Impact of a Gazing Mobile Robot's Various Appearances on Human's Impressions

Abstract

In recent years, mobile robots have been increasingly used in public spaces. In such environments, for humans and robots to coexist, it is important to design the appearance and behavior of robots so that they are easily accepted by people. A robot's gaze and appearance can affect people's reactions and impressions. In this study, we investigated the effect of a moving robot's gaze and the four appearance factors (head, eyes, torso, and movement mechanism) on the impression evaluation of anthropomorphism, lifelikeness, and likability. As a result, we confirmed that gaze affects each scale and confirmed interactions with specific appearance elements. These results show that the appearance and behavior of a mobile robot greatly affect the impression it gives to people.