Robot-Assisted Social Dining as a White Glove Service

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15767v1
• Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:58:25 GMT
• Title: Robot-Assisted Social Dining as a White Glove Service
• Authors: Atharva S Kashyap, Ugne Aleksandra Morkute, Patricia Alves-Oliveira,
• Abstract summary: Existing systems have only been tested in-lab or in-home, leaving in-the-wild social dining contexts largely unexplored.<n>Our work has implications for in-the-wild and group contexts of robot-assisted feeding.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Robot-assisted feeding enables people with disabilities who require assistance eating to enjoy a meal independently and with dignity. However, existing systems have only been tested in-lab or in-home, leaving in-the-wild social dining contexts (e.g., restaurants) largely unexplored. Designing a robot for such contexts presents unique challenges, such as dynamic and unsupervised dining environments that a robot needs to account for and respond to. Through speculative participatory design with people with disabilities, supported by semi-structured interviews and a custom AI-based visual storyboarding tool, we uncovered ideal scenarios for in-the-wild social dining. Our key insight suggests that such systems should: embody the principles of a white glove service where the robot (1) supports multimodal inputs and unobtrusive outputs; (2) has contextually sensitive social behavior and prioritizes the user; (3) has expanded roles beyond feeding; (4) adapts to other relationships at the dining table. Our work has implications for in-the-wild and group contexts of robot-assisted feeding.

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