Socially assistive robotics (SAR) has been making inroads in education since its inception. Robots of various shapes, forms, and functions have been used to assist students in the learning process. Their presence in the classroom has a lot to do with the acceptance of these technologies by the instructional personnel. Acceptance of technology is measured as the willingness of an individual to engage with new technology, and would be different from a teacher’s or a student’s perspective. This paper studies the acceptance of humanoid socially assistive robots by preschool and elementary school teachers using a modified “unified theory of acceptance and the use of technology” framework.

In this study, the acceptance of the Nao robot is evaluated using this framework and 36 subjects. The robot solicits interaction with passersby and asks them to assist it in retrieving a ball and a bottle of water (despite the fact that robots do not drink!). A questionnaire, consisting of 36 questions, is administered; in this particular case, most of the tested constructs are found reliable, except for the “facilitating,” “social influence,” “social presence,” and “trust” constructs.

While the study is restricted in multiple aspects (for example, the number of individuals participating is low), this is an interesting exposé of the use of the acceptance evaluation framework. The authors provide a list of ideas for further research. While all of them are valid, I would personally like to see them study the acceptance shifts over time.