What is a robot companion - friend, assistant or butler?

TLDR

The study explored people’s perceptions and attitudes toward a future home robot companion. The authors employed a human‑centred approach using questionnaires and interaction trials with 28 adults. Most participants favored a robot companion as an assistant or servant, preferred household tasks over child or animal care, valued humanlike communication but not appearance or behaviour, and few desired a friend role, with findings informing future development directions.

Abstract

The study presented in this paper explored people's perceptions and attitudes towards the idea of a future robot companion for the home. A human-centred approach was adopted using questionnaires and human-robot interaction trials to derive data from 28 adults. Results indicated that a large proportion of participants were in favour of a robot companion and saw the potential role as being an assistant, machine or servant. Few wanted a robot companion to be a friend. Household tasks were preferred to child/animal care tasks. Humanlike communication was desirable for a robot companion, whereas humanlike behaviour and appearance were less essential. Results are discussed in relation to future research directions for the development of robot companions.