An Evaluation Study of Robot Designs for Smart Environments

Abstract

To identify the most optimally designed research platform for a smart home context, 214 participants evaluated various robot head prototypes that were depicted in portrait vs. full-body images mounted on a Meka wheel base. The robots differed in their degree of facial social cues intended to evoke human likeness. The proto-types were rated on human likeness, uncanniness, mind perception, design, and usability. Results showed that the body-head relation impacts participants' overall perception of a robot. However, participants' ratings did not differ between robot types when mounted on a Meka platform regarding anthropomorphic judgments and all of them were perceived equally high on design and usability. Our research highlights the importance of evaluating the holistic robot platform rather than parts of it in the design process.