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Title: The Impact of an In-Home Co-Located Robotic Coach in Helping People Make Fewer Exercise Mistakes
Regular exercise provides many mental and physical health benefits. However, when exercises are done incorrectly, it can lead to injuries. Because the COVID-19 pandemic made it challenging to exercise in communal spaces, the growth of virtual fitness programs was accelerated, putting people at risk of sustaining exercise-related injuries as they received little to no feedback on their exercising techniques. Colocated robots could be one potential enhancement to virtual training programs as they can cause higher learning gains, more compliance, and more enjoyment than non-co-located robots. In this study, we compare the effects of a physically present robot by having a person exercise either with a robot (robot condition) or a video of a robot displayed on a tablet (tablet condition). Participants (N=25) had an exercise system in their homes for two weeks. Participants who exercised with the colocated robot made fewer mistakes than those who exercised with the video-displayed robot. Furthermore, participants in the robot condition reported a higher fitness increase and more motivation to exercise than participants in the tablet condition.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1955653 1928448 2106690 1813651
NSF-PAR ID:
10354174
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
31st IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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