Human–Robot Interaction Strategy of Service Robot with Insufficient Capability in Self-Service Shop

This paper explores the interaction strategies of service robots in self-service shops from a user experience perspective in the case of robots with insufficient capabilities. A Yanshee robot and a self-developed localization-rotation system are employed as the experimental platform. A sales return in a self-service shop is employed as the experimental scenario. Two types of robot’s insufficient capabilities, three strategies of robots’ apology and a social interaction cue imitated from a human salesperson are considered in the design of interaction strategy between human and robot in this scenario. The results show that robots’ social insufficiency leads to more negative influence on customer experiences of fluency, comprehensibility, impression, intelligence, willingness for future interaction than robots’ performance insufficiency. An empathetic apology when the robot has insufficient performance is an effective interaction strategy. The interaction cue that the robot turns to face customers is not beneficial to customer experiences but does influence the internal relationship between customer experiences during HRI and after HRI. In the case of robots with social insufficiency in a self-service shop, impression, intelligence and interaction capability have positive impacts on the willingness for future interaction, while they are also positively affected by fluency or comprehensibility. In the case of robots with performance insufficiency, impression has a positive impact on willingness, while it is not directly related to fluency. The findings are valuable for informing the interaction design of service robots deployed in shopping, especially in real environments where performance and cost must be balanced.