A Social Robotic Obesity Management and Awareness System for Children in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The prevalence of obesity and overweight among children has increased significantly during last two decades in Saudi Arabia with overwhelming consequences to public health. Most recommended approaches to reduce obesity have paying attention on healthier diet and physical Activity (PA).  The recent research shows that the use of social robots can contribute in fulfilling all the needs to encourage children to improve their skills in self-management. As children need to be surprised and feel a sense of enjoyment when involving in any activity where they can spend time, effort and be dedicated to. Hereby, this paper presents an innovation social Robotic system to offer a set of activities to help obese children in improving their capabilities to manage their selves properly and increase their obesity knowledge.  The proposed system presented in this paper will be tested and evaluated extensively in a random controlled trial in Saudi Arabia.