The design space of robots: investigating children´s views

Our study considers children´s perceptions of robots in terms of physical attributes, personality and emotion traits. To examine children´s attitudes towards robots, a questionnaire approach was taken with a large sample of children, followed by a detailed statistical framework to analyse the data. Results show that children clearly distinguish between emotions and behaviour when judging robots. The distinguishing robotic physical characteristics for positive and negative emotions and behaviour are highlighted. Children judge human-like robots as aggressive, but human-machine robots as friendly providing support for the uncanny valley. The paper concludes with discussing the results in light of design implications for children´s robots.