Robocamp at Home

Abstract

Social robots are becoming important agents in several sectors of people's lives. They can act in different contexts, e.g., public spaces, schools, and homes. Operating, programming and interacting with these robots will be an essential skill in the future. We present a qualitative and explorative study on how family members collaboratively learn (co-learn) about social robots at their homes. Our one-month in the wild study took place at homes of eight families (N=32) in Finland. We defined a novel model for co-learning about and with a social robot at home, Robocamp. In Robocamp, Alpha Mini robot was introduced and left within the families, who were then provided with weekly robotic challenges to be conducted with the robot. The research data was collected by semi-structured interviews and online diaries. This study provides novel insights about family-based co-learning with social robots in the home context. It also offers recommendations for implementing family-based co-learning with social robots at homes.