New Comer in the Bakery Store: A Long-Term Exploratory Study Toward Design of Useful Service Robot Applications

In this study, we report a 6-month empirical study on a service robot deployed in a bakery shop. Recently, potential applications of service robots have been increasingly explored. However, further empirical knowledge is required to determine the optimal approach to design service robots for useful...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of social robotics 2024-10, Vol.16 (9), p.1901-1918
Main Authors: Song, Sichao, Baba, Jun, Okafuji, Yuki, Nakanishi, Junya, Yoshikawa, Yuichiro, Ishiguro, Hiroshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bakeries
Control
Customer services
Customers
Design
Engineering
Mechatronics
Research methodology
Robotics
Robots
Service robots
User behavior
Verbal communication
Working conditions
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Summary:In this study, we report a 6-month empirical study on a service robot deployed in a bakery shop. Recently, potential applications of service robots have been increasingly explored. However, further empirical knowledge is required to determine the optimal approach to design service robots for useful applications. We also address “usefulness” from two perspectives: the effects of a robot on customers’ shopping behavior and the practical benefits the robot could provide for human workers in its working environment. The results show that our robot achieved long-term effects on product recommendations for customers who visited the bakery store on a regular basis (weekly) but not for other customers. A thematic analysis of the interviews reflected the practical values that the staff expected from the robot. Based on these findings, we we outline key considerations for designing effective long-term service robot applications.
ISSN:1875-4791
1875-4805
DOI:10.1007/s12369-024-01119-z