Drawings for Insight on Preschoolers' Perception of Robots

Abstract

The design of robots and robot-mediated activities for children needs to be informed by their expectations on robots, to ensure acceptability and effectiveness. Children drawings are a powerful tool to understand and describe these expectations, containing actionable insights for robot designers. We report a preliminary study of 50 drawings made by preschool children and investigate (i) their perception of robots and (ii) the change in perception induced by a short experience with real robots. Our analyses reveal that the children's age not only influences their perception of robots, but also how their perception changes after encountering robots.