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. 2022 Sep 15:9:853665.
doi: 10.3389/frobt.2022.853665. eCollection 2022.

Getting acquainted: First steps for child-robot relationship formation

Mike E U Ligthart  1 , Mark A Neerincx  2   3 , Koen V Hindriks  1
Affiliations

Getting acquainted: First steps for child-robot relationship formation

Mike E U Ligthart et al. Front Robot AI. .

Abstract

In this article we discuss two studies of children getting acquainted with an autonomous socially assistive robot. The success of the first encounter is key for a sustainable long-term supportive relationship. We provide four validated behavior design elements that enable the robot to robustly get acquainted with the child. The first are five conversational patterns that allow children to comfortably self-disclose to the robot. The second is a reciprocation strategy that enables the robot to adequately respond to the children's self-disclosures. The third is a 'how to talk to me' tutorial. The fourth is a personality profile for the robot that creates more rapport and comfort between the child and the robot. The designs were validated with two user studies (N 1 = 30, N 2 = 75, 8-11 years. o. children). The results furthermore showed similarities between how children form relationships with people and how children form relationships with robots. Most importantly, self-disclosure, and specifically how intimate the self-disclosures are, is an important predictor for the success of child-robot relationship formation. Speech recognition errors reduces the intimacy and feeling similar to the robot increases the intimacy of self-disclosures.

Keywords: child-robot interaction; getting acquainted; human-robot interaction; relationship formation; self-disclosure; social robots; user study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The bumper (button) on the robot’s foot below the green light means yes and the bumper below the red light means no.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Boxplots showing the distribution of the amount of self-disclosure (A) and self-report ratings (B) for the robot using an nuanced and explicit reciprocation strategy respectively.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Child pressing one of the answer bumpers on the Nao Robot. The image is a screen shot from the camera.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Success rates of recognition and repair pipeline illustrated in a funnel graph (A) and frequency graph of how many question a speech recognition error occurs (B).
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Pie-charts representing reasons for speech recognition fails (A) participant’s responses to a follow-up question after their initial answer was incorrectly recognized (B).
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Mean self-disclosure scores (amount in ((A) and intimacy in (B)) for high and low robot arousal behavior profile and extraverts and introverts with 95% confidence intervals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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