TY - GEN
T1 - Diaphragmatic Breathing Guidance Using a Humanoid Robot with a Soft Robotic Haptic Interface for Anxiety Reduction
AU - Saood, Adnan
AU - Liu, Yang
AU - Tapus, Adriana
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.
PY - 2025/1/1
Y1 - 2025/1/1
N2 - Anxiety disorders profoundly affect individuals’ well-being and daily lives, manifesting in both physical and emotional symptoms. Although pharmacological treatments and cognitive-behavioral therapies are commonly used, diaphragmatic breathing exercises have shown promise as a non-pharmacological intervention. This work presents an innovative device: a silicone haptic interface mounted on the chest of a humanoid robot, designed to simulate human heartbeat and breathing. This device, employing a baromorphic system design, offers a good representation of human respiration. Our study assesses the effectiveness of this haptic interface in guiding diaphragmatic breathing exercises to reduce anxiety levels. Eighteen participants underwent a standard anxiety-inducing procedure followed by a guided diaphragmatic breathing exercise with the robot. They were divided into two groups: ten with the haptic interface and eight without it. Both groups experienced similar reductions in anxiety levels. Those using the haptic interface reported the robot as more natural and supportive in post-experiment interviews. This exploratory study illustrates the potential of social robots with haptic interfaces to enhance therapeutic practices for anxiety reduction.
AB - Anxiety disorders profoundly affect individuals’ well-being and daily lives, manifesting in both physical and emotional symptoms. Although pharmacological treatments and cognitive-behavioral therapies are commonly used, diaphragmatic breathing exercises have shown promise as a non-pharmacological intervention. This work presents an innovative device: a silicone haptic interface mounted on the chest of a humanoid robot, designed to simulate human heartbeat and breathing. This device, employing a baromorphic system design, offers a good representation of human respiration. Our study assesses the effectiveness of this haptic interface in guiding diaphragmatic breathing exercises to reduce anxiety levels. Eighteen participants underwent a standard anxiety-inducing procedure followed by a guided diaphragmatic breathing exercise with the robot. They were divided into two groups: ten with the haptic interface and eight without it. Both groups experienced similar reductions in anxiety levels. Those using the haptic interface reported the robot as more natural and supportive in post-experiment interviews. This exploratory study illustrates the potential of social robots with haptic interfaces to enhance therapeutic practices for anxiety reduction.
KW - Anxiety Reduction
KW - Haptic device
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105002150593
U2 - 10.1007/978-981-96-3525-2_21
DO - 10.1007/978-981-96-3525-2_21
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:105002150593
SN - 9789819635245
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
SP - 247
EP - 257
BT - Social Robotics - 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Proceedings
A2 - Palinko, Oskar
A2 - Bodenhagen, Leon
A2 - Cabibihan, John-John
A2 - Fischer, Kerstin
A2 - Šabanović, Selma
A2 - Winkle, Katie
A2 - Behera, Laxmidhar
A2 - Ge, Shuzhi Sam
A2 - Chrysostomou, Dimitrios
A2 - Jiang, Wanyue
A2 - He, Hongsheng
PB - Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
T2 - 16th International Conference on Social Robotics, ICSR + AI 2024
Y2 - 23 October 2024 through 26 October 2024
ER -