The scenario and design process of childcare robot, PaPeRo

Abstract

The scenarios and design process for a childcare robot, PaPeRo, are presented. The design process mainly consists of production and evaluations. The production is composed of three observations, namely, one in the user field, one with respect to the world view, and one about the assumed users and results for the basic role of the robot, its personality, and classification of users. Our investigation of available technologies deepened our understanding of the robot performance and characteristics. Preproduction, which consisted of a scenario design, prototyping, and a short play, made the scenario details more sophisticated. A six-month demonstration at the 2005 Aichi Expo started with seven different scenarios, which were improved using additional recognition words, more attractive robot personalities, and additional scenarios through on-site observations and discussion with staff members there. We conducted an extensive study on the robot personalities and recognizable words. Our study will play an important role in the scenario design process.