Speed and Speech Impact on the Usage of a Hand Sanitizer Robot

Abstract

Hand hygiene has become an important part of our lives. In order to encourage people to sanitize their hands, a hand sanitizer robot was developed and tested. It drove around in the main entrance hall of a university and reminded people to use hand sanitizer using speech. An initial pilot study (N=196) using ethnographic observation and interviews revealed that the robot's speed and its ability to speak may potentially influence people's willingness to use the robot. In the main study (N=351), the robot was therefore tested with two variables: Speech and speed to find out how the robot is most efficient in engaging participants. An efficient robot is a robot that people use. In particular, we studied to what extent the speed of the hand sanitizer robot impacts whether people use it and to what extent the way the robot addresses people verbally affects whether they use it. These research questions were addressed in four conditions. The results show that a robot that uses a slower speed is regarded to be more trustworthy, and that friendly speech can be useful to remind people to use hand sanitizer.