Handwashing with soap is considered the “most effective vaccine” against numerous diseases. Despite awareness, proper hand hygiene practices are not followed due to a lack of it being a habit. Through our research at AMMACHI Labs, Amrita University, India, we created an autonomous AI-enabled social robot that can help instill habit-forming positive handwashing behavior in young children called "Haksh-E".

The robot's physical embodiment was developed through a co-design study with children using participatory approaches. HakshE's shell resembles a soap dispenser (intentionally designed around the hand hygiene theme), with an LCD screen face displaying a wide range of emotions through animated features. The minimalistic design helps manage children's expectations while maintaining engagement.

A Hand Action Recognition system, that serves as HakshE's vision component, enables autonomous observation of children during handwashing. When deployed at sinks, the robot can monitor handwashing quality, identify which steps children perform correctly or skip, and provide real-time behavioral nudges and encouragement. This work establishes the feasibility of using deep neural networks in social robotics for health behavior monitoring and lays groundwork for autonomous hand hygiene promotion in schools.

Toycathon 2021-22, an inter-ministerial initiative hosted by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, India, declared this project as a national finalist and winner. This work has also been presented at several national and international conferences (SIGGRAPH, IJSR, etc) earning several accolades.