Baby-Robot Interaction: An Observational Analysis of Young Children’s Interactions with Robot Cleaners
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Park, Hansul
Neumann, Michelle M
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Odense, Denmark
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Despite the growing presence of service robots in homes, little is known about the nature of baby-robot interactions, particularly with mobile robots such as robot cleaners. This paper is exploratory research that contributes to larger investigations of baby-robot interaction. We use the term ‘baby’ as it is a common term used in different languages to refer to infants and toddlers, and most of the individuals in our study were approximately 4 to12 months old. We analysed 34 videos from YouTube displaying babies and robot cleaners interacting in domestic environments, using the word ‘baby’ as one of the key search terms. Physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and verbal behaviours displayed by the babies while interacting with these robots were described and classified. Baby-Robot Interactions with Roomba robots mostly occurred in general areas of the house. Some of the children displayed negative reactions towards the robot. Safety concerns include exposure to machine noise and potential risk of physical injury, for example, if children fall off the robot cleaner. Future empirically designed studies of baby- robot interactions are needed to investigate these child-safety concerns.
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Social Robotics: 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Odense, Denmark, October 23–26, 2024, Proceedings, Part II
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Sandoval, EB; Park, H; Neumann, MM, Baby-Robot Interaction: An Observational Analysis of Young Children’s Interactions with Robot Cleaners, Social Robotics: 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Odense, Denmark, October 23–26, 2024, Proceedings, Part II, 2025, pp. 250-260