Abstract
This research investigated how home exercise systems may evolve when augmented with human-robot-interaction technologies. In a covid/post-covid era, families seek options for play and exercise at home. How will the homes of tomorrow accommodate the dynamic, intensive, and social nature of human play, exercise, and sports? What does a home play/exercise system entail that is usable by individuals or groups of all ages and that fosters developing the physical, cognitive, social, and distributed dimensions of sports activities? This research explores an interactive “Home+Exercise” (iHE) concept. iHE incorporates a non-humanoid social robotic environment providing game-based, structured play for individuals and groups to foster athletic and team skills. This research used three theoretical frames: (1) embodied interaction, (2) activity spaces, and (3) neuro-ergonomics. The analysis usefully maps relevant design concerns and identified the following challenges: (1) the criteria of evaluation are mainly qualitative, the complexity of interactions with non-humanoid social robots, and limitations mitigating external threats to validity.