Designing Robots for Families: In-Situ Prototyping for Contextual Reminders on Family Routines

2026-02-26

AI Summary

This study investigates how social robots can effectively assume reminder roles in everyday domestic life by navigating complex sociotechnical dynamics involving timing, authority, and familial relationships. Through a co-design process with ten households, the research deployed a mobile social robot in a four-day in-situ field experiment employing situated prototyping, participatory methods, and qualitative analysis. Findings reveal that parents broadly recognize the robot’s value in alleviating the cognitive and emotional burden of routine reminders. The work identifies key sociotechnical tensions shaping household acceptance and distills design principles tailored to family contexts, offering an empirical foundation and novel pathways for future human-robot interaction in domestic settings.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices

Application Category

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

Abstract

Robots are increasingly entering the daily lives of families, yet their successful integration into domestic life remains a challenge. We explore family routines as a critical entry point for understanding how robots might find a sustainable role in everyday family settings. Together with each of the ten families, we co-designed robot interactions and behaviors, and a plan for the robot to support their chosen routines, accounting for contextual factors such as timing, participants, locations, and the activities in the environment. We then designed, prototyped, and deployed a mobile social robot as a four-day, in-home user study. Families welcomed the robot's reminders, with parents especially appreciating the offloading of some reminding tasks. At the same time, interviews revealed tensions around timing, authority, and family dynamics, highlighting the complexity of integrating robots into households beyond the immediate task of reminders. Based on these insights, we offer design implications for robot-facilitated contextual reminders and discuss broader considerations for designing robots for family settings.

Problem

• family routines
• robot integration
• contextual reminders
• family dynamics
• domestic robotics

Innovation

• in-situ prototyping
• family routines
• contextual reminders
• social robot
• co-design