Statistical analysis and comparison of questionnaire results of subjective evaluations of seal robot in Japan and UK

This paper describes research on mental commit robot that seeks a different direction from industrial robot, and that is not so rigidly dependent on objective measures such as accuracy and speed. The main goal of this research is to explore a new area in robotics, with an emphasis on human-robot interaction. In the previous research, we categorized robots into four categories in terms of appearance. Then, we introduced a cat robot and a seal robot, and evaluated them by interviewing many people in Japan. The results showed that physical interaction improved subjective evaluation. Moreover, a priori knowledge of a subject has much influence into subjective interpretation and evaluation of mental commit robot. In this paper, 440 subjects evaluated the seal robot, Paro by questionnaires in an exhibition at Science Museum in London, UK. This paper reports the results of statistical analysis of evaluation data, and compares them with those obtained in Japan.