Comparing the effects of social robots and virtual agents on exercising motivation

Sebastian Schneider, Franz Kummert

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Preventing diseases of affluence is one of the major challenges for our future society. Researchers introduced robots as a tool to support people on dieting or rehabilitation tasks. However, deploying robots as exercising companions is cost-intensive. Therefore, in our current work, we are investigating how the embodiment of an exercising partner influences the exercising motivation to persist on an abdominal plank exercise. We analyzed and compared data from previous experiments on exercising with robots and virtual agents. The results show that the participants had longer exercising times when paired with a robot companion compared to virtual agents, but not compared to a human partner. However, participants perceived the robots partner as more likable than a human partner. This results have implications for SAR practitioners and are important for the usage of SAR to promote physical activity.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSocial Robotics - 10th International Conference, ICSR 2018, Proceedings
EditorsElizabeth Broadbent, Shuzhi Sam Ge, Miguel A. Salichs, Álvaro Castro-González, Hongsheng He, John-John Cabibihan, Alan R. Wagner
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages451-461
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9783030052034
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes
Event10th International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR 2018 - Qingdao, China
Duration: 28 Nov 201830 Nov 2018

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume11357 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference10th International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR 2018
Country/TerritoryChina
CityQingdao
Period28/11/1830/11/18

Keywords

  • Embodiment
  • Exercising
  • Socially assistive robots

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