Are Space-making Robots, Agents? Investigations on User Perception of an Embedded Robotic Surface

Novel, "space-making" robots have potential to redefine physical space and the human activities occurring in it. Categorically distinct from many robots and far removed from humanoids, space-making robots are not objects in space, not anthropomorphic, not animal-like, not mobile, but instead, integral with the physical environment, embedded in or forming walls, ceilings, floors, partitions, vehicle interiors, and building envelopes. Given their distinctiveness, space-making robots offer a novel human-machine interaction. This paper investigates whether users perceive space-making robots as agents— artificial social actors characterized by the capacity for intelligence, recognition, and intention. Results of an in-lab experiment with 11 participants and an online, between-group experiment with 120 participants show that people attribute agency metrics of intelligence, intention, recognition, cooperation, collaboration, friendliness, and welcome to our reconfigurable robotic surface embedded in a wall partition. While space-making robots may become numerous in the built environment, our results are significant, moreover, for their broader implications for conceptualizing and designing human-machine interactions.