Social Robots As Change Agents With the Role of Mediators In Human-Human Communication : A Study for Social Engagement in University Campus Environment

Abstract

Robots have been a part of our lives already for some time. Especially with the developing technology and new developments in robotics, there is an increasing number of application areas. For example, construction, health care, transportation, agriculture and entertainment etc. While these are mostly industrial robots, social robotics as a separate field is becoming more and more popular with increasing number of social robots being introduced. As the role of technologies in our lives is becoming even more vital with developments in machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics, potential of social robotics is also growing. Being a part of our lives, socially interactive robots with embodied design already support humans in many activities and scenarios. Thanks to their embodied design, abilities and the constantly developing technology behind these, social robots have a great potential of participating in social life of humans by understanding, sharing, and responding. While there is an ongoing debate on robot’s involvement in our lives, the transition and our adaptation towards a social form where humans and robots co-exist continues. In this thesis, we therefore investigate social robots with a question whether they can have the role for mediating human-human communication and enhance social engagement. For this, we look at the university campus setting. In order to answer the research questions, we aim to identify scenarios on how social robots could be used in social context at university campuses with a focus on social en-gagement. In order to identify the design considerations and use cases for such robots, we conducted a pre-study with interviews with 16 participants. These revealed the following focus areas design considerations: ease of access, mobility, humanness, simplicity, and user-friendliness. Based on these design considerations and previous research in the field, we developed and introduced three concepts for social robots in university campus environment with a focus on enhancing social engagement and connectedness. In each concept we provided a design for socially inter-active robots with different design metaphors, role, and forms. We later conducted a user evalu-ation questionnaire with 10 participants using the Robot Attitude Scale (RAS) and interviews. Overall, the results showed that all concepts were found to be attractive and participants accepted the design recognizing their potential to mediate the social connectedness and communication. Also, the effect of embodiment on user’s perception and approach towards social robots was found to be positive. Additionally, there were new scenarios and use cases suggested by partici-pants during the evaluation phase which can be consider in future research. Based on the previous work in the field, the results from pre-study and user evaluation in this thesis, we gathered five design implications which emphasise: matching robot’s role and tasks with its design, naturalness of human-robot interaction by design, embodiment for user involve-ment, readable social cues for engaging design, and making interaction accessible with mobile design. These apply to social robots which can act as mediators in human-human communication and connectedness. A future research on this topic would be beneficial to design concepts and social robots with these design considerations to be further evaluated with physical prototypes and face-to-face interviews with actual users under a separate study. We believe, social robots with such embodied design attributes and social roles can attract people to engage with first the robots and through the robots connect and engage with the rest of society.