Robotic Mental Well-being Coaches: Design and Deployment

Abstract

In this thesis, robotic mental well-being coaches are envisioned as tools to promote users’ well-being. With the rising prevalence of mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety, access to mental well-being services remains a significant challenge. Robotic mental well-being coaches are a promising approach for offering accessible tools to promote users’ well-being, potentially preventing mental health issues. However, the effectiveness of such robots hinges on being designed to meet users’ needs and concerns. As such, this thesis presents a four-step Human-Centred Design (HCD) process applied to the design and deployment of such robots: (1) understanding user needs and preferences for a robotic coach, (2) specifying design and ethical guidelines for the robot, (3) producing robots according to those guidelines, and (4) evaluating users’ perceptions of the robots. The research presented in this thesis demonstrates an iterative HCD approach to robotic mental well-being coach design and deployment. First, it reviews related literature on well-being, human-robot interaction, and Human-Centred Design (Chapter 2). Then, it engages in the HCD process, first identifying desirable robotic coach features and capabilities, as well as potential advantages and disadvantages, together with prospective users and professional coaches (Chapter 3). Next, it identifies design and ethical guidelines for robotic mental well-being coaches based on the these findings (Chapter 3). Based on these guidelines, a robotic coach is developed, and two longitudinal user studies evaluating participants’ perceptions are conducted. Both user studies are conducted at a workplace in Cambridge, investigating the real-world deployment of a robotic coach. The first user study focuses on the examination of appropriate robotic coach form (Chapter 4). Based on the findings from the first user study, the second user study distills insights for repair strategies for a robotic coach’s conversational errors (Chapter 5). Finally, Chapter 6 discusses the design and ethical guidelines in light of related literature, critically reflects on the design process implemented in this thesis, and discusses directions for future work. Overall, this thesis aims to advance the human-centred and ethical design of robotic mental well-being coaches. It contributes insights and guidelines for researchers and developers, and an example of a design process which can be adapted to design future robotic coaches. The thesis contributes toward robotic coaches that can best serve their users, and have a positive impact by promoting users’ well-being in the real world.