Description

Picture describing the main idea of the HOBBIT project. Present robots are seen as ugly and uncanny. Usability is low and, hence, they are not accepted, which leads to no enduring relationships. Using results from the Helper Theory we propose the HOBBIT robot that shall be likeable and attractive and has imperfect yet predictable behaviour. The user will learn about imperfections and help the robot, while otherwise the robot helps the user. This mutual care brings the benefit that the self-efficacy of the user nicreases and she thinks the robot is Awesome.

Mutual Care framework in Social Assistive Robotics

Current approaches in social assistive robotics have:

• Insufficient concepts to achieve long-term relationships between humans and robots
• A insufficient understanding of the complex nature of interpersonal relationships
• Problems to define the position of robots in already existing social enviroments

What real people actually do in relationships

• They influence each other
• They share thoughts and feelings
• They engage in activities together

Applied to human-robot interaction research:

The design focus shifts from the cognitive and emotional effects elicited by the robot to the different roles which can be taken by humans and robots

Results

Taken socological and psychological explanations into account we derived the Mutual-Care concept whose idea is simple:

User and robot take care of each other
Social robot that is designed following the Mutual-Care paradigm should encourage the user to help and care for the imperfect robot. It might be easier to expect and accept assistance from a robot if the user can also assist the machine in certain situations

Outlook

Studies at the Akademie für Altersforschung am Haus der Barmherzigkeit:

• Older persons are asked to physically model ideal "little helpers" which are nice to live with at home.
• Investigation of the mental models (=ideas/inner images) they are using during the creative process
• The results of this studies will help us to deepen the theoretical background of the Mutual-Care concept.