Influence of a priori knowledge into subjective evaluation of mental commit robot

Recent advances in robotics have been applied to automation in industrial manufacturing, with the primary purpose of optimizing practical systems in terms of such objective measures as accuracy, speed and cost. This paper introduces research on a mental commit robot that seeks a different direction that is not so rigidly dependent on such objective measures. The main goal of this research is to explore a new area in robotics, with an emphasis on human-robot interaction. In the previous research, we introduced a cat robot and evaluated it by interviewing many people. The results showed that physical interaction improved subjective evaluation. However, some subjects gave severe comments on the structure of the robot when they interacted with it physically. Because of the appearance of the cat robot, subjects associated with a real cat depending on their own experiences and knowledge, and then compared the robot with a real cat. We investigate the influence of a priori knowledge into subjective interpretation and evaluation of a mental commit robot. We developed a new seal robot that has the appearance of a baby harp seal. Most people did not know the harp seal exactly nor have any experience of interaction with it. Then, subjects evaluated the seal robot while interacting with it.