A Drone Agent to Support a Clean Environment

In this paper we introduce and evaluate a concept of a drone agent that can support us to keep the environment clean. The drone has four main functions: (1) find a waste item, (2) persuade the user to pick up the item, (3) lead the user to the nearest trash bin, (4) communicate with the user when the job is done. We prototyped three types of persuasion effects with the drone (Visual, Audio, and Visual+Audio) and evaluated them through an online study with eighty two participants. The results reveal that interest in the drone technology varied significantly between developed and developing countries, with individuals in developing countries having higher ratings for drone related persuasion, compliance, pleasantness and sensibility; gender differences also emerged. Finally, evaluation results led to many design recommendations that will increase the functionality and attractiveness and usage potential of the proposed technology.

[1]  Michio Okada,et al.  STB: Child-Dependent Sociable Trash Box , 2011, Int. J. Soc. Robotics.

[2]  B. Fogg,et al.  Motivating, Influencing, and Persuading Users: An Introduction To Captology , 2007 .

[3]  Rob Comber,et al.  Designing beyond habit: opening space for improved recycling and food waste behaviors through processes of persuasion, social influence and aversive affect , 2012, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[4]  Aart van Halteren,et al.  Toward a persuasive mobile application to reduce sedentary behavior , 2013, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[5]  Florian Mueller,et al.  Jogging with a Quadcopter , 2015, CHI.

[6]  Jaap Ham,et al.  A robot that says “bad!”: Using negative and positive social feedback from a robotic agent to save energy , 2009, 2009 4th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI).

[7]  Manfred Tscheligi,et al.  The Good, The Bad, The Weird: Audience Evaluation of a "Real" Robot in Relation to Science Fiction and Mass Media , 2013, ICSR.

[8]  Keita Higuchi,et al.  HoverBall: augmented sports with a flying ball , 2014, AH.

[9]  Alexander Mirot,et al.  The Fear of Drones: Privacy and Unmanned Aircraft , 2013 .

[10]  Samir Chatterjee,et al.  Examining the Efficacy of a Persuasive Technology Package in Reducing Texting and Driving Behavior , 2013, PERSUASIVE.

[11]  Jaap Ham,et al.  A Persuasive Robot to Stimulate Energy Conservation: The Influence of Positive and Negative Social Feedback and Task Similarity on Energy-Consumption Behavior , 2013, International Journal of Social Robotics.

[12]  Boris E. R. de Ruyter,et al.  EZ phone: persuading mobile users to conserve energy , 2008, BCS HCI.

[13]  Mark Dougherty.  Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue Part 2: From Frankenstein to Battlefield Drones; A Perspective on Machine Ethics , 2013, J. Intell. Syst..

[14]  T. Kanda,et al.  A cross-cultural study on attitudes towards robots , 2005 .

[15]  Marc Hanheide,et al.  Evaluating extrovert and introvert behaviour of a domestic robot — a video study , 2008, RO-MAN 2008 - The 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

[16]  Suleman Shahid,et al.  iParrot: Towards Designing a Persuasive Agent for Energy Conservation , 2007, PERSUASIVE.

[17]  Wendy Ju,et al.  Initiating Interactions and Negotiating Approach: A Robotic Trash Can in the Field , 2015, AAAI Spring Symposia.

[18]  Katharina Reinecke,et al.  Knowing What a User Likes: A Design Science Approach to Interfaces that Automatically Adapt to Culture , 2013, MIS Q..

[19]  Jan M. Gutteling,et al.  Persuasion in the Wild: Communication, Technology, and Event Safety , 2014, PERSUASIVE.

[20]  Joel West,et al.  Browsing as the killer app: Explaining the rapid success of Apple's iPhone , 2010 .

[21]  Patrick Olivier,et al.  "We've bin watching you": designing for reflection and social persuasion to promote sustainable lifestyles , 2012, CHI.

[22]  Ernesto Arroyo,et al.  Waterbot: exploring feedback and persuasive techniques at the sink , 2005, CHI.