Care robot able to show the order of service provision through bodily actions in multi-party settings

Abstract

Service robots, such as tea-serving robots, should be designed to show the order of service provision in multi-party settings. An ethnographic study we conducted at an elderly care center revealed that the gaze and bodily actions of care workers can serve this function. To test this, we developed a robot system able to utilize its gaze and other gestures in this way. Experimental results demonstrated that the robot could effectively display the order of service provision using this method, and highlighted the benefits of employing the gaze for robots working in multi-party settings.