ABSTRACT
Since interactions with social robots are novel and exciting for many people, one particular concern in this specific area of human-robot interaction (HRI) is the extent to which human users will experience the interactions positively over time, when the robot's novelty is particularly salient. In the current paper, we investigated users' experience in long-term HRIs;how users perceive the ongoing interactions and the robot's ability to sustain it over time. Therefore, here we examine the effect of the repeated measures (10 testing sessions) and the discussion theme (Covid-19 related vs general) on the way participants experienced the interaction quality with a social robot and perceived the robot's communication competency over time. We found that despite individual differences between the participants, over time participants found the interactions with Pepper to be of higher quality and that Pepper's communication skills got better. Nevertheless, our results also stressed that the discussion theme has no meaningful nor significant effect on the way people perceive Pepper and the interaction. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
In this paper we present our preliminary results from the first trial conducted with "WallBo"a robotic buddy to improve handwashing for children in schools. The one-week trial was carried out in a Scottish school with 16 pupils, aged 6-7 in an ecologically valid setting. The 1:1 interaction with WallBo resulted in 86.25% handwashing compliance, a 33.25% improvement from the baseline handwashing technique pre-WallBo training, and an overall, ≈ 35% improvement on knowledge about hand hygiene. We also report some insights about perceptions about WallBo in this paper. © 2021 Owner/Author.