Building Friendships Across Borders: The Role of Social Robot Haru in Children Group Communication and Connection Development
Forming friendship with peers from diverse backgrounds is key to children’s social emotional development. In this study, we explored the use of social robot, Haru, as mediator for remote communication in children group, to support connection and friendship building. We invited children from different countries aged from 10 to 15 to participate in two interaction sessions with peers from other countries, after which we conducted interviews with children from three countries, focusing on their experiences, and perceptions of the robot’s roles in the process. The findings indicated that social robot Haru effectively served as an icebreaker and entertainer; However, improvements are needed in conversation flow, transitions between different roles, and supporting children’s autonomy in guiding the conversation and the depth of their communication.
Authors
- Anders Kalsgaard Møller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4581-4094)
- Devis Dal Moro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4075-5937)
- Daniel Serrano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1411-3255)
- Matthias Rehm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6264-1688)
- Antonia Lina Krummheuer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4372-5928)
- Luís Merino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4927-8647)
- Edward Nepolo
- Heike Winschiers‐Theophilus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9752-3398)
- Randy Gómez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3191-6818)
- David Calero
- Leigh Levinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6964-8441)
- Selma Šabanović
- Zhennan Yi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9039-2145)
- Selma Auala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8843-5445)
- Nabil Bougria
- José Manuel Pérez-Molerón
- Magí Dalmau-Moreno
- Diego Delgado-Chaves
- Katrine Kielsholm Ramsgaard
Institutions
- Namibia University of Science and Technology (NA)
- Honda (Japan) (JP)
- University of Namibia (NA)
- Centre Tecnologic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (ES)
- Indiana University Bloomington (US)
- Aalborg University (DK)
- Universidad Pablo de Olavide (ES)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-08-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/ro-man63969.2025.11217827
- Primary Topic
- Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00