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An Architecture for Transforming Companion Robots into Psychosocial Robotic Surrogates

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Human-Computer Interaction (HCII 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14013))

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Abstract

The issues associated with remote work-life balance became apparent during the quarantine protocols that were put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to additional stress associated with working from home when under quarantine. The start of the 2022–23 flu season saw the newly coined term tripledemic being used to describe the COVID-19, RSV and flu diseases affecting large portions of the population. This indicates there will always be a challenge to reduce the stressors associated with work-from-home arrangements – especially in households with at-risk family members. A possible solution to this problem is the use of robotic avatars, which is a “system that can transport your senses, actions and presence to a remote location in real time and feel as if you’re actually there.” Typical applications of robotic avatars include disaster relief in dangerous places; avatar tourism; remote teaching; remote collaborations and remote surgeries. This paper investigates the idea of a psychosocial robotic surrogate by using a companion robot to address issues that occur in psychosocial contexts. We address these psychosocial aspects of the human-robot relationship by having the companion robot act as a psychosocial surrogate instead of as a physical avatar. The paper discusses previous work on using avatars in social contexts; the architecture we have developed to facilitate psychosocial robotic surrogacy using a companion robot; and the results obtained so fare with the architecture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, P.O. Box 64, Bridgetown, Barbados

    Curtis L. Gittens

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  1. Curtis L. Gittens
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Correspondence to Curtis L. Gittens .

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  1. The Open University of Japan, Chiba, Japan

    Masaaki Kurosu

  2. Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan

    Ayako Hashizume

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Gittens, C.L. (2023). An Architecture for Transforming Companion Robots into Psychosocial Robotic Surrogates. In: Kurosu, M., Hashizume, A. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14013. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35602-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35602-5_3

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