Ethological evaluation of human-robot Interaction: Are children more efficient and motivated with computer, virtual agent or robots?

Abstract

Nowadays, robots and virtual agents become companions for humans. They seem to have distinct roles in the Human-Machine Interaction. Thus, when developing a new application, it is judicious to wonder which the better is. In the Robadom project, a homecare robot has to assist elderly at home. The robot provides cognitive stimulation game. We developed StimCards, a cognitive card-based game. The principle question is: is the robot the best interlocutor in this context? This paper presents an evaluation of StimCards. Participants are children because French elderly is reluctant to robots and because they will be the future hypothetical users.