Experimental evaluation of a multi-modal user interface for a robotic service

This paper reports the experimental evaluation of a Multi- Modal User Interface (MMUI) designed to enhance the user experience in terms of service usability and to increase acceptability of assistive robot systems by elderly users. The MMUI system offers users two main modalities to send commands: they are a GUI, usually running on the tablet attached to the robot, and a SUI, with a wearable microphone on the user. The study involved fifteen participants, aged between 70 and 89 years old, who were invited to interact with a robotic platform customized for providing every-day care and services to the elderly. The experimental task for the participants was to order a meal from three different menus using any interaction modality they liked. Quantitative and qualitative data analyses demonstrate a positive evaluation by users and show that the multi-modal means of interaction can help to make elderly-robot interaction more flexible and natural.