“The need for mental wellbeing support just keeps growing,” says Gunes. “I have worked with many people experiencing mental health challenges, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only escalated the problem.”
Mindfulness training is a wellbeing approach that can reduce anxiety, and help people regulate emotions and become more resilient to stress. In essence it is about paying attention to the present moment: where we are and what we’re doing, in a non-judgemental way. In doing so it helps put space between ourselves and our reactions.
Gunes has practised mindfulness herself for over a decade and says it has been of great benefit in both her personal and professional life. But she says a lack of trained teachers and training programmes, and difficulties with establishing a guided, regular practice make mindfulness challenging and inaccessible for many people. Her solution is to develop interactive, human-like robot coaches.
This is not a fix for depression and other mental illnesses. Gunes sees robots as a way to make wellbeing practices such as mindfulness more accessible to healthy adults, to prevent mental health deteriorating to the point where medical help is needed.
“Humanoid robots have so much potential to help us stay mentally well – I really believe they can improve quality of life,” says Gunes, “and they’re so much better than an app. Robots have a physical presence – people tend to find them more engaging, which has more impact on their behaviour.”
“I want to work out how a robot can engage a person in a wellbeing practice such as mindfulness – how to express empathy, provide feedback, and instruct and demonstrate in a personalised way,” she says. It’s not just a technological challenge: a robotic coach also has to be accepted as a realistic option.
Gathering opinions
Gunes is taking an iterative approach to achieving her vision, beginning with two projects to identify specific challenges so they can be addressed from the early stages of the robot’s design. Using a focus group and interviews, her team explored people’s attitudes to being coached by a robot, and what they would expect from it. Everyone in the group had experience of some form of wellbeing practice, such as mindfulness or life coaching.
“Some people were more open to the idea of a robot coach than others, but many said they would give it a try if there was evidence to show the sessions were effective,” says Minja Axelsson, a PhD student working on the project.
Axelsson asked the discussion group what the robot should look like: should it be a machine without a face? Or if it has a face, would an animal or a human face be better? The group were shown videos, made by external developers, of different types of robot to help them understand the capabilities of each.
These included Pepper – ‘the emotional humanoid robot built to benefit mankind’, MiRo – ‘the empathetic dog-bot who could be your granny’s next carer’, and Jibo – ‘the first family robot’, which was the most machine-like of all.
“We found there wasn’t any clear preference on what the robot should look like,” says Axelsson. “But what was consistent was that they all expect its form to match its function. So, if the robot is going to offer reminders and interact through empathetic gestures, then a dog-like robot could work. But if the robot is going to have conversations and offer advanced interventions like solution-focused coaching, it should be more humanoid.”
The group’s biggest concern in using a robot wellbeing coach was privacy. “There were also worries about the cost, and ability to operate such a complex technology,” says Axelsson. “All these things will be taken into account as the robot is developed.” Three human wellbeing coaches were also interviewed separately to get deeper insights and suggestions.
