The influence of robot design on acceptance of social robots

Human-robot interaction (HRI) is a rapidly growing area of research and the important factors of the relationship between robots and the people who use them are still being determined. In the present research, we tried to ascertain if robot appearance influenced people's preference for, interest in, and communication with particular robots. To this aim, 18 college students were asked to interact with 5 different robots, answer an investigator-designed questionnaire, and complete an adapted PHIT-40 scale for each robot. Results suggest that regardless of the actual interaction with robots, participants seem to prefer robots that resemble animals or humans over those that are intended to represent an imaginary creature or do not resemble a creature at all. Results are discussed based on social-robot application and design features.