Services, Appearances and Psychological Factors in Intelligent Home Service Robots

This study conducted a questionnaire survey to investigate the requirements and preferences toward the services and appearance of home service robot. And the psychological factors regarding human robot interaction, including likability, sincerity, trust and privacy were explored and discussed. The preliminary results show that functions of house chores, security and emergency detecting were highly expected and preferred by 267 participants. While the social and caretaking/nursing functions were not preferred as expected. The participants liked medium size robots without too many facial features. Hands and arms that extended human reach were more valued than legs and wheels that substitute human movement. Participants also valued the interface of response and information, such as the body screen on the robot. Psychological factors of likability, sincerity, trust and privacy correlated with each other significantly, and were also related to the preference of robot appearance. This study takes a clear profile of the users’ expectation on future home intelligent service robots.