Human, Animal, or Machine? A Design-Based Exploration of Social Robot Embodiment with a Creative Toolkit

Amelie Voges, Mary Ellen Foster, Emily S. Cross

Abstract: To facilitate easy, seamless, and dynamic interactions between humans and social robots, it is important that the robot’s physical appearance gives clear cues to its affordances. However, little is known about what underlying concepts and assumptions shape laypeople’s perception and understanding of different robotic embodiments. To explore what robot-inexperienced users expect robots in different application domains to look like, we drew on Research through Design principles to pilot a tangible design kit with which laypeople could prototype robot designs. 27 participants with no background in robotics were asked to design robots for four different application domains. These participants were then further interrogated about their design choices in structured qualitative interviews. The resulting designs primarily ranged from mechanical to humanoid in appearance, though several animal-like entertainment robots were also created. The inductive thematic analysis of participant interviews revealed complex opinions on anthropomorphism in robotic designs and stressed social robots’ potential for customization and accessibility. Our findings provide qualitative insight into the beliefs that underlie laypeople’s understanding of robotic design in different contexts. Furthermore, we piloted a design toolkit that allows laypeople at any level of creative ability to design and critically reflect on robotic concepts and embodiments.