#naorobot: exploring Nao discourse on Twitter

Abstract

The Nao robot from Aldebaran Robotics is a fairly popular humanoid robot. In this study, we aimed to conduct a discourse analysis around the Nao through content analysis of posts on Twitter (N=235 tweets in English). The analysis aimed to understand discourse around the robot, the usage trends of the robot, the existence of social relationships between user and robot and if there were any patterns in tweeting. Our main results show that the Nao is attributed with high anthropomorphism and social rapport and the popular usages of the robot extend to research and education but not to health and domestic applications. In conclusion, we speculate on our results obtained and present a direction for future research.