Comparing the Effects of Social Robots and Virtual Agents on Exercising Motivation

Preventing diseases of affluence is one of the major challenges for our future society. Researchers introduced robots as a tool to support people on dieting or rehabilitation tasks. However, deploying robots as exercising companions is cost-intensive. Therefore, in our current work, we are investigating how the embodiment of an exercising partner influences the exercising motivation to persist on an abdominal plank exercise. We analyzed and compared data from previous experiments on exercising with robots and virtual agents. The results show that the participants had longer exercising times when paired with a robot companion compared to virtual agents, but not compared to a human partner. However, participants perceived the robots partner as more likable than a human partner. This results have implications for SAR practitioners and are important for the usage of SAR to promote physical activity.

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