Co-Creating Buildable and Open Social Robot Study Companions with University Students
This study addresses barriers to student engagement with open-source social robots—namely, complex fasteners, opaque wiring, and hard-to-reach service points—by re-engineering the RSC v4.1 chassis through a collaborative effort between university students in Guyana and Estonia. Guided by Design for Assembly (DfA) and Design for Disassembly (DfD) principles within the Double Diamond design framework, the team introduced twist-lock fasteners, snap-fit joints, and tool-free service access panels. The revised design reduced average assembly time from 21.4 to 13.7 minutes and improved System Usability Scale scores from 59.4 (Poor) to 89.4 (Excellent), while significantly lowering perceived workload as measured by the NASA-TLX. This work demonstrates for the first time that DfA/DfD not only enhances assembly efficiency but also markedly improves subjective user experience, revealing perceived cognitive load as a critical factor influencing student adoption of open-source hardware.