Lessons from the MOnarCH Project

Abstract

The paper describes the main conclusions issued from three years of development, of which approximately eighteen months of observations, of an autonomous social robot interacting with children and adults in the Pediatrics ward of an Oncological hospital. After this long period of trials and continuous interaction, the integration of the robot in that particular social environment can be considered highly successful. The results taken from all the long run experiments yield valuable lessons in what relates social acceptance and user experience to be considered in the case of robot deployment at institutions or even at households. These are detailed in the paper.