Ice-Breakers, Turn-Takers and Fun-Makers: Exploring Robots for Groups with Teenagers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gillet, Sarah, Winkle, Katie, Belgiovine, Giulia, Leite, Iolanda
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Gillet, Sarah
Winkle, Katie
Belgiovine, Giulia
Leite, Iolanda
author_facet Gillet, Sarah
Winkle, Katie
Belgiovine, Giulia
Leite, Iolanda
contents Successful, enjoyable group interactions are important in public and personal contexts, especially for teenagers whose peer groups are important for self-identity and self-esteem. Social robots seemingly have the potential to positively shape group interactions, but it seems difficult to effect such impact by designing robot behaviors solely based on related (human interaction) literature. In this article, we take a user-centered approach to explore how teenagers envisage a social robot "group assistant". We engaged 16 teenagers in focus groups, interviews, and robot testing to capture their views and reflections about robots for groups. Over the course of a two-week summer school, participants co-designed the action space for such a robot and experienced working with/wizarding it for 10+ hours. This experience further altered and deepened their insights into using robots as group assistants. We report results regarding teenagers' views on the applicability and use of a robot group assistant, how these expectations evolved throughout the study, and their repeat interactions with the robot. Our results indicate that each group moves on a spectrum of need for the robot, reflected in use of the robot more (or less) for ice-breaking, turn-taking, and fun-making as the situation demanded.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_06718
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ice-Breakers, Turn-Takers and Fun-Makers: Exploring Robots for Groups with Teenagers
Gillet, Sarah
Winkle, Katie
Belgiovine, Giulia
Leite, Iolanda
Robotics
Human-Computer Interaction
Successful, enjoyable group interactions are important in public and personal contexts, especially for teenagers whose peer groups are important for self-identity and self-esteem. Social robots seemingly have the potential to positively shape group interactions, but it seems difficult to effect such impact by designing robot behaviors solely based on related (human interaction) literature. In this article, we take a user-centered approach to explore how teenagers envisage a social robot "group assistant". We engaged 16 teenagers in focus groups, interviews, and robot testing to capture their views and reflections about robots for groups. Over the course of a two-week summer school, participants co-designed the action space for such a robot and experienced working with/wizarding it for 10+ hours. This experience further altered and deepened their insights into using robots as group assistants. We report results regarding teenagers' views on the applicability and use of a robot group assistant, how these expectations evolved throughout the study, and their repeat interactions with the robot. Our results indicate that each group moves on a spectrum of need for the robot, reflected in use of the robot more (or less) for ice-breaking, turn-taking, and fun-making as the situation demanded.
title Ice-Breakers, Turn-Takers and Fun-Makers: Exploring Robots for Groups with Teenagers
topic Robotics
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.06718