Abstract
This paper discusses pilot deployment of a social robot “WallBo” that investigated the effectiveness in promoting and encouraging handwashing practices among children in a rural school in India. The results suggest an overall 85.06% handwashing compliance, 51.60% improvement from the baseline handwashing compliance and an overall ~ 50% knowledge improvement about handwashing. We also present students’ perception about “WallBo” and feedback from the pupils and teachers.
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Acknowledgement
This work was funded by the ERC/UKRI Proof-of-concept funding and supported by IEEE Robotics and Automation Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (RAS-SIGHT). We thank all the teachers, school authorities who supported our study and especially the children who participated in our study.
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Deshmukh, A., Darda, K.M., Mhatre, M.M., Pandey, R., Jadhav, A.R., Cross, E. (2024). Enhancing Hand Hygiene Practices Through a Social Robot-Assisted Intervention in a Rural School in India. In: Ali, A.A., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 14453 . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8715-3_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8715-3_21
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