Robots as My Future Colleagues: Changing Attitudes Toward Collaborative Robots by Means of Experience-Based Workshops

Abstract

Artificial intelligence-driven robots are increasingly being introduced in various workplaces. Research implies that people’s negative attitudes toward intelligent and collaborative robots might hinder their willingness to use them. We propose that interactive educational activities such as specialized workshops help people to overcome such negative attitudes. We designed a two-day workshop that introduced two quasi-industrial robots (Poppy Ergo Jr and ClearBot) to 16 university students. Students’ attitudes were qualitatively measured before and after the workshop. The results imply that the workshop helped students to increase their understanding of the nature of the intelligent collaborative robots. More precisely, robots became to be seen as empowering tools, rather than friends or enemies. Interestingly, there were significant gender differences, as the female participants had a greater tendency to view robots as animated objects. We concluded that specialized workshops effectively lead participants to become aware of various promising opportunities for their robotic co-workers in the possible future.