The effects of robot cognitive reliability and social positioning on child-robot team dynamics

Charisi, Vicky; Merino, Luis; Escobar, María-José; Caballero, Fernando; Gomez, Randy; Gómez Gutiérrez, Emilia, 1975-

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9560760

The effects of robot cognitive reliability and social positioning on child-robot team dynamics

Citation

Charisi V, Merino L, Escobar M, Caballero F, Gomez R, Gómez E. The effects of robot cognitive reliability and social positioning on child-robot team dynamics. In: 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2021); 2021 May 30-Jun 5; Xi'an, China. [Piscataway]: IEEE; 2021. p. 9439-45. DOI: 10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9560760

Abstract

Human collaboration is more likely to lead to cognitive growth when all group-members are actively involved in the collaborative process. However, there are cases that intragroup relationships need support. In this paper, we present an autonomous robotic system designed to interact with a pair of children in a problem-solving setting, aiming to understand how the robot behaviour impacts the group-members’ social dynamics. We developed an autonomous system with the Haru robot which we evaluated with an experimental study with 5-8yo children (N =84) to test the impact of the robot’s cognitive reliability and social positioning on human-to-human social dynamics, task performance and help-seeking behaviour. All participants took part in a baseline session (without the robot), an intervention (with the robot in a turn-taking setting) and an evaluation session (with a robot in a voluntary interaction setting). Results indicate that children who interacted with the reliable robot had a better task performance but children who interacted with the unreliable robot exhibited more task-related social interactions. Based on the results, we propose an interaction design concept which combines the set of the evaluated robot behaviours for an adaptive targeted support of child-robot teaming.

Description

Comunicació presentada a 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2021), celebrat del 30 de maig al 5 de juny a Xi'an, Xina.