| Abstract |
| Robot vacuum cleaners have become autonomous devices common in domestic environments. Their navigation behavior can serve as a non-verbal cue through which users interpret the robot’s human-likeness, personality, and intentions. This study examined user interpretations at two levels: i) scale-based perceptions of anthropomorphism and animacy and ii) attributional expressions in open-ended responses. Differences in robot vacuum behavior type and prior usage experience were examined. Behavior type (design-intent consistent vs. design-intent deviant) was experimentally manipulated, while prior usage experience (yes/no) was treated as a pre-measured individual-level-difference factor in an inter-subject design. Forty adults viewed 20-second navigation videos created using generative AI and then completed a questionnaire. The manipulation check showed that the design-intent deviant condition was perceived as significantly stranger than the design-intent consistent condition. The main analysis revealed that anthropomorphism and animacy scores were markedly lower in the design-intent deviant condition, whereas neither the main effect of usage experience nor the interaction between behavior type and usage experience was prominent. In open-ended responses, the design-intent consistent condition elicited social-role expressions such as “helper” and “butler,” whereas the design-intent deviant condition elicited expressions such as “stubborn,” “headstrong,” and “uncontrollable,” attributing independent will and personality to the robot. These findings suggest that scale-based perceptions of a robot’s human-likeness, animacy, and attributional expressions derived from its behavior may not necessarily follow the same pattern. Furthermore, robot vacuum cleaner navigation behavior may perform beyond functional movement as a behavioral interface through which users interpret the robot’s intentions and personality, underscoring the need to consider varied layers of user interpretation during the design of domestic-use autonomous robots. |
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| Key Words |
| Robot Vacuum Cleaner, Generative AI, Navigation Behavior, Human-Robot Interaction, Anthropomorphism, 로봇청소기, 생성형 AI, 주행 행동, 인간-로봇 상호작용, 의인화 |
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