A robot as a fitness companion. Motivation in human-robot interaction under long-term conditions.

​The project explores ways in which a robot system (in our case NAO and FloBi) could provide support and motivation for people undertaking daily physical exercises. Such an application is particularly interesting for astronauts in space, for whom it is vital during any long-term mission in zero or low gravity to maintain physical fitness and psychological well-being. In our scenario, the robot is supposed to assume autonomously the role of a fitness instructor and support a structured bike training which is inspired by indoor cycling (‘spinning’). To do so, the robot not only needs to announce next training actions, but importantly, needs to observe and evaluate the trainees actions and provide positive or corrective feedback. Within this interdisciplinary realm, our project part investigates - on the basis of video-data acquired in fitness studios - the interactional practices of micro-coordination and ‘motivation’ between human instructors and trainees involved in spinning classes. Results of the empirical analysis are used to build interactional models for the robot system, which are, in turn, evaluated in both short- and long-term studies of HRI.

Publications

• Süssenbach, L. (2015). Motivation und Interaktion im Sport. Entwicklung eines empirisch basierten Interaktionsmodells für die Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. (PhD). Bielefeld University, Bielefeld.

• Süssenbach, L., Riether, N., Schneider, S., Berger, I., Kummert, F., Lütkebohle, I., & Pitsch, K. (2014). A robot as fitness companion: Towards an interactive action-based motivation model. In: Ro-Man 2014, Edinburgh, S. 286-293. [DOI] [Online-Volltext]

• Skutella, L. V., Süssenbach, L., Pitsch, K., & Wagner, P. (2014). The Prosody of Motivation: First Results from an Indoor Cycling Scenario. In: ESSV 2014. [Online-Volltext]

• Süssenbach, L., Pitsch, K., Berger, I., Riether, N., & Kummert, F. (2012). Can you answer questions, Flobi? Interactionally defining a robot's competence as a fitness instructor. In: Ro-Man 2012, S. 1121-1128. [DOI]

• Süssenbach, L., & Pitsch, K. (2011). Interactional Coordination and Alignment: Gestures in Indoor Cycling Courses. In: GESPIN 2011, 6 Seiten. 

• Dr Karola Pitsch (PostDoc, Supervision)

• Luise Süssenbach (Linguistics)