A robot at home — How affect, technology commitment, and personality traits influence user experience in an intelligent robotics apartment

Previous research has shown that user features like affect, personality traits, user gender, technology commitment, perceived ease of technology use, and the feeling of being observed impact human-technology interaction (e.g., [1], [2]). To date, most studies have focused on the influence of user characteristics while interacting with single technical devices such as smart phones, audio players (e.g., [3]), or computers (e.g., [1]). To extend this work, we investigated the influence of individual user characteristics, the perceived ease of task completion, and the feeling of being observed on human-technology interaction and human-robot interaction (HRI) in particular. We explored how participants would solve seven tasks within a smart laboratory apartment. To do so, we collected video data and complemented this analysis with survey data to investigate naïve users' attitudes towards the smart home and the robot. User characteristics such as agreeableness, low negative affect, technology acceptance, low perceived competence regarding technology use, and the perceived ease of task were predictors of positive user experiences within the intelligent robotics apartment. Regression analyses revealed that a positive evaluation of the robot was predicted by positive affect and, to a lesser extent, by technology acceptance. Actual interactions with the robot were predicted by a positive evaluation of the robot and, to a lesser degree, by technology acceptance. Moreover, our findings show that user characteristics and, by tendency, the ease of task impact HRI within an intelligent apartment. Implications for future research on how to investigate the interplay of user and further task characteristics to improve HRI are discussed.