Socially Assistive Robot in Sexual Health: Group and Individual Student-Robot Interaction Activities Promoting Disclosure, Learning and Positive Attitudes

Comprehensive sex education (SE) is crucial in promoting sexual health and responsible behavior among students, particularly in elementary schools. Despite its significance, teaching SE can be challenging due to students' attitudes, shyness, and emotional barriers. Socially assistive robots (SARs) sometimes are perceived as more trustworthy than humans, based on research showing that they are not anticipated as judgmental. Inspired by those evidences, this study aims to assess the success of a SAR as a facilitator for SE lessons for elementary school students. This study conducted two experiments to assess the effectiveness of a SAR in facilitating SE education for elementary school students. We conducted two experiments, a) a group activity in the school classroom where the Nao robot gave a SE lecture, and we evaluated how much information the students acquired from the lecture, and b) an individual activity where the students interacted 1:1 with the robot, and we evaluated their attitudes towards the subject of SE, and if they felt comfortable to ask SE related questions to the robot. Data collected from pre- and post-questionnaires, as well as video annotations, revealed that the SAR significantly improved students' attitudes toward SE. Furthermore, students were more open to asking SE-related questions to the robot than their human teacher. The study emphasized specific SAR characteristics, such as embodiment and non-judgmental behavior, as key factors contributing to their effectiveness in supporting SE education, paving the way for innovative and effective approaches to sexual education in schools.

Touch in Human Social Robot Interaction: Systematic Literature Review with PRISMA Method

In the past two decades, there has been a continuous rise in the deployment of robots fulfilling social roles that expands across various industries such as guides, service providers, and educators. To establish robots as integral allies in daily life, it is essential for them to deliver positive and trustworthy experiences, achieved through seamless and satisfying interactions across diverse modalities and communication channels. In the realm of human-robot interactions, touch plays a pivotal role in facilitating meaningful connections and communication. To delve into the significance of haptic technologies and their impact on interactions between humans and social robots, an exploration of the existing literature is essential, since the research about touch is the most underrepresented between the other communication channels (facial expressions, movements, vocals etc). A systematic literature review has been carried out, identifying 42 articles with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), related to touch and haptic technologies and interaction between humans and social robots in the twenty years (2001 -2023). The results show the main differences, pros and cons between the materials and technologies that have been primary used so far, the qualitative and quantitative research that links the HRI touch studies with the human emotion and also the types of touch and repeatability of those methods. The study identifies research gaps and outlines future directions, while it serves as a guide for anyone who will be interesting in conducting HRI touch research or build a haptic system for a social robot.