Developing Autonomous Robot-Mediated Behavior Coaching Sessions with Haru

TL;DR

The study addresses the challenge of enabling autonomous, emotionally expressive, and trustworthy robot-assisted behavior-change coaching. It develops a fully autonomous Haru dialogue grounded in the Tiny Habits framework and designed through Design Thinking, incorporating emotional expressivity, empathy, and situational awareness. The final system improves perceived liveliness, interactivity, and neutrality, while identifying ASR as a remaining limitation. This work advances practical HRI coaching by detailing a robust, adaptable dialogue design that can inform future robot-mediated behavior-change applications.

Abstract

This study presents an empirical investigation into the design and impact of autonomous dialogues in human-robot interaction for behavior change coaching. We focus on the use of Haru, a tabletop social robot, and explore the implementation of the Tiny Habits method for fostering positive behavior change. The core of our study lies in developing a fully autonomous dialogue system that maximizes Haru's emotional expressiveness and unique personality. Our methodology involved iterative design and extensive testing of the dialogue system, ensuring it effectively embodied the principles of the Tiny Habits method while also incorporating strategies for trust-raising and trust-dampening. The effectiveness of the final version of the dialogue was evaluated in an experimental study with human participants (N=12). The results indicated a significant improvement in perceptions of Haru's liveliness, interactivity, and neutrality. Additionally, our study contributes to the broader understanding of dialogue design in social robotics, offering practical insights for future developments in the field.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Overview of the Dialogue Structure
• Figure 2: Illustration of the Tiny Habit Dialogue