and gender, preference, and appropriateness. The results of evaluation were analyzed by analysis of variance, and analysis of correlation. Finally, a design guideline for a teaching assistant robot was suggested based on the results of the experiment about the correlation between elements of body feature and role images.