100 research outputs found
Socially Assistive Robots for Exercising Scenarios. Studies on group effects, feedback, embodiment and adaption
Schneider S. Socially Assistive Robots for Exercising Scenarios. Studies on group effects, feedback, embodiment and adaption. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2019.Even though positive effects of being physically active are commonly
known, only a few parts of the world population are sufficiently ac-
tive. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that this problem
affects 31% of the adult’s world population and 80% of the adolescent
population. Appropriate levels of physical activity (PA) are essential
to prevent obesity in childhood and to keep a Quality of Life (QOL)
in old age but are also essential to prevent other Noncommunicable
Diseases (NCDs). Thus, physical inactivity is growing into a severe
problem globally, and there is a growing need to motivate people
to become more physically active during their lifetime. One primary
cause that raises PA levels is having a peer or help from professionals.
However, having assistance is not possible in every situation. It might
be challenging to find and schedule with a partner or to commute to
other places. Roboticist introduced Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) as
an assistive tool for exercising, cognitive or rehabilitation tasks. This
thesis explores SAR in the context of exercising along four features
that have been partly targeted but not yet thoroughly investigated.
These features are a) the social role of the robot, b) encouragement
c) embodiment and d) adaptation. First, this thesis looks at the mo-
tivational effects of exercising with SAR concerning features a) - c).
Second, this thesis questions how a system can adapt to the user, and
whether adaptivity or adaptability is enough to close the gap between
user needs and system behavior. I conducted studies that test the dif-
ferent features by assessing subjective ratings of the robot as well as
measurable motivational variables (e.g., time spent exercising with
the robot) in a bodyweight workout scenario.
The results show that features a) - c) have a positive influence on
user’s exercising time. Additionally, users perceive a robot compan-
ion as more likable than a robot instructor or a human partner. Fur-
thermore, an adaptive robot increases the associated competence and
quality of relationship compared to an adaptable robot. However, the
results also show that the robot does not always have to exercise along
with the user. In situations where it is not possible, the robot could
also only give encouraging feedback. This thesis backs up earlier find-
ings of using SAR by replicating motivational group exercising ef-
fects found in Human-Human Interaction (HHI). Thus, the evidence
that SARs are a suitable tool for rehabilitative interventions increases
which may convince health experts to consider SAR as a useful thera-
peutic tool. Nevertheless, this thesis evaluated the effects only during
short-term interactions. Thus, proving that the found effects are long-
lasting is essential for future studies
Between Fear and Trust: Factors Influencing Older Adults' Evaluation of Socially Assistive Robots
Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) are expected to support autonomy, aging in
place, and wellbeing in later life. For successful assimilation, it is
necessary to understand factors affecting older adults Quality Evaluations
(QEs) of SARs, including the pragmatic and hedonic evaluations and overall
attractiveness. Previous studies showed that trust in robots significantly
enhances QE, while technophobia considerably decreases it. The current study
aimed to examine the relative impact of these two factors on older persons QE
of SARs. The study was based on an online survey of 384 individuals aged 65 and
above. Respondents were presented with a video of a robotic system for physical
and cognitive training and filled out a questionnaire relating to that system.
The results indicated a positive association between trust and QE and a
negative association between technophobia and QE. A simultaneous exploration
demonstrated that the relative impact of technophobia is significantly more
substantial than that of trust. In addition, the pragmatic qualities of the
robot were found to be more crucial to its QE than the social aspects of use.
The findings suggest that implementing robotics technology in later life
strongly depends on reducing older adults technophobia regarding the
convenience of using SARs and highlight the importance of simultaneous
explorations of facilitators and inhibitors
Service Robots Rising:How Humanoid Robots Influence Service Experiences and Elicit Compensatory Consumer Responses
Interactions between consumers and humanoid service robots (HSRs; i.e., robots with a human-like morphology such as a face, arms, and legs) will soon be part of routine marketplace experiences. It is unclear, however, whether these humanoid robots (compared with human employees) will trigger positive or negative consequences for consumers and companies. Seven experimental studies reveal that consumers display compensatory responses when they interact with an HSR rather than a human employee (e.g., they favor purchasing status goods, seek social affiliation, and order and eat more food). The authors investigate the underlying process driving these effects, and they find that HSRs elicit greater consumer discomfort (i.e., eeriness and a threat to human identity), which in turn results in the enhancement of compensatory consumption. Moreover, this research identifies boundary conditions of the effects such that the compensatory responses that HSRs elicit are (1) mitigated when consumer-perceived social belongingness is high, (2) attenuated when food is perceived as more healthful, and (3) buffered when the robot is machinized (rather than anthropomorphized)
Expert-informed design and automation of persuasive, socially assistive robots
Socially assistive robots primarily provide useful functionality through their social interactions with user(s). An example application, used to ground work throughout this thesis, is using a social robot to guide users through exercise sessions. Initial works have demonstrated that interactions with a social robot can improve engagement with exercise, and that an embodied social robot is more effective for this than the equivalent virtual avatar. However, many questions remain regarding the design and automation of socially assistive robot behaviours for this purpose. This thesis identifies and practically works through a number of these questions in pursuit of one ultimate goal: the meaningful, real world deployment of a fully autonomous, socially assistive robot. The work takes an expert informed approach, looking to learn from human experts in socially assistive interactions and explore how their expert knowledge can be reflected in the design and automation of social robot behaviours. It is taking this approach that leads to the notion of socially assistive robots needing to be persuasive in order to be effective, but also identifies the difficulty in automating such complex, socially intelligent behaviour. The ethical implications of designing persuasive robot behaviours are also practically considered; with reference to a published standard on ethical robot design. The work culminates with use of a state of the art, interactive machine learning approach to have an expert fitness instructor train a robot ‘fitness coach’, deployed in a university gym, as it guides participants through an NHS exercise programme. After a total of 151 training sessions across 10 participants, the robot successfully ran 32 sessions autonomously. The results demonstrated that autonomous behaviour was generally comparable to that of the robot when controlled/supervised by the fitness instructor, and that overall, the robot played an important role in keeping participants motivated through the exercise programme
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