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Neural Approaches to Dynamics of Signal Exchanges pp 331–345Cite as

Seniors’ Appreciation of Humanoid Robots

Part of the Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies book series (SIST,volume 151)

Abstract

This paper is positioned inside a research project investigating elders’ preferences and acceptance toward robots, in order to collect insights for the design and implementation of socially assistive robots. To this aim, short video clips of five manufactured robots (Roomba, Nao, Pepper, Ishiguro, and Erica) were shown to 100 seniors (50 Female) aged 65+ years (average age: 71.34 years, DS: ±5.60). After watching each robot video clip, seniors were administered a short questionnaire assessing their willingness to interact with robots, feelings robots aroused, and duties they would entrust to robots. The questionnaire’s scores were assessed through repeated measures ANOVA in order to ascertain statistically significant differences among seniors’ preferences. A clear uncanny valley effect was identified. The robot Pepper received significantly higher scores than Roomba, Nao, Ishiguro, and Erica on communication skills, ability to remind friendly and pleasant memories, comprehension, and ability to provide emotional support. In addition, Pepper was considered the most suitable, among the five proposed robots, in performing welfare duties for elders, children and disabled, protection and security, and front desk occupations.

Keywords

  • Assistive technologies
  • Uncanny valley effects
  • User’s requirements and expectations
  • User’s acceptance
  • Senior’s preferences

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N. 769872 (EMPATHIC) and N. 823907 (MENHIR) and from the project SIROBOTICS that received funding from Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università, e della Ricerca (MIUR), PNR 2015-2020, Decreto Direttoriale 1735 del 13 luglio 2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli,” and IIASS, Caserta, Italy

    Anna Esposito, Marialucia Cuciniello, Terry Amorese, Alda Troncone & Gennaro Cordasco

  2. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sez. di Napoli Osservatorio Vesuviano, Napoli, Italy

    Antonietta M. Esposito

  3. Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Napoli “Federico II”, Napoli, Italy

    Mauro N. Maldonato

  4. School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Carl Vogel

  5. Department of Comp. Science & Eng., WSU, Pullman, OH, USA

    Nikolaos Bourbakis

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  1. Anna Esposito
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  2. Marialucia Cuciniello
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  3. Terry Amorese
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  4. Antonietta M. Esposito
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  6. Mauro N. Maldonato
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  7. Carl Vogel
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  8. Nikolaos Bourbakis
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  9. Gennaro Cordasco
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna Esposito .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Caserta, Italy

    Prof. Anna Esposito

  2. Tecnocampus, Mataró, Spain

    Prof. Marcos Faundez-Zanuy

  3. Department of Civil, Environment, Energy and Materials Engineering, Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy

    Prof. Francesco Carlo Morabito

  4. Dipartimento di Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

    Prof. Eros Pasero

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Esposito, A. et al. (2020). Seniors’ Appreciation of Humanoid Robots. In: Esposito, A., Faundez-Zanuy, M., Morabito, F., Pasero, E. (eds) Neural Approaches to Dynamics of Signal Exchanges. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 151. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8950-4_30

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