Teleoperated robot coaching for mindfulness training: A longitudinal study
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Publication Date
2021Journal Title
2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN 2021
Conference Name
2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)
ISSN
1944-9445
ISBN
9781665404921
Publisher
IEEE
Pages
939-944
Type
Conference Object
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Bodala, I., Churamani, N., & Gunes, H. (2021). Teleoperated robot coaching for mindfulness training: A longitudinal study. 2021 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN 2021, 939-944. https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN50785.2021.9515371
Abstract
Social robots are becoming incorporated in daily
human lives, assisting in the promotion of the physical and
mental wellbeing of individuals. To investigate the design and
use of social robots for delivering mindfulness training, we
develop a teleoperation framework that enables an experienced
Human Coach (HC) to conduct mindfulness training sessions
virtually, by replicating their upper-body and head movements
onto the Pepper robot, in real-time. Pepper’s vision is mapped
onto a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) worn by the HC and a
bidirectional audio pipeline is set up, enabling the HC to communicate
with the participants through the robot. To evaluate
the participants’ perceptions of the teleoperated Robot Coach
(RC), we study the interactions between a group of participants
and the RC over 5 weeks and compare these with another
group of participants interacting directly with the HC. Growth
modelling analysis of this longitudinal data shows that the HC
ratings are consistently greater than 4 (on a scale of 15) for
all aspects while an increase is witnessed in the RC ratings over
the weeks, for the Robot Motion and Conversation dimensions.
Mindfulness training delivered by both types of coaching evokes
positive responses from the participants across all the sessions,
with the HC rated significantly higher than the RC on Animacy,
Likeability and Perceived Intelligence. Participants’ personality
traits such as Conscientiousness and Neuroticism are found to
influence their perception of the RC. These findings enable an
understanding of the differences between the perceptions of HC
and RC delivering mindfulness training, and provide insights
towards the development of robot coaches for improving the
psychological wellbeing of individuals.
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/R030782/1)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN50785.2021.9515371
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/325325
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