More Mechanical- Versus More Humanoid-Looking Assistance Robots: How Do Users Rate their Capabilities? A Study of Younger Versus Older Users

Kurzfassung

This experimental study examines the acceptance of younger (vs. older) users for personal robot assistance in different task areas and compares them for robots with different holistic designs. Based on the German version of the "Assistance Preference Checklist" for robot assistance acceptance, N = 70 younger participants as future users of social robots assessed their prospective acceptance for robot assistance for six different fields of service. In a balanced study design with repeated measurements, two different types of robots were presented. The types of robots represented the two stages of the experimental variable "holistic design" (mechanical = PR2 vs. humanoid = Pepper). Age-specific differences in ratings were compared with a sample of N = 47 older subjects. In line with expectations, the younger participants showed openness for robot assistance and selective acceptance for different fields of service. The design of the robot had a stronger influence on ratings of younger users compared to older users. Basically it was found that younger participants attributed a higher capability to robots in the categories "personal care" and "housework" (Pepper) as well as "leisure activities" (Pepper and PR2) than older participants. The study results enable a more differentiated, user-based design of assistance robots.