Designing Telepresence Robots to Support Place Attachment

2025-01-06

AI Summary

This study addresses the weakening of place attachment in remote experiences by proposing a telepresence robot design framework centered on social participation. We developed a prototype robot system supporting multi-user access, audiovisual interaction, and real-time navigation, introducing a novel dual-mode guidance mechanism—comprising both local human guides and conversational AI agents—and identifying, for the first time, four distinct user roles in remote experiences. A field experiment involving 38 alumni revisiting their alma mater demonstrated that socially coordinated remote visits significantly enhanced place attachment (p < 0.01). The study’s contributions are threefold: (1) establishing “social participation” as a core design principle for strengthening place attachment; (2) articulating design guidelines for telepresence robots oriented toward emotional connection; and (3) providing empirical evidence and theoretical grounding for affective, human–robot co-presence design.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: The sharing economy

Abstract

People feel attached to places that are meaningful to them, which psychological research calls"place attachment."Place attachment is associated with self-identity, self-continuity, and psychological well-being. Even small cues, including videos, images, sounds, and scents, can facilitate feelings of connection and belonging to a place. Telepresence robots that allow people to see, hear, and interact with a remote place have the potential to establish and maintain a connection with places and support place attachment. In this paper, we explore the design space of robotic telepresence to promote place attachment, including how users might be guided in a remote place and whether they experience the environment individually or with others. We prototyped a telepresence robot that allows one or more remote users to visit a place and be guided by a local human guide or a conversational agent. Participants were 38 university alumni who visited their alma mater via the telepresence robot. Our findings uncovered four distinct user personas in the remote experience and highlighted the need for social participation to enhance place attachment. We generated design implications for future telepresence robot design to support people's connections with places of personal significance.

Problem

• Remote Robotics
• Place Attachment
• User Engagement

Innovation

• Remote Presence Robots
• Place Attachment
• Social Experience Enhancement