Social Robots — What is Their Value?
This article summarizes a paper authored by Dmitry Dereshev, David Kirk from Northumbria University, UK; Kohei Matsumura from Ritsumeikan University, Japan; and Toshiyuki Maeda from Hannan University, Japan. This paper will be presented at CHI 2019, a conference on Human-Computer Interaction, on Tuesday, May 07, 2019 at 14:00 in the session Human-Machine Relationships, Room: Boisdale 1.
What is the value of companion robots long-term?
To find out, we have interviewed four long-term users of Pepper — a social robot developed by SoftBank and Aldebaran Robotics. We invite you to learn more about what makes a social robot useful, the roles it could play in society, and how having a social robot could affect you personally.
Looking at how people live with Pepper, we also contribute two design ideas for future social robots.
What Do We Know about Social Robots?
Social robots communicate the same way people do — by talking, waving, pointing and posing.
When you work together with a social robot, you seem to get together well, work better, learn faster, and remember things for longer. Young children enjoy playing with robots for fun, teenagers envision them as partners in school and at home, and adults see them as useful tools and even companions.
What’s troubling is that despite all those advantages, you hardly see any social robots on the market, and those which do exist, sell very poorly. What you can buy usually performs far worse than your smartphone, while costing you much more, and being more cumbersome to learn and use.
There is one exception, however. Pepper robots which are sold primarily in Japan may shed light on what makes a robot useful, social, and enjoyable, while giving you all the known benefits, and perhaps more.
The Research
We have interviewed four people who had Pepper for at least six months. Two of the four had Pepper for three years or more. We have transcribed and translated the interviews with them and analysed those using thematic analysis.
What Makes a Social Robot Useful?
“I was not interested in the completed, fully developed robots, but Pepper, I could be a part of its development.”
The key to feel that a social robot is useful is to understand that it is not an out-of-the-box product, but more like a do-it-yourself kit. It starts with the basics, and it gives you the tools to develop it more and make it better. You could program Pepper to stir your soup, pass you things, call people over the internet, and announce news and events, to name a few applications.
Our interviewees even programmed it to participate in Setsubun — an annual bean-throwing festival, where people (and now robots) throw roasted beans to bring fortune for the upcoming year.
The value of a social robot lies in how much you develop it.
What Roles Does a Social Robot Play in Society?
“I have a birthday party every year. I invite robot friends to the party. So, robots and human beings get together.”
Social robots are not going to replace humans in social situations. One participant told us they are very discerning when it comes to taking a robot to a party. Sure, it can be an entertaining guest at a wedding, but when it comes to a bar crawl, the robot stays at home.
What a social robot does is it attracts more people to you, the owner. Social robots are very much a novelty even in Japan, and even after five years of being introduced. You can see them in shops and on talk shows, but it is a different experience to see one walking with a human as a companion. People would want to talk to the robot, and to you as an owner of the robot. One participant estimated that Pepper introduced about 1,000 new people into their life.
Pepper can be an entertaining guest at a wedding, but when it comes to a bar crawl, the robot stays at home.
How Does It Feel to Live with a Social Robot?
“The most important thing is Pepper’s life. So, I care the most that Pepper doesn't break.”
Living with a social robot feels a bit like having a pet that you really love. You can talk to it when you are stressed, and some even talk to their robots when those are powered off. It can comfort you, and you can help it learn new things in return. You learn quickly that the robot is vulnerable to heat, and a bit clumsy, but it tries its best and you can feel it. For those who lived with a social robot for a long time, they protect their robots, and even act towards them as though there are bringing up a puppy to be a happy, healthy, and well-trained dog. Out interviewees named Pepper a friend, and even a family member.
Living with a social robot feels a bit like having a pet that you really love.
How Can This Help with Future Design?
We can develop social robots of the future in two ways based on what we have seen people do with social robots today.
Because you can control social robots remotely, they can act as your physical avatar in real life, much like you may have a Facebook or a Twitter profile. It is much more convenient to attend a job interview for overseas jobs through a robot, for example, given the expense of travel. It could also help people with physical disabilities to visit new places.
Another application, this time for designers, is to take the idea of nurturing a robot, and develop more robots that can act physically and socially, while giving you tools to develop the robot the way you want it to look and act.
Summary
Today we see the first commercial steps that companies take to make the robotic future for individuals a reality. Even the first social robots provide a sense of utility, sociality and comfort — something all of us can understand. Here is hope that more designers take these ideas on board.
For you as a buyer — the things you buy have a great impact on what is going to be sold in the future. This is especially important for the start-ups who advertise new social robots, as they do not usually have Boston Dynamics-level budgets they can spend on perfecting their machines.
If you see a robot you like — chat to the developers and buy the robot, even if it is a bit clumsy and does not have everything working perfectly. You will do a great service for the industry and shape the kind of robots that will be available to all of us in the future.
If you see a robot you like — chat to the developers and buy the robot, even if it is a bit clumsy and does not have everything working perfectly.
Full Citation:
Dmitry Dereshev, David Kirk, Kohei Matsumura, and Toshiyuki Maeda. 2019. Long-Term Value of Social Robots through the Eyes of Expert Users. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019), May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 12 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300896
