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Robotics in the office: How Pepper is changing employees' everyday lives!
A business study by the University of Trier is examining the use of the Pepper robot in the workplace and its effect on employees.
Robotics in the office: How Pepper is changing employees' everyday lives!
A current business study at the University of Trier focuses on the interaction between people and robots in the workplace. The investigation focuses on the social robot “Pepper”, which was used in a regional company over a period of six weeks. The behavior of employees and their attitudes towards robots and artificial intelligence were analyzed. How uni-trier.de reported.
Pepper took on multiple roles within the company, including greeting employees, providing company in the break room and informing customers about specials. These tasks were part of a broader strategy by companies to use robotics and AI for greater efficiency and to combat the skills shortage. The results of the study show that employees perceived Pepper less as a threat and more as a support. Negative feedback only occurred when the robot was not functioning optimally.
Positive effects of interaction
The interaction with Pepper led to a notable increase in the categories “general evaluation”, “acceptance in the workplace” and “assessment of visual similarity to humans”. It turned out that the employees tended to overestimate Pepper's human-likeness. This perception was based in part on the robot's “cute” appearance as well as the verbal interaction it provided.
A key finding of the study was that frustration among employees was reduced. They experienced interactions with Pepper as pleasant. The study shows that companies can have a targeted, positive influence on the introduction of robots if employees are given sufficient time for personal experience with the technology.
The current status of robot research
The use of robots as companions in everyday life is increasing more and more. Empirical studies like those from the University of Trier are part of a larger research project that is also being considered at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and Organization (IAO). Loud fraunhofer.de Researchers are testing various areas of application for social robots. These include concierge services in hotels, consultations in retail and even hygiene officers in supermarkets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID pandemic has given new impetus to human-robot interaction. One example is the NIKA project (User-Centered Interaction Design for Context-Sensitive and Acceptable Robots), which aims to improve interaction between humans and robots. An online demo was also recently presented that allows users to personalize their interactions with robots. This demo, presented at the virtual Humans and Computers Conference, features a quiz game in which the robot asks trivia questions.
In addition, a pattern wiki is being created that provides a collection of behavior patterns for robot interactions and contains more than 40 recommendations for different categories of robot behavior. The aim is to establish a standardized and generally understandable “interaction language” for social robots.