Effects of Social Robotics in Promoting Physical Activity in the Shared Workspace

Xipei Ren, Zhifan Guo, Aobo Huang, Yuying Li, Xinyi Xu and Xiaoyu Zhang
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Xipei Ren: School of Design and Arts, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun St., Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China
Zhifan Guo: School of Design and Arts, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun St., Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China
Aobo Huang: School of Design and Arts, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun St., Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China
Yuying Li: School of Design and Arts, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun St., Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China
Xinyi Xu: School of Design and Arts, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun St., Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China
Xiaoyu Zhang: School of Design and Arts, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Zhongguancun St., Haidian District, Beijing 100081, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: This paper presents a design study exploring the effects of a social robot in facilitating people to participate in light-intensity exercises after a long duration of sitting in a shared workspace. A smart system based on a trolley-like robot, called the Anti-Sedentary Robot, was developed to realize the health intervention as follows. To start, the robot could navigate to the location of a sedentary worker to invite them to participate in a temporal voluntary service of returning items. Upon the invitation being accepted, the robot would then move with the worker to return the item and simultaneously provide guidance for physical exercises. Based on the Anti-Sedentary Robot, a within-subject study ( n = 18) was carried out to examine exercise motivations and psychological benefits of our design by making comparisons between a robot-guided intervention and a human-guided intervention. Quantitative results showed that the health intervention based on the Anti-Sedentary Robot increased intrinsic motivations and provided acute mental benefits compared to the human-guided intervention. Qualitative findings suggested that the Anti-sedentary Robot could combat work-related sedentary behaviors due to the pleasant system interactivity and the provision of reciprocal voluntary tasks. We discuss implications for the future development of social robots for office vitality based on our research findings.

Keywords: social robots; sedentary behaviors; health promotion; shared workspace (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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