Impacts of Human Robot Proxemics on Human Concentration-Training Games with Humanoid Robots

Li Liu,Xiao-Zhi Gao,Yangguang Liu

doi:10.3390/healthcare9070894

Li Liu, Xiao-Zhi Gao + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9070894

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Journal: Healthcare	Publication Date: Jul 15, 2021
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Ningbo University, University of Eastern Finland

Abstract

The use of humanoid robots within a therapeutic role, that is, helping individuals with social disorders, is an emerging field, but it remains unexplored in terms of concentration training. To seamlessly integrate humanoid robots into concentration games, an investigation into the impacts of human robot interactive proxemics on concentration-training games is particularly important. In the case of an epidemic diffusion especially—for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic—HRI games may help in the therapeutic phase, significantly reducing the risk of contagion. In this paper, concentration games were designed by action imitation involving 120 participants to verify the hypothesis. Action-imitation accuracy, the assessment of emotional expression, and a questionnaire were compared with analysis of variance (ANOVA). Experimental results showed that a 2 m distance and left-front orientation for a human and a robot are optimal for human robot interactive concentration training. In addition, females worked better than males did in HRI imitation games. This work supports some valuable suggestions for the development of HRI concentration-training technology, involving the designs of friendlier and more useful robots, and HRI game scenarios.

Highlights

The application of human robot interaction (HRI) in education faces many challenges [5], such as how people accept robot partners, how human robot interactive proxemics influence the experiences of humans, and how robots work with humans, such as human co-workers, especially in special-education areas
Analysis of the experimental results was related to the physical distance between and orientations of participants and the tester using analysis of variance (ANOVA) [37,39]
This paper provided a new approach to assess human concentration training by using an imitation game with a humanoid robot

Summary

Introduction

Thanks to the advances in robotic technology, human robot interaction (HRI) is popularly used for a variety of applications, including in-store sales [1], entertainment [2], education [3], personal healthcare [4], and therapy [5]. The application of HRI in education faces many challenges [5], such as how people accept robot partners, how human robot interactive proxemics influence the experiences of humans, and how robots work with humans, such as human co-workers, especially in special-education areas. Human concentration training is an important skill in special education [6]. Imitation learning is an important, widely used method in concentration training, by which an agent tries to mimic an action performed by another [7]

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