Augmenting Office Workers with Robot Avatars - An Exploratory Study

This paper explores personalization of telepresence robots as an exploratory step towards physical representations of augmented humans in remote collaboration. We investigate how individuals design and use robot avatars that express identity and presence through clothes and accessories. Our participatory design study involved eight participants from the same work community who each used a personalized humanoid robot avatar in an office setting for one day. The findings reveal that video-based face visibility enhanced recognizability, while personalized clothing made the robot seem more human and approachable. Participants customized their avatars to reflect personal style, align with work context, or appear friendly.