UX-Centred Design and Field Evaluation of an Intelligent Waste-Sorting Robot for Cultural Tourism Events
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) and humanrobot interaction (HRI) are moving from controlled labs to complex public environments. Outdoor cultural tourism events (e.g., music festivals) face recurring pain points in waste management: rapid waste generation, slow manual response, and low visitor engagement with sustainability. This paper reports on the UX-centred design and field evaluation of an intelligent waste-sorting robot tailored for temporary outdoor cultural venues. The system integrates computer visionbased recognition, LiDAR navigation, robotic grasping, and realtime information visualisation with user research, co-design, and iterative prototyping. A mixedmethods study (surveys, interviews, observations) with organisers, regulators, and visitors informed the interaction model and service blueprint. In a festival pilot, the prototype doubled collection efficiency relative to manual practice, achieved over 90% recognition accuracy, and reduced unattended litter by 27%, while visitors reported higher sustainability awareness. Contributions include: (1) a UXcentred HRI framework for public cultural spaces; (2) a design pattern catalogue for legible, lowfriction interactions in crowds; and (3) empirical insights into transparency, trust, and acceptance relevant to deployment and policy in smarttourism contexts.
Author: Waner Pei
Institution: Royal College of Art
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4414477593
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