Learning Robotics, with Robotics, by Robotics

2Learning with Robotics: Functional and Social Acceptance of Robots

2.1. Functional and social acceptance of robots

Learning with robots demands acceptance of robots in order to share several functional and social tasks with them [FRI 14]. Acceptance is a sensitive topic of investigation (e.g. [KAP 04, RIE 08, HEE 09, WEI 09, YOU 09, SAL 10, WEL 10, DE 13]) in the field of human–robot interaction (HRI) research that addresses the design, understanding and evaluation of robotic systems, which involve humans and robots interacting through communication [MUR 10]. Traditionally defined as “the demonstrable willingness within a user group to employ information technology for the tasks it is designed to support” within the field of the User Acceptance of Information Technology [DIL 01], acceptance takes on a new significance when referred to robots.

Through an attentive survey of the literature, we can identify six connotations of robot acceptance: representational, physical, behavioral, functional, social and cultural¹ [GAU 16a]. Among these dimensions, functional and social acceptances appear to play a key role for effective interaction in educational contexts [PIC 05, ZAA 08, WEI 09, FRI 14].

Functional acceptance refers to the level of perceived ease of use, usefulness [HEE 09, WEI 09], accuracy [BEE 11, SCH 13] and innovativeness [ROG 95, KAP 05] of the robot. Social acceptance covers a variety of issues such as social presence [HAM 06b, RIE 13], perceived sociability – often ...