Ommie.

Ommie is robot I designed and built for researching the intersection of social robotics and mental health support. Ommie’s core interaction is to support deep breathing (the practice of extending one’s inhales, holds, and exhales) for the purposes of anxiety reduction. This practice has been shown to calm the autonomic nervous system and reduce anxiety states. Ommie supports the practice by mechanically expanding and contracting in the cadence of deep breathing while a user places their hands on the robot. Early usability testing with the robot shows a quantitatively significant reduction in anxiety state measures after use, as well as high rankings from users on the robot’s calming, approachable, and engaging qualities. Users additionally report Ommie’s haptic and audio interactions as providing a focusing effect, leading to faster calming than other methods they have used in the past. They also describe a companionship element to using Ommie while deep breathing, reminiscent of the motivational effect of meditating in groups or with another person. 

Full research paper available here: A Social Robot for Anxiety Reduction via Deep Breath
🏆 Winner of a IEEE RO-MAN 2022 Best Paper Award

My work with Ommie also featured in my HRI Pioneers 2023 extended abstract and accompanying video: