From Framework to Reliable Practice: End-User Perspectives on Social Robots in Public Spaces

As social robots increasingly enter public environments, their acceptance depends not only on technical robustness but also on ethical integrity, accessibility, transparency, and consistent system behaviour across diverse users. This paper reports an in situ pilot deployment of an ARI social robot functioning as a university receptionist, designed and implemented in alignment with the SecuRoPS framework for secure, ethical, and reliable social robot deployment. Thirty-five students and staff interacted with the robot in a real public setting and provided structured feedback on safety, privacy, usability, accessibility, ethical transparency, and perceived reliability. The results indicate strong user confidence in physical safety, data protection, and regulatory compliance while revealing persistent challenges related to accessibility and interaction dynamics. These findings show that reliability in public-facing robotic systems extends beyond fault-free operation to include equitable and consistent user experience across contexts. Beyond reporting empirical outcomes, the study contributes in three key ways. First, it demonstrates a reproducible method for operationalising lifecycle governance frameworks in real-world deployments. Second, it provides new empirical insights into how trust, accessibility, and transparency are experienced by end users in public spaces. Third, it delivers a publicly available, open-source GitHubrepository containing reusable templates for ARI robot applications developed using the PAL Robotics ARI SDK (v23.12), lowering technical entry barriers and supporting reproducibility. By integrating empirical evaluation with practical system artefacts, this work advances research on reliable intelligent environments and provides actionable guidance for the responsible deployment of social robots in public spaces.