指標から意味へ：小売店におけるロボット導入の混合手法フィールド実験からの洞察
From Metrics to Meaning: Insights from a Mixed-Methods Field Experiment on Retail Robot Deployment
寝具店に会話型サービスロボットを12日間導入し、ロボット単体と什器併用の効果を検証。ロボットは立ち止まりを増やしたが、店員の接客や購入には繋がりにくいことをインタビューで説明した。
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2. 先行研究と比べてどこがすごい？
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著者: Sichao Song, Yuki Okafuji, Takuya Iwamoto, Jun Baba, Hiroshi Ishiguro
分類: cs.RO, cs.HC
原文アブストラクト
We report a mixed-methods field experiment of a conversational service robot deployed under everyday staffing discretion in a live bedding store. Over 12 days we alternated three conditions--Baseline (no robot), Robot-only, and Robot+Fixture--and video-annotated the service funnel from passersby to purchase. An explanatory sequential design then used six post-experiment staff interviews to interpret the quantitative patterns. Quantitatively, the robot increased stopping per passerby (highest with the fixture), yet clerk-led downstream steps per stopper--clerk approach, store entry, assisted experience, and purchase--decreased. Interviews explained this divergence: clerks avoided interrupting ongoing robot-customer talk, struggled with ambiguous timing amid conversational latency, and noted child-centered attraction that often satisfied curiosity at the doorway. The fixture amplified visibility but also anchored encounters at the threshold, creating a well-defined micro-space where needs could ``close'' without moving inside. We synthesize these strands into an integrative account from the initial show of interest on the part of a customer to their entering the store and derive actionable guidance. The results advance the understanding of interactions between customers, staff members, and the robot and offer practical recommendations for deploying service robots in high-touch retail.
