A drone agent to support a clean environment

Paper in proceeding, 2015

In this paper we introduce and evaluate a concept of a drone agent that can support us to keep the environment clean. The drone has four main functions: (1) find a waste item, (2) persuade the user to pick up the item, (3) lead the user to the nearest trash bin, (4) communicate with the user when the job is done. We prototyped three types of persuasion effects with the drone (Visual, Audio, and Visual+Audio) and evaluated them through an online study with eighty two participants. The results reveal that interest in the drone technology varied significantly between developed and developing countries, with individuals in developing countries having higher ratings for drone related persuasion, compliance, pleasantness and sensibility; gender differences also emerged. Finally, evaluation results led to many design recommendations that will increase the functionality and attractiveness and usage potential of the proposed technology.