What Can We Do with a Robot for Family Playtime?

As the operation of robots is becoming easier, adopting a robot as a companion for families is increasing. When considering that family playtime has a positive influence on all family members, it is important to provide various activities for families to play together. Robots might mediate fun activities to increase family playtime. Therefore, this research was designed to compare play activities between dyadic child-robot interactions and family-robot interactions. We explored the possible activities for family playtime with a NAO robot. The results from three family groups showed that verbal activities, such as giving an instruction to a robot and talking to a robot, increased when family members are playing together with the robot. Also, increased physical activities were involving all family members, such as giving and receiving balls. Therefore, it will be necessary for a robot to recognize the voices of multiple family members and respond to each member appropriately. More importantly, a robot's time allocation for each family member and encouraging the participation of all members will be necessary to maintain or increase the family playtime.