smsociety15

Authors: Frauke Zeller, David Harris Smith, Jacky Au Duong, Mager Alanna, Ebrahim Bagheri and Frank Rudzicz

This work-in-progress-paper presents the first results of a larger study investigating the role of social media in Human-Robot-Interaction. It draws on a large set of online communication data from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram around an interdisciplinary art and science project - hitchBOT. This robot hitchhiked unaccompanied across Canada in July/August 2014 and kindles broad public and news media interest. The results presented show a so far under-researched dimension in the design of social robots, that is social media as additional communication tools in order to support the creation of trust, attachment, and to form a community around a robot.