Elective project MSc. Media Technology – Fall 2019
In collaboration with Somaya Ben Allouch (Digital Life Research Group) and Mats Otten (HBO-ICT, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences).
In this pilot study, different body language styles of a Pepper robot were compared with young adults and elderly in the context of a movement exercising game. Although differences were not significant, results suggested that an encouraging style can have a positive effect on perceived enjoyment of participants, their trust and the intention to use the robot. An encouraging body language style was found to have a stronger positive effect with elderly than with young adults, on their intention to use the robot in the future. Observations showed differences in human-robot interaction concerning vocal communication. For elderly to interact with social robots on their own, speech recognition and production should be optimized and adapted to the target group. Regarding a robot’s expressive style, it is recommended to combine persuasiveness with adaptation. In order to prevent ‘overtraining’, the robot should be able to recognize the users state and adapt exercises, feedback and expressive style.
The full paper can be found here.
