Design and evaluation of the personality trait extraversion of a shopping robot

Abstract

A service robot should provide useful features, be easy to use and should have a friendly and accommodating behavior as social actor. This paper focuses on the last mentioned socio-emotional requirements. A marketable shopping robot was - based on the current state of research - equipped with an extraverted personality. The expectation was that this will improve the social acceptability of the robot. Based on an experimental field study (n=194 subjects) in a home improvement store this could be confirmed: The extravert designed shopping robot was perceived as more extraverted in comparison to the conventional version. Furthermore, the extraverted shopping robot received a higher social acceptance by the users than the conventional shopping robot.