While pet ownership has been shown to improve physical health, like blood pressure, and mental health, such as pre-adolescent psychosocial development, not all households can include pets.

Thus, we propose the use of a small pet-like non-zoomorphic desktop robot, Dogbot, to help regulate emotions and manage stress levels of K-12 students through physical interaction during the remote learning experience. In particular, we will investigate the effectiveness of different elements of touch such as warmth and breathing motion.

These emotions have been shown to reduce stress and help relax. We believe that having an active, physically present social robot can help mitigate the lack of in-person effective interaction and help students meet their emotional needs during their remote learning experiences.