Investigating social acceptance of infant feeding support robots

• Project/Area Number: 16K12505
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Intelligent robotics
• Research Institution: Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International
• Principal Investigator: Shiomi Masahiro 株式会社国際電気通信基礎技術研究所, 知能ロボティクス研究所, 室長 (90455577)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2018)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,510,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥810,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000); Fiscal Year 2016: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
• Keywords: 保育支援ロボット / ヒューマンロボットインタラクション / 授乳支援

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We developed a prototype of a feeding support robot and investigated the perceived feelings from adult participants. The experiment results showed that showing conversation between a social robot and an arm robot significantly increased the perceived likability more than only using the arm robot for a feeding support. Moreover, we investigate social acceptance for an infant feeding support robot by comparing different appearance via WEB-based questionnaires; the results showed that the human-like appearance is more acceptable than arm-like appearance for an infant feeding support.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究を通じて，人々の生活支援を行うロボットが自身の社会的受容性を高めるために，人のような外観を用いるだけではなく，ロボット同士の会話を見せることが有用であることが示された．会話を見せる行為は必ずしもタスクの達成に必要なものではないが，人間は社会的な振る舞いを見せる存在に対してより高い受容性を示すことを示しており，今後人々と関わりあうロボットの振る舞い設計において有用な知見を得ることができた．

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Research conducted in the Agent Interaction Design Lab (2018)
  • Author(s): Masahiro Shiomi
  • Journal Title: Impact Volume: 4 Pages: 12-15
  • DOI: 10.21820/23987073.2018.11.12
  • Open Access
• [Journal Article] ChiCaRo: Tele-presence Robot for Interacting with Babies and Toddlers (2018)
  • Author(s): Kasumi Abe, Masahiro Shiomi, Yachao Pei, Tingyi Zhang, Narumitsu Ikeda, and Takayuki Nagai
  • Journal Title: Advanced Robotics Volume: 32 Pages: 176-190
  • DOI: 10.1080/01691864.2018.1434014
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Social acceptance toward a childcare support robot system: web-based cultural differences investigation and a field study in Japan (2018)
  • Author(s): Masahiro Shiomi, Norihiro Hagita
  • Journal Title: Advanced Robotics Volume: 31 Pages: 727-738
  • DOI: 10.1080/01691864.2017.1345322
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] System Supporting Self-Motivated Video-Viewing Stops for Children (2018)
  • Author(s): Mitsuhiko Kimoto, Tomoki Nakahata, Masahiro Shiomi, Takamasa Iio, Ivan Tanev, Katsunori Shimohara
  • Journal Title: SICE Journal of Control, Measurement, and System Integration Volume: 11 Pages: 48-54
  • DOI: 10.9746/jcmsi.11.48
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Presentation] Calibrating Depth Sensors for Pedestrian Tracking Using a Robot as a Movable and Localized Landmark (2018)
  • Author(s): Mitsuhiko Kimoto, Masahiro Shiomi, Takamasa Iio, Katsunori Shimohara, Norihiro Hagita
  • Organizer: The 2018 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC2018)
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Estimating Children's Characteristics by Observing their Classroom Activities (2018)
  • Author(s): Masahiro Shiomi, Tsuyoshi Komatsubara, Thomas Kaczmarek, Takayuki Kanda, Hiroshi Ishiguro
  • Organizer: The Asia Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association (APSIPA2018)
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] ロボット同士の会話を通じた情報提供が生活支援タスクの印象に与える影響 (2018)
  • Author(s): 木本充彦, 飯尾尊優, 塩見昌裕, 下原勝憲, 萩田紀博
  • Organizer: ヒューマンインタフェースシンポジウム2018
• [Presentation] 幼児に対する読み聞かせにおける複数ロボットの利用法による効果 (2017)
  • Author(s): 田村 優美子, 木本 充彦, 塩見 昌裕, 飯尾 尊優, Ivan Tanev, 下原 勝憲, 萩田 紀博
  • Organizer: 第44回 知能システムシンポジウム
  • Place of Presentation: 東京，日本
  • Year and Date: 2017-03-13
• [Presentation] Effects of a Listener Robot with Children in Storytelling (2017)
  • Author(s): Yumiko Tamura, Mitsuhiko Kimoto, Masahiro Shiomi, Takamasa Iio, Katsunori Shimohara, Norihiro Hagit
  • Organizer: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Human Agent Interaction
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] Estimation of Child Personality for Child-Robot Interaction (2017)
  • Author(s): Kasumi Abe, Yuki Hamada, Takayuki Nagai, Masahiro Shiomi, and Takashi Omori
  • Organizer: 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] ロボットとの遊び行動分析に基づく子どもの性格推定 (2017)
  • Author(s): 阿部 香澄，濱田 侑輝，長井 隆行，塩見 昌裕，大森 隆司
  • Organizer: 日本ロボット学会第35回学術講演会講演論文集
• [Presentation] 読み聞かせにおける聞き手ロボットの存在がもたらす影響 (2017)
  • Author(s): 田村 優美子，木本 充彦，塩見 昌裕，飯尾 尊優，Ivan Tanev，下原 勝憲，萩田 紀博
  • Organizer: 日本ロボット学会第35回学術講演会講演論文集
• [Presentation] I'm Scared": Little Children Reject Robots (2016)
  • Author(s): Masahiro Shiomi, Kasumi Abe, Yachao Pei, Narumitsu Ikeda, Takayuki Nagai,
  • Organizer: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Human Agent Interaction
  • Place of Presentation: Biopolis, Singapore
  • Year and Date: 2016-10-04
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] ChiCaRo: Tele-presence Robot for Interacting with Babies and Toddlers (2016)
  • Author(s): Masahiro Shiomi, Kasumi Abe, Yachao Pei, Tingyi Zhang, Narumitsu Ikeda, Takayuki Nagai
  • Organizer: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Human Agent Interaction
  • Place of Presentation: Biopolis, Singapore
  • Year and Date: 2016-10-04
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Presentation] ロボットを怖がる乳幼児の観察 (2016)
  • Author(s): 塩見 昌裕，阿部 香澄，裴 雅超，池田 成満，長井 隆行
  • Organizer: 日本ロボット学会第34回学術講演会講演論文集
  • Place of Presentation: 山形，日本
  • Year and Date: 2016-09-07
• [Presentation] 子育て支援ロボット「ChiCaRo」の開発 (2016)
  • Author(s): 塩見 昌裕，阿部 香澄，裴 雅超，張 亭，池田 成満，長井 隆行
  • Organizer: 日本ロボット学会第34回学術講演会講演論文集,
  • Place of Presentation: 山形，日本
  • Year and Date: 2016-09-07
• [Remarks] Masahiro Shiomi
  • URL: http://masahiroshiomi.jp/