Robots can help improve mental wellbeing at work - as long as they look right

QT robot ( left ) and Misty robot ( right ) Credit: Hatice Gunes Robots can be useful as mental wellbeing coaches in the workplace - but perception of their effectiveness depends in large part on what the robot looks like. Our perceptions of how robots should look or behave might be holding back the uptake of robotics in areas where they can be useful Minja Axelsson Researchers from the University of Cambridge conducted a study in a tech consultancy firm using two robot wellbeing coaches, where 26 employees participated in weekly robot-led wellbeing sessions for four weeks. Although the robots had identical voices, facial expressions, and scripts for the sessions, the physical appearance of the robot affected how participants interacted with it. Participants who did their wellbeing exercises with a toy-like robot said that they felt more of a connection with their -coach- than participants who worked with a humanoid-like robot. The researchers say that perception of robots is affected by popular culture, where the only limit on what robots can do is the imagination. When faced with a robot in the real world however, it often does not live up to expectations. Since the toy-like robot looks simpler, participants may have had lower expectations and ended up finding the robot easier to talk and connect with.