Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals

Oskar Palinko; Robert Wendlandt; Søren Udby; Franziska Uhing; Johannes H. Fog; Esben Hansen; Rasmus Peter Junge; Daniel Gahner Holm; Mikkel Kipp; Leon Bodenhagen

doi:10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_8

Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals

Oskar Palinko^*, Robert Wendlandt, Søren Udby, Franziska Uhing, Johannes H. Fog, Esben Hansen, Rasmus Peter Junge, Daniel Gahner Holm, Mikkel Kipp, Leon Bodenhagen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Hand disinfection is one of the mainstays of infectious disease prevention, especially at hospitals. However, not everyone sanitizes their hands when entering healthcare institutions. Since the Covid pandemic there have been efforts to use mobile service robots to make it easier for people to disinfect their hands. Even though these robots do provide a benefit, most of them are not actively pursuing interaction with people. We looked at how adding interaction capabilities benefits the robots’ performance. We compared a newly developed modular interactive mobile service robot, HanDiRob, with a mobile hand sanitizer robot which is less aware of and interactive with its environment. Our tests show that when the robot shows clear understanding of the presence of people and interacts with them, the hand sanitization compliance rate improves very significantly (more than 300%). However there is still much to do before rolling out interactive mobile robots on hospital corridors.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Social Robotics : 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Odense, Denmark, October 23–26, 2024, Proceedings, Part II
Editors	Oskar Palinko, Leon Bodenhagen, John-John Cabibihan, Kerstin Fischer, Selma Šabanović, Katie Winkle, Laxmidhar Behera, Shuzhi Sam Ge, Dimitrios Chrysostomou, Wanyue Jiang, Hongsheng He
Volume	2
Publisher	Springer
Publication date	2025
Pages	74-85
ISBN (Print)	978-981-96-3518-4
ISBN (Electronic)	978-981-96-3519-1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_8
Publication status	Published - 2025
Event	16th International Conference on Social Robotics - Odense, Denmark Duration: 23. Oct 2024 → 26. Oct 2024

Conference

Conference	16th International Conference on Social Robotics
Country/Territory	Denmark
City	Odense
Period	23/10/2024 → 26/10/2024

Series	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Volume	15562
ISSN	0302-9743

Keywords

Compliance Improvement
Hand Disinfection
Mobile Service Robots

Documents & Links

10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_8

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Palinko, O., Wendlandt, R., Udby, S., Uhing, F., Fog, J. H., Hansen, E., Junge, R. P., Holm, D. G., Kipp, M., & Bodenhagen, L. (2025). Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals. In O. Palinko, L. Bodenhagen, J.-J. Cabibihan, K. Fischer, S. Šabanović, K. Winkle, L. Behera, S. S. Ge, D. Chrysostomou, W. Jiang, & H. He (Eds.), Social Robotics: 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Odense, Denmark, October 23–26, 2024, Proceedings, Part II (Vol. 2, pp. 74-85). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_8

Palinko, Oskar ; Wendlandt, Robert ; Udby, Søren et al. / Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals. Social Robotics: 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Odense, Denmark, October 23–26, 2024, Proceedings, Part II. editor / Oskar Palinko ; Leon Bodenhagen ; John-John Cabibihan ; Kerstin Fischer ; Selma Šabanović ; Katie Winkle ; Laxmidhar Behera ; Shuzhi Sam Ge ; Dimitrios Chrysostomou ; Wanyue Jiang ; Hongsheng He. Vol. 2 Springer, 2025. pp. 74-85 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 15562).

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title = "Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals",

abstract = "Hand disinfection is one of the mainstays of infectious disease prevention, especially at hospitals. However, not everyone sanitizes their hands when entering healthcare institutions. Since the Covid pandemic there have been efforts to use mobile service robots to make it easier for people to disinfect their hands. Even though these robots do provide a benefit, most of them are not actively pursuing interaction with people. We looked at how adding interaction capabilities benefits the robots{\textquoteright} performance. We compared a newly developed modular interactive mobile service robot, HanDiRob, with a mobile hand sanitizer robot which is less aware of and interactive with its environment. Our tests show that when the robot shows clear understanding of the presence of people and interacts with them, the hand sanitization compliance rate improves very significantly (more than 300\%). However there is still much to do before rolling out interactive mobile robots on hospital corridors.",

keywords = "Compliance Improvement, Hand Disinfection, Mobile Service Robots",

author = "Oskar Palinko and Robert Wendlandt and S{\o}ren Udby and Franziska Uhing and Fog, \{Johannes H.\} and Esben Hansen and Junge, \{Rasmus Peter\} and Holm, \{Daniel Gahner\} and Mikkel Kipp and Leon Bodenhagen",

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booktitle = "Social Robotics",

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Palinko, O, Wendlandt, R, Udby, S, Uhing, F, Fog, JH, Hansen, E, Junge, RP, Holm, DG, Kipp, M & Bodenhagen, L 2025, Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals. in O Palinko, L Bodenhagen, J-J Cabibihan, K Fischer, S Šabanović, K Winkle, L Behera, SS Ge, D Chrysostomou, W Jiang & H He (eds), Social Robotics: 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Odense, Denmark, October 23–26, 2024, Proceedings, Part II. vol. 2, Springer, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 15562, pp. 74-85, 16th International Conference on Social Robotics, Odense, Denmark, 23/10/2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_8

Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals. / Palinko, Oskar; Wendlandt, Robert; Udby, Søren et al.
Social Robotics: 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Odense, Denmark, October 23–26, 2024, Proceedings, Part II. ed. / Oskar Palinko; Leon Bodenhagen; John-John Cabibihan; Kerstin Fischer; Selma Šabanović; Katie Winkle; Laxmidhar Behera; Shuzhi Sam Ge; Dimitrios Chrysostomou; Wanyue Jiang; Hongsheng He. Vol. 2 Springer, 2025. p. 74-85 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 15562).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals

AU - Palinko, Oskar

AU - Wendlandt, Robert

AU - Udby, Søren

AU - Uhing, Franziska

AU - Fog, Johannes H.

AU - Hansen, Esben

AU - Junge, Rasmus Peter

AU - Holm, Daniel Gahner

AU - Kipp, Mikkel

AU - Bodenhagen, Leon

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Hand disinfection is one of the mainstays of infectious disease prevention, especially at hospitals. However, not everyone sanitizes their hands when entering healthcare institutions. Since the Covid pandemic there have been efforts to use mobile service robots to make it easier for people to disinfect their hands. Even though these robots do provide a benefit, most of them are not actively pursuing interaction with people. We looked at how adding interaction capabilities benefits the robots’ performance. We compared a newly developed modular interactive mobile service robot, HanDiRob, with a mobile hand sanitizer robot which is less aware of and interactive with its environment. Our tests show that when the robot shows clear understanding of the presence of people and interacts with them, the hand sanitization compliance rate improves very significantly (more than 300%). However there is still much to do before rolling out interactive mobile robots on hospital corridors.

AB - Hand disinfection is one of the mainstays of infectious disease prevention, especially at hospitals. However, not everyone sanitizes their hands when entering healthcare institutions. Since the Covid pandemic there have been efforts to use mobile service robots to make it easier for people to disinfect their hands. Even though these robots do provide a benefit, most of them are not actively pursuing interaction with people. We looked at how adding interaction capabilities benefits the robots’ performance. We compared a newly developed modular interactive mobile service robot, HanDiRob, with a mobile hand sanitizer robot which is less aware of and interactive with its environment. Our tests show that when the robot shows clear understanding of the presence of people and interacts with them, the hand sanitization compliance rate improves very significantly (more than 300%). However there is still much to do before rolling out interactive mobile robots on hospital corridors.

KW - Compliance Improvement

KW - Hand Disinfection

KW - Mobile Service Robots

U2 - 10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_8

DO - 10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_8

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 978-981-96-3518-4

VL - 2

T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science

SP - 74

EP - 85

BT - Social Robotics

A2 - Palinko, Oskar

A2 - Bodenhagen, Leon

A2 - Cabibihan, John-John

A2 - Fischer, Kerstin

A2 - Šabanović, Selma

A2 - Winkle, Katie

A2 - Behera, Laxmidhar

A2 - Ge, Shuzhi Sam

A2 - Chrysostomou, Dimitrios

A2 - Jiang, Wanyue

A2 - He, Hongsheng

PB - Springer

T2 - 16th International Conference on Social Robotics

Y2 - 23 October 2024 through 26 October 2024

ER -

Palinko O, Wendlandt R, Udby S, Uhing F, Fog JH, Hansen E et al. Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals. In Palinko O, Bodenhagen L, Cabibihan JJ, Fischer K, Šabanović S, Winkle K, Behera L, Ge SS, Chrysostomou D, Jiang W, He H, editors, Social Robotics: 16th International Conference, ICSR + AI 2024, Odense, Denmark, October 23–26, 2024, Proceedings, Part II. Vol. 2. Springer. 2025. p. 74-85. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 15562). doi: 10.1007/978-981-96-3519-1_8

Interaction Matters When It Comes to Hand Disinfection Using Robots at Hospitals

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