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Social Robots to Address Loneliness
A growing area of human-robot interaction explores how robots, for example as companions, can be used to help people manage loneliness. However, we do not yet have research results indicating if people are ready to accept companion robots in their daily lives, and thus if companion robots can actually be successful broadly in society. We present a novel long-term in-home interaction study design that will explore how people accept these robots in their homes and how the robots impact loneliness.
Video
Media Impact:
- Winnipeg Free Press
- CTV News Winnipeg
- Radio-Canada
- Quartier Libre
- UMNews
- Radio One - Information Radio with Marcy Markusa
- La Liberté
- The Business Standard
- The Daily Star
- The Front Page
Project Publications
Can Robots Help with Loneliness? An Exploration of Social Robot Adoption by Lonely Individuals
Rahatul Amin Ananto. Can Robots Help with Loneliness? An Exploration of Social Robot Adoption by Lonely Individuals. MSc Thesis (2022). University of Manitoba, Canada.
We Can Do Better! An Initial Survey Highlighting an Opportunity for More HRI Work on Loneliness
Rahatul A. Ananto, James E. Young. 2021. We Can Do Better! An Initial Survey Highlighting an Opportunity for More HRI Work on Loneliness. In the Companion of 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI’21), March 8–11, 2021, Boulder, CO, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA. 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3434074.3447213
Robot Pets for Everyone: The Untapped Potential for Domestic Social Robots
Rahatul A. Ananto, James E. Young, “Robot Pets for Everyone: The Untapped Potential for Domestic Social Robots.” In Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2020 WORKSHOP ON SOCIAL HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION OF HUMAN-CARE SERVICE ROBOTS). 2020.
Domestic Robots for Individuals Living with Loneliness: A Long-Term In-Home Interaction Study Design
Rahatul A. Ananto, Geiskkovitch, D.Y., James E. Young. 2020. Domestic Robots for Individuals Living with Loneliness: A Long-Term In-Home Interaction Study Design. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI '20), Australia. ACM, 2 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3406499.3418749
