Abstract
This thesis investigates the role of socially assistive robots (SARs) in healthcare and elderly care settings through a detailed literature review, the development of a character-based interaction system, and an experimental study comparing simulated and real-world interactions. The first research question addressed is: “What roles do socially assistive robots play in healthcare and elderly care settings?”. The literature review explores potential benefits of SARs in enhancing care quality, improving patient well-being, and increasing operational efficiency. Existing studies suggest that SARs can contribute to personalized patient care, help mitigate caregiver workload, and support emotional and social engagement for elderly individuals. However, challenges remain regarding user acceptance, trust, and the effectiveness of different robot embodiments. These insights helped shape the research questions and guided the design of the technical system and experimental study presented in this work.The second research question explored in this research is: “How do users perceive engagement with socially assistive robots across different embodiments (simulated vs. physical)”?. To investigate this question, a central technical contribution of this research was the development of a character-based behavioral system in Unity. This system enabled real-time dialogue generation through integration with a large language model (LLM), emotional expression via synchronized animations, and dynamic personality traits. It also included simulation in Unity, the design of verbal interaction prompts, movement synchronization, and a communication protocol (VMC) that enabled integration between virtual and physical embodiments. Together, these elements supported real-time, context-sensitive interaction for socially assistive robots in care scenarios. This technical foundation was essential for enabling the comparative investigation of user perceptions across simulated and physical robot embodiments.
A within-subject experiment was conducted with nine participants who interacted with both simulated and real-world versions of two humanoid robots, Hatsuki, designed for emotional and social support, and AIREC, a platform oriented toward physical caregiving tasks. Data collection included quantitative surveys measuring trust, engagement, safety perception, usability, and communication effectiveness, as well as qualitative thematic analysis of open-ended responses. The results showed that the humanoid design of Hatsuki was associated with higher perceived engagement, while physical embodiment alone did not significantly enhance trust or usability. This thesis contributes to the understanding of how embodiment and communication design affect user engagement with socially assistive robots (SARs), by integrating literature analysis, character-based system development, and an experimental study. It emphasizes the importance of verbal interaction in fostering social connection and questions the assumption that physical embodiment is the primary driver of engagement. These findings provide a foundation for future work exploring culturally adaptive, context-aware robot behavior in healthcare settings and underscore the need for further research with larger and more diverse samples to explore the interplay between embodiment, dialogue quality, and user experience in socially assistive robotics.
| Date of Award | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Damith HERATH (Supervisor), Janie Busby Grant (Supervisor) & Shuangzhe LIU (Supervisor) |