Persuasive Technology by Motion and Emotional Expression of Pet-like Robots

Abstract

We investigate the expression method for a pet-type robot to persuade a person. There is a study in which a robot tries to perform some actions to persuade a person. We created a persuasive expression that combines several actions and emotions. The actions were classified into three meanings: "calling," "guiding," and "pointing" for the pet-type robot. For emotions, six emotion patterns were created by combining various parts of the robot such as the face and tail, voice, and speed of movement. By conducting an experiment in which 12 patterns combining movements and emotions were compared by displaying the robot using MR in a real space, we evaluated the expression methods used to persuade. The experimental results showed that emotional expressions such as "sad" and "troubled" were effective when the pet-like robot was used to encourage the subjects to throw away the trash. On the other hand, emotional expressions that gave the impression of "happy" or "angry" were not effective. In addition, there was little difference in evaluation based on the combination of behaviors.