How would store managers employ social robots?

摘要

We conducted a field study to investigate the social acceptance of social robots by stores, particularly for attracting passersby, which today's robots can autonomously perform. From interviews with ten store managers, we identified two main reasons they want to employ such social robots in their stores: robots offer cheap labor and provide unique value that humans cannot. They believe that robots are good at attracting the attention of visitors without causing or receiving stress. We also conducted three case studies in which we observed how store managers employed social robots in their stores. Each store manager requested different designs in the preparation phase. After deployment, we found that the managers were generally satisfied with the services autonomously offered by the robots, which successfully encouraged people to stop. For two out of three stores the robots successfully encouraged visitors to visit. The store managers were satisfied with the results and expressed a desire to use the robots again.