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This paper describes our remote collaboration project related to the design and implementation of virtual kawaii robots by Japanese and American university students, and affective evaluation of the robots. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to change our planned 7-week collaboration from in-person to virtual with a resultant change in the target product of our collaboration from real robots to virtual robots. Based on our new plan for 2021, students designed robots in virtual spaces aiming that each robot elicited a different Electroencephalogram (EEG) and/or Heart Rate (HR) reaction from humans. Based on the persona and scenario for the companion robot authored by each student team, each student designed four robots with the goal that one robot would be most kawaii, a Japanese adjective representing cute and adorable, and others would be less kawaii due to variations in shapes and colors. The affective evaluation of robots was performed both by biological signals (EEG and HR) and by kawaii rating. 

We report on an extension of a cross-cultural collaborative project between students and faculty at DePauw University in the United States and Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan. The ongoing project uses cross-cultural teams to design and evaluate virtual companion robots for university students with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the role that kawaii (Japanese cuteness) plays in fostering positive human response to, and acceptance of, robots across cultures. Members of two cross-cultural teams designed virtual companion robots with specific kawaii attributes. Using these robots, we conducted the first phase of a two-phase user study to understand perceptions of these companion robots. The findings demonstrate that participants judge round companion robots to be more kawaii than angular ones and they also judge colorful robots to be more kawaii than greyscale robots. The phase one study identified pairs of robots that are the most appropriate candidates for conducting further investigations. The appropriateness of these pairs holds across male and female participates as well as across participants whose primary culture is American and those whose primary culture is Japanese. This work prepares us to perform a more detailed study across genders and cultures using both survey results and biosensors. In turn, this will inform our long-term goal of designing robots that are appealing across gender and culture.