{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T11:09:10Z","timestamp":1788952150117,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":89,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788912000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Robot. AI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Mental health is a significant healthcare challenge, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a widely used therapeutic method for treating anxiety and depression. However, traditional CBT often requires access to trained clinicians and can be cost-prohibitive or logistically difficult for many individuals. To address these barriers, we developed a low-cost socially assistive robot (SAR) that uses a large language model (LLM) to guide the user through interactive at-home CBT exercises. In this exploratory study, 38 university students completed CBT exercises across a 15-day period using one of three modalities: with a robot (using an LLM for dialogue), a chatbot (using the same LLM for dialogue), or traditional CBT worksheets. We measured weekly therapeutic outcomes, changes in pre-\/post-session anxiety measures, and adherence to completing CBT exercises. Our findings indicate that self-reported general psychological distress significantly decreased over the study period in the robot and worksheet conditions but not in the chatbot condition. Additionally, the SAR enabled significant single-session improvements on more days than the other two conditions combined. Mixed-effects modeling further An analysis with a mixed-effects model also suggested that the robot and chatbot conditions better reduced post-session anxiety for those with elevated levels of anxiety. Our findings suggest that SAR-guided, LLM-powered CBT may be an effective method for supporting therapeutic progress and decreasing user anxiety immediately after completing the CBT exercise. The findings underscore the potential for combining AI-driven personalization with socially assistive robotics to create accessible, scalable, and engaging mental health interventions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/frobt.2026.1802622","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T10:12:37Z","timestamp":1788948757000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["LLM-powered socially assistive robot-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy exercises: an exploratory study with university students"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Mina","family":"Kian","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mingyu","family":"Zong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Autonomous Networks Research Group, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Katrin","family":"Fischer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abhyuday","family":"Singh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anna-Maria","family":"Velentza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, Brest National School of Engineering","place":["Plouzan\u00e9, France"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amy","family":"O\u2019Connell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lydia","family":"Ignatova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pau","family":"Sang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shriya","family":"Upadhyay","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anika","family":"Gupta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Misha A.","family":"Faruki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wallace","family":"Browning","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interaction Lab, Computer Science Department, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California","place":["Los Angeles, CA, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"S\u00e9bastien M. 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