Comparative Study on the Effect of Slant Shape in the Design of UGV Delivery Robots on Perceived Safety

This study investigates the influence of the appearance of UGV delivery robots on Perceived Safety by comparing four variations of robot shapes using slants. The experiment was performed by presenting the robot shapes in a virtual environment by using a Virtual Reality headset (VR) and a computer screen (PC). We analyzed four participant groups: (1) Brazilians and (2) Japanese living in Japan using VR, (3) Brazilians living in Japan and (4) Brazilians living in Brazil using PC. In an exploratory approach, we investigated how Perceived Safety was influenced by nationality, country of residence, gender, field of study, preference for robot shape, and previous contact with robots. Perceived Safety was assessed using Kansei and Magnitude scores. Results indicate that while nationality did not affect perceived safety, living in a different country did. Additionally, both front and back slants positively influenced perceived safety compared to robots without slants.