Abstract
In countries with rapidly aging populations and shrinking workforces, socially assistive robots offer a potential solution to societal development. The robots' appearance serves as a clue to the various forms of interaction, indicating how safe it may be to interact with them and what functions to expect. This study investigated how the overall appearance of 15 socially assistive robots contributes to emotional perception, including Anshin-kan (anxiety, fear, surprise), Acceptance (willingness to interact, societal benefit, likability, ease of use, and usefulness), and Social Perception (familiarity, friendliness, intelligence, and kindness). We also explored the strength to which specific appearances are associated with different functions attributed to robots. Our results revealed that some overall appearances are associated with higher Anshin-kan and acceptance. The cartoon-character and animal-like appearance were associated with positive impressions, whereas human-like robots were associated with the opposite. Furthermore, the overall appearance of robots correlates with different perceived functions, revealing that certain appearances would be more appropriate despite their association with a negative impression. For instance, while a human-like appearance showed a correlation with negative emotions, it was associated with functions such as receptionist, healthcare, and teaching. These findings inform future robot designs that focus on reducing mismatching functions with appearances, while considering anshin-kan and social acceptance in various environments and situations.
Keywords
Socially Assistive Robots; Anshin-kan; Acceptance; Social Perception
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.368
Citation
da Silva, V.H.,and Koyama, S.(2025) What a Look Can Tell? Matching Robot Overall Appearances to Roles for a Safer Robot Design, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.368
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 4 - Human-Centered AI
What a Look Can Tell? Matching Robot Overall Appearances to Roles for a Safer Robot Design
In countries with rapidly aging populations and shrinking workforces, socially assistive robots offer a potential solution to societal development. The robots' appearance serves as a clue to the various forms of interaction, indicating how safe it may be to interact with them and what functions to expect. This study investigated how the overall appearance of 15 socially assistive robots contributes to emotional perception, including Anshin-kan (anxiety, fear, surprise), Acceptance (willingness to interact, societal benefit, likability, ease of use, and usefulness), and Social Perception (familiarity, friendliness, intelligence, and kindness). We also explored the strength to which specific appearances are associated with different functions attributed to robots. Our results revealed that some overall appearances are associated with higher Anshin-kan and acceptance. The cartoon-character and animal-like appearance were associated with positive impressions, whereas human-like robots were associated with the opposite. Furthermore, the overall appearance of robots correlates with different perceived functions, revealing that certain appearances would be more appropriate despite their association with a negative impression. For instance, while a human-like appearance showed a correlation with negative emotions, it was associated with functions such as receptionist, healthcare, and teaching. These findings inform future robot designs that focus on reducing mismatching functions with appearances, while considering anshin-kan and social acceptance in various environments and situations.