What Would You Like to Drink?

Abstract

In this paper, we address the question of how specific barman/robot interaction styles can affect users' engagement. To this extent, we implemented a barman-robot called "BRILLO" with neutral, entertaining, and emphatic behavioral style suggesting drinks and taking orders from customers. Results show that a robot's interaction style may determine users' level of engagement. Indeed, interacting with an emphatic robot that modulates its behavior according to the user's one is more effective than a neutral robot in improving engagement and positive emotions in public-service contexts. Moreover, users experienced more positive emotions when they perceived BRILLO as safe and as more similar to a human.