A study on the relationship between robotic movement with animacy and visual attention of young children

Socially assistive robots have been used successfully for improvement of communication skills of young children. Such robots need to attract children's attention and stimulate sustainable interactions. Many recent research studies propose various approaches for increasing of interaction effectiveness of such robots. In this study, we investigate the effect of robotic movements with animacy on the visual attention of young children. For the experiments, we used the TurtleBot robot. The effect of three different robot movement patterns were explored with the conducted tests: simple circle movement, inanimated movement, and animated movement. Thirty four children (21 males, 13 females, Mean of ages: 4.5) participated in an experiment. Results show that robot movement raises visual attention. Most of the children demonstrated increased interest toward animated robotic movement than simple motion. The animated movement that elicits much interest depends on children's age. The findings of this study contribute to effective use of interactive robots in education and therapy of young children and children with developmental disorder.