Exploring the desirable correspondence between robot appearance and interaction types

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine the desirable correspondence between a robot appearance and its interaction. Based on Bales’ Interaction Process Analysis (IPA), the four types of interaction were extracted; Agree , Question , Suggestion , and Disagree. An experiment was conducted with a 4 (robot appearance types from the previous research) × 4 (interaction types from IPA) within-groups factorial design. In the experiment, participants took part in a task that involved selecting colors corresponding to 16 given words with a robot. After completing each task, they evaluated each robot. The evaluation results on subjects’ impressions of the robot and on the relationship between a user and a robot provided the proper and improper matches between robot appearance types and interaction types. Both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic robots were well-matched with Agree or Question while they were ill-matched with Suggestion or Disagree, caricatured robots displayed a desirable correspondence with Agree while they showed improper correspondence with Question; functional robots were compatible with all interaction types except Disagree.