Volume 8,Issue 9
Embodied Trust in Elderly-Care Robots: A Theoretical Shift and Dimensional Construction of User Trust Assessment
Human-robot trust has been extensively researched in virtual interaction environments, leading to a “disembodied” model. However, embodied intelligent robots for elderly care exist in the real space as tangible entities. Their physicality may influence the process of building trust fundamentally. In this study, motion semantics is considered an important analytical approach to explore how the characteristics of a robot’s movements affect the establishment of trust in elderly users. By combining the findings from previous studies on human-robot trust and embodied cognition, the study proposes the concept of “embodied trust” and suggests a causal relationship between movement attributes and perceived predictability, which subsequently impacts the sense of control and safety, thus affecting the development and preservation of trust. Furthermore, the research takes into account two other factors: the effect of movement synchrony on adjusting trust over time and the special sensitivity of elderly people to such movement clues. It is believed that motion semantics plays a crucial role in embodied trust — the mechanical properties of the robot influence the users’ perception of behavioral predictability, which in turn affects their sense of security and control, thereby promoting or impeding trust building and maintenance. From the practical viewpoint, the study put forward three strategies for motion interaction design in embodied elderly-care robots: maintain natural and predictable movements, keep movement consistency, and adopt a gradual increase in movement speed.
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