Integrating a Social Robot in Higher Education – A Field Study

Abstract

Hand disinfection is important in preventing infectious diseases. However not everyone sanitizes their hands, and many people don’t rub hands for a long enough time. For these reasons we designed a robotic interface for automatic hand sanitizer dispensers to motivate people to disinfect their hands better. In our in-the-wild studies we have found that using our system resulted in 21% more hand sanitizations and a much longer hand rubbing time, which leads to better hygiene and prevention of infectious diseases.