Human Security Robot Interaction and Anthropomorphism

Abstract

The rapid growth in the use of security robots makes it critical to understand human interaction with them. This study investigated the impacts of the anthropomorphic nature of robot types and interaction scenarios on human-security robot interaction through a 3 × 2 between-subjects experiment with 60 participants. Participants were randomly assigned to interact with one of three security robots (Knightscope, RAMSEE, or Pepper) in either an indoor hallway or an outdoor parking lot scenario. Results indicate that there were significant differences between the Pepper robot and the Knightscope robot. The human-like robot Pepper was rated higher with regard to anthropomorphism, ability, integrity, and participants’ desire to use than the mechanical-type robot Knightscope. However, no such significant differences were found with the character-like robot RAMSEE. Contrary to the author’s hypothesis, the interaction scenario did not influence participants’ acceptance or perceptions of the robots. These findings offer valuable insights for the future design and deployment of security robots.