Feeding the Coffee Habit: A Longitudinal Study of a Robo-Barista

TL;DR

This longitudinal study investigates how user perceptions and interactions with a Robo-Barista evolve over time, revealing factors influencing trust, satisfaction, and robot acceptance in real-world settings.

Contribution

It provides novel insights into long-term human-robot interaction dynamics and identifies key factors affecting user trust and satisfaction in a service robot context.

Findings

Perceived trust and prior attitudes significantly influence robot likeability.

Interaction features and user attributes predict user satisfaction.

Qualitative insights offer lessons for future long-term HRI studies.

Abstract

Studying Human-Robot Interaction over time can provide insights into what really happens when a robot becomes part of people's everyday lives. "In the Wild" studies inform the design of social robots, such as for the service industry, to enable them to remain engaging and useful beyond the novelty effect and initial adoption. This paper presents an "In the Wild" experiment where we explored the evolution of interaction between users and a Robo-Barista. We show that perceived trust and prior attitudes are both important factors associated with the usefulness, adaptability and likeability of the Robo-Barista. A combination of interaction features and user attributes are used to predict user satisfaction. Qualitative insights illuminated users' Robo-Barista experience and contribute to a number of lessons learned for future long-term studies.