scholarly journals Social Robot Co-Design Canvases: A Participatory Design Framework

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Minja Axelsson ◽  
Raquel Oliveira ◽  
Mattia Racca ◽  
Ville Kyrki

Design teams of social robots are often multidisciplinary, due to the broad knowledge from different scientific domains needed to develop such complex technology. However, tools to facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration are scarce. We introduce a framework for the participatory design of social robots and corresponding canvas tool for participatory design. The canvases can be applied in different parts of the design process to facilitate collaboration between experts of different fields, as well as to incorporate prospective users of the robot into the design process. We investigate the usability of the proposed canvases with two social robot design case studies: a robot that played games online with teenage users and a librarian robot that guided users at a public library. We observe through participants’ feedback that the canvases have the advantages of (1) providing structure, clarity, and a clear process to the design; (2) encouraging designers and users to share their viewpoints to progress toward a shared one; and (3) providing an educational and enjoyable design experience for the teams.

2022 ◽  
Vol 132 ◽  
pp. 01017
Author(s):  
Sangjip Ha ◽  
Eun-ju Yi ◽  
In-jin Yoo ◽  
Do-Hyung Park

This study intends to utilize eye tracking for the appearance of a robot, which is one of the trends in social robot design research. We suggest a research model with the entire stage from the consumer gaze response to the perceived consumer beliefs and further their attitudes toward social robots. Specifically, the eye tracking indicators used in this study are Fixation, First Visit, Total Viewed Stay Time, and Number of Revisits. Also, Areas of Interest are selected to the face, eyes, lips, and full-body of a social robot. In the first relationship, we check which element of the social robot design the consumer’s gaze stays on, and how the gaze on each element affects consumer beliefs. The consumer beliefs are considered as the social robot’s emotional expression, humanness, and facial prominence. Second, we explore whether the formation of consumer attitudes is possible through two major channels. One is the path that the consumer beliefs formed through the gaze influence their attitude, and the other is the path that the consumer gaze response directly influences the attitude. This study made a theoretical contribution in that it finally analysed the path of consumer attitude formation from various angles by linking the gaze tracking reaction and consumer perception. In addition, it is expected to make practical contributions in the suggestion of specific design insights that can be used as a reference for designing social robots.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Elin A. Björling ◽  
Belinda Louie ◽  
Patriya Wiesmann ◽  
Annie Camey Kuo

Background: There are 4.9 million English Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States. Only 2% of educators are trained to support these vulnerable students. Social robots show promise for language acquisition and may provide valuable support for students, especially as we return to needing smaller classes due to COVID-19. While cultural responsiveness increases gains for ELLs, little is known about the design of culturally responsive child–robot interactions. Method: Therefore, using a participatory design approach, we conducted an exploratory study with 24 Spanish-speaking ELLs at a Pacific Northwest elementary school. As cultural informants, students participated in a 15-min, robot-led, small group story discussion followed by a post-interaction feedback session. We then conducted reflexive critiques with six ELL teachers who reviewed the group interactions to provide further interpretation on design feature possibilities and potential interactions with the robot. Results: Students found the social robot engaging, but many were hesitant to converse with the robot. During post-interaction dialogue students articulated the specific ways in which the social robot appearance and behavior could be modified to help them feel more comfortable. Teachers postulated that the social robot could be designed to engage students in peer-to-peer conversations. Teachers also recognized the ELLs verbosity when discussing their experiences with the robot and suggested such interactions could stimulate responsiveness from students. Conclusion: Cultural responsiveness is a key component to successful education in ELLs. However, integrating appropriate, cultural responsiveness into robot interactions may require participants as cultural informants to ensure the robot behaviors and interactions are situated in that educational community. Utilizing a participatory approach to engage ELLs in design decisions for social robots is a promising way to gather culturally responsive requirements to inform successful child–robot interactions.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Ryan ◽  
◽  
Megan Dove-Steinkamp ◽  
Suzanne Nobrega ◽  
Lize Tibirica ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Konstantin Aal ◽  
Anne Weibert ◽  
Kai Schubert ◽  
Mary-Ann Sprenger ◽  
Thomas Von Rekowski

The case study presented in this chapter discusses the design and implementation of an online platform, “come_NET,” in the context of intercultural computer clubs in Germany. This tool was built in close cooperation with the children and adult computer club participants. It was designed to foster the sharing of ideas and experiences across distances, support collaboration, and make skills and expertise accessible to others in the local neighborhood contexts. In particular, the participatory-design process involving the children in the computer clubs fostered a profound understanding of the platform structure and functionalities. The study results show how younger children in particular were able to benefit, as the closed nature of the platform enabled them to gather experience as users of social media, but in a safe and controlled environment.


Author(s):  
Sultan Alyahya ◽  
Ohoud Almughram

Abstract The integration of user-centered design (UCD) activities into agile information systems development has become more popular recently. Despite the fact that there are many ways the merging of UCD activities into agile development can be carried out, it has been widely recognized that coordinating design activities with development activities is one of the most common problems, especially in distributed environments where designers, developers and users are spread over several sites. The main approach to coordinate UCD activities with distributed agile development is the use of informal methods (e.g. communication through using video conference tools). In addition to the temporal, geographical and socio-cultural barriers associated with this type of methods, a major limitation is a lack of awareness of how UCD activities and development activities affect each other. Furthermore, some agile project management tools are integrated with design platforms but fail to provide the necessary coordination that helps team members understand how the design and development activities affect their daily work. This research aims to support the effective management of integrating UCD activities into distributed agile development by (i) identifying the key activity dependencies between UX design teams and development teams during distributed UCD/agile development and (ii) designing a computer-based system to provide coordination support through managing these activity dependencies. In order to achieve these objectives, two case studies are carried out. Our findings revealed 10 main dependencies between UCD design teams and development teams as shown by six types of activity. In addition, the participatory design approach shows that developing a computer-based system to manage seven of these selected dependencies is achievable.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1211
Author(s):  
Matthijs H. J. Smakman ◽  
Koen Smit ◽  
Lotte Buser ◽  
Tom Monshouwer ◽  
Nigel van Putten ◽  
...  

Young pediatric patients who undergo venipuncture or capillary blood sampling often experience high levels of pain and anxiety. This often results in distressed young patients and their parents, increased treatment times, and a higher workload for healthcare professionals. Social robots are a new and promising tool to mitigate children’s pain and anxiety. This study aims to purposefully design and test a social robot for mitigating stress and anxiety during blood draw of children. We first programmed a social robot based on the requirements expressed by experienced healthcare professionals during focus group sessions. Next, we designed a randomized controlled experiment in which the social robot was applied as a distraction method to measure its capacity to mitigate pain and anxiety in children during blood draw in a children’s hospital setting. Children who interacted with the robot showed significantly lower levels of anxiety before actual blood collection, compared to children who received regular medical treatment. Children in the middle classes of primary school (aged 6–9) seemed especially sensitive to the robot’s ability to mitigate pain and anxiety before blood draw. Children’s parents overall expressed strong positive attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of the social robot for mitigating pain and anxiety. The results of this study demonstrate that social robots can be considered a new and effective tool for lowering children’s anxiety prior to the distressing medical procedure of blood collection.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Daniele Giansanti

This commentary aims to address the field of social robots both in terms of the global situation and research perspectives. It has four polarities. First, it revisits the evolutions in robotics, which, starting from collaborative robotics, has led to the diffusion of social robots. Second, it illustrates the main fields in the employment of social robots in rehabilitation and assistance in the elderly and handicapped and in further emerging sectors. Third, it takes a look at the future directions of the research development both in terms of clinical and technological aspects. Fourth, it discusses the opportunities and limits, starting from the development and clinical use of social robots during the COVID-19 pandemic to the increase of ethical discussion on their use.


Author(s):  
Andrew P. Sabelhaus ◽  
Hao Ji ◽  
Patrick Hylton ◽  
Yakshu Madaan ◽  
ChanWoo Yang ◽  
...  

The Underactuated Lightweight Tensegrity Robotic Assistive Spine (ULTRA Spine) project is an ongoing effort to create a compliant, cable-driven, 3-degree-of-freedom, underactuated tensegrity core for quadruped robots. This work presents simulations and preliminary mechanism designs of that robot. Design goals and the iterative design process for an ULTRA Spine prototype are discussed. Inverse kinematics simulations are used to develop engineering characteristics for the robot, and forward kinematics simulations are used to verify these parameters. Then, multiple novel mechanism designs are presented that address challenges for this structure, in the context of design for prototyping and assembly. These include the spine robot’s multiple-gear-ratio actuators, spine link structure, spine link assembly locks, and the multiple-spring cable compliance system.


Work ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 5099-5107
Author(s):  
Conne Mara Bazley ◽  
Annelise De Jong ◽  
Peter Vink

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