“Can you answer questions, Flobi?”: Interactionally defining a robot's competence as a fitness instructor

Users draw on four sources to judge a robot's competence: (1) the robot's voice, (2) physical appearance of and (3) the interaction experience with the robot but also (4) the relationship between the robot's physical appearance and its conduct. Furthermore, most approaches in social robotics have an outcome-oriented focus and thus use questionnaires to measure a global evaluation of the robot after interaction took place. The present research takes a process-oriented approach to explore the factors relevant in the formation of users' attitudes toward the robot. To do so, an ethnographic approach (Conversation Analysis) was employed to analyze the micro-coordination between user and robot. We report initial findings from a study in which a robot took the role of a fitness instructor. Our results emphasize that the participant judges step-by-step the robot's capabilities and differentiates its competence on two levels regarding to the robot's role: a robot as a (1) social/interactional co-participant and as a (2) fitness instructor.