Publication

Abstract : We present "Haksh-E", a social robot for promoting good hand hygiene among children. This robot can supply valuable objective data to stakeholders and the UN to monitor progress on targets for UN SDGs 3 and 6. We discuss the design parameters of Haksh-E and a pilot study conducted with 10 children between the ages 6-11 years hailing from rural and urban locations in Southern India. The children provide insights on their perception and acceptance of our robot prototype over various dimensions including likeability, perceived intelligence, anthropomorphism, trustworthiness, age, and gender. Our results suggest that Haksh-E has the potential to be used in educational and children-centered spaces to promote handwashing behavior change.