Development of a Wearable Robot that Moves on the Arm and Provides Squeezing Interactions for Mindset and Behavior Change

Abstract

With the rapid spread of smartphones, smartphone addiction has become a problem．In this research, we focus on the physical contact from a wearable robot and aim to create a system for mindset and behavior change about the smartphone usage time of a user. We propose a wearable robot that moves on the user’s arm and alerts the user by squeezing interactions when the user uses the smartphone for a long time. In this paper, we introduce a prototype of the movement mechanism and position estimation system for the wearable robot we developed as an initial step in the goal, and show the results of an evaluation experiment of the position estimation system in a virtual environment.