Collaborative Research: HCC: Medium: Designing Social Companion Robots for Long-term Interaction

社交机器人有可能改善许多人的日常生活。他们可以充当孩子们的家教。他们可以为老年人的日常生活任务提供帮助。社交机器人也可能为那些感到孤独和孤立的人提供陪伴。尽管社交机器人前景看好，但它们目前还不能在家庭或研究环境中维持积极的长期互动。有必要进行研究，以更好地理解和设计长期使用、持续数月或数年的社交机器人。该项目旨在克服障碍，改善人与机器人的长期互动。研究团队将设计帮助建立和维持与人的关系的机器人。该项目将专注于为8至10岁的儿童开发一款社交机器人阅读伴侣。该机器人将与儿童及其家人建立联系。它将参加各种家庭活动。这些活动可以包括机器人指导的阅读、机器人照看和机器人促进的家庭娱乐。一组不同的家庭将共同设计一款长期家庭使用的社交机器人。这项活动将在机器人设计过程中向家庭和社区发出声音。这项研究将促进社交机器人长期互动设计方面的知识。这些进步将使社交机器人能够为人们的日常生活提供有价值的帮助。研究人员和开发社交机器人的公司面临着许多挑战。一个主要的挑战是维持与社交机器人的长期互动。这些机器人在改善学习、服务互动和帮助人们方面具有巨大的潜力。当这种新鲜感随着机器人的功能逐渐消失后，用户会感到失望，并经常停止使用机器人。研究团队将共同设计、开发和测试一种家用自主社交机器人。社交机器人的重点是建立和维护人际关系。主要目标是超越最初对使用新技术的兴奋的长期互动。作为第一步，研究小组将进行一系列研究。这些研究将有助于理解家庭生态系统和对家庭例行公事的破坏。这些联合设计研究将提供一个“机器人-家庭整合计划”。该计划将为机器人融入家庭例行公事提供必要的结构。通过了解这些常规，研究团队将设计和开发家庭机器人活动。这些活动可以包括机器人指导的阅读、机器人照看和机器人促进的家庭娱乐。社交机器人的设计将利用社会负担能力，使机器人能够成功地融入现有的家庭生活。在个体活动测试后，将集成到单个自主机器人中。这项研究的最后阶段将测试家庭中的自主社交机器人同伴。重点将放在家庭-机器人人与人之间的连接上，以便长期使用和接受。该机器人的家庭现场部署将持续长达六个月。这一奖励反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Social robots have the potential to improve the everyday lives of many people. They may serve as tutors for children. They could provide help for older adults with daily living tasks. Social robots may also provide companionship for those who feel lonely and isolated. Despite the promise of social robots, they are not currently capable of sustaining positive long-term interactions in the home or in research settings. There is a need for research to better understand and design social robots for long-term use lasting months or years. This project seeks to overcome barriers and improve long-term human-robot interactions. The research team will design robots that help to build and maintain relationships with people. The project will focus on the development of a social robot reading companion for children aged 8 to 10. The robot will build connections with children and their families. It will take part in a variety of family activities. These activities may include robot-guided reading, robot caretaking, and robot-facilitated family recreation. A diverse set of families will co-design a social robot for long-term home use. This activity will give a voice to families and communities in the robot design process. This research will advance the knowledge of social robot design for long-term interactions. These advancements will enable social robots to provide valuable help to people in their daily lives.Researchers and companies who develop social robots face many challenges. A primary challenge is sustaining long-term interactions with social robots. These robots have great potential to improve learning, service interactions, and help people. Users become disappointed after the novelty wears off with the capabilities of robots and often stop using the robots. The research team will co-design, develop, and test an autonomous social robot for home use. The focus of the social robot is on building and maintaining inter-personal relationships. The primary goal is on long-term interactions that move beyond initial excitement around the use of novel technology. As a first step, the research team will perform a series of studies. The studies will help to understand the family ecosystem and disruptions to family routines. These co-design studies will provide a "robot-family integration plan." This plan will provide the needed structure for robot integration into family routines. By understanding these routines, the research team will design and develop family-robot activities. These activities may include robot-guided reading, robot caretaking, and robot-facilitated family recreation. The social robot design will leverage social affordances that allow for a successful robot integration into existing family routines. After individual activity testing, integration will occur into a single autonomous robot. The final phase of this research will test an autonomous social robot companion in homes. The focus will be on family-robot inter-personal connections for long-term use and acceptance. The in-home field deployments of the robot will be up to six months in duration.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.