"Adventures of Harvey" - Use, Acceptance of and Relationship Building with a Social Robot in a Domestic Environment

The goal of this study was to improve our understanding about how older people use social robots in domestic environments and in particular whether and how they build relationships with these robots. Three participants interacted with the Nabaztag, a social robot, for a 10-day period in their own home environment. Some of our findings are (1) utilitarian-, hedonic-, and social factors are important when accepting social robots, (2) utilitarian-, hedonicand social factors are important for building a relationship with the Nabaztag, (3) there is a relationship between name-calling and relationship building and (4) there is a relationship between using non-verbaland verbal communication and relationship building.