Table of variables
The Table of variables is a tool intended for designers, researchers and professionals in the field of Human-Robot Interaction. The main purpose of the tool is the agile consultation of the key variables influencing the acceptance of robots, especially in relation to assistive and social robots for elderly and frail users. The table also allows to visualize the relationships and the weight of each construct on acceptability and therefore on the effectiveness of the robotic technology for the reference user and context. The list of variables is not exhaustive and it only includes the main ones.
The Table of variables shows a list of the main variables numbered in ascending order starting from those related to the functional dimensions of the HRI, followed by hedonic, social and contextual factors. The numbering does not indicate the importance or the level of influence of the constructs on the final use of robotic technology but serves as an identification code for the single variable. The code and the abbreviation of the variables are shown in the table: together with the four chromatic variations they make the identification of the construct (utilitarian, hedonic, social and contextual) more agile and easier. The table is read from left to right, starting from the USE box (i.e. the actual acceptability) which is the ideal center for all the variables. Both in horizontal and vertical direction, the proximity to the origin corresponds to a greater influence on the use. The position of the variables also indicates their reciprocal influences: in the horizontal direction, the variables furthest from the USE box generally represent external or predictive variables that can influence the values of the dependent ones; in the vertical direction, similarly, the variables furthest from the origin are predictive or influence the more internal ones. The representation has no statistical or quantitative value but aims at a qualitative identification of the main constructs of acceptability and their inter-relationships.
Explore the key elements to
design acceptable robotics
"Acceptance is the demonstrable willingness to employ technology for the tasks it is designed to support."
The effectiveness of assistive robots depends on their acceptance by the elderly (Turchetti et al., 2011). “User acceptance can be defined as the demonstrable willingness within a user group to employ information technology for the tasks it is designed to support.” (Dillon, 2001). There are many scientific studies on the acceptability of new assistive robotic technologies, based on different evaluation methods. Since the nineties of the last century, scholars theorized the acceptance of technology, addressing this question first from the point of view of the perceived attributes of innovations (Rogers, 1995), then through the evaluation of usability in Human-Computer Interaction (Nielsen, 1993) until reaching a direct link between usability and acceptability (Shackel, 1991). As Heerink et al. (2009) asserted, many methods have been used, starting from the heuristic ones (Clarkson et al., 2007), to the tests on prototypes (Yanco et al., 2004), to the measurement of physiological feedback (Dautenhahn and Werry, 2002) until an adaptation of the TAM – Technology Acceptance model (Davis, 1989).
The increasing complexity of human-robot interactions means that the experience with these products depends not only on functional or hedonic aspects but, above all, on emotional and social elements: this increases the interest in the development of robots with similar characteristics and qualities to human beings, who allow a more fluid and intuitive interaction and encourage the establishment of meaningful relationships with robots (Alenljung et al., 2018).
The construts that influence the acceptance of technology are many. It is also known that the first positive emotions and attitudes of people towards robots can greatly influence the interaction and experience with them (Broadbent et al., 2010). The perceptions towards robots are useful for predicting acceptance (Heerink et al., 2010; Stafford et al., 2010). The technology acceptance models were originally developed in the context of Human-Computer Interaction and, in most cases, used for the evaluation of a digital interface or new technologies in the workplace and industry. Many scholars, however, worked hard to convert the constructs and reliability of these methods in the context of HRI.
In summary, the research on the acceptability of assistive robots can be divided into two macro-sections: functional acceptance, in terms of utility and ease of use (Forlizzi et al., 2004; Pineau et al., 2003; Montemerlo et al., 2006; De Ruyter et al., 2005; Looije et al., 2006) and social acceptance, which includes expressiveness, communication skills, anthropomorphizing and the emotional relationship that is established between individual and robot/interface (Wada & Shibata, 2007; Bickmore et al., 2005). In literature there are many variables for evaluating the interaction, the User Experience and the acceptability of robotics.