Example of one of the robots designed by caregivers (Image Credit:
Healthcare Robotics Lab/University of California San Diego) |
A bit of robotic assistance can help people with dementia
and their caregivers. Robots current available for the elderly help them around
the house but there aren’t many robots that assist people with dementia. So, researchers
at the University of California, San Diego wanted to find out what kinds of
robots would actually help. They spent six months
co-designing robots with informal caregivers for people with dementia,
such as family members.
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They found that caregivers wanted the robots to fulfill two major roles: support positive moments shared by caregivers and their loved ones; and lessen caregivers' emotional stress by taking on difficult tasks, such as answering repeated questions and restricting unhealthy food.
“Caregivers conceived of robots not only managing difficult aspects of caregiving -- but also for supporting joyful and fun activities,” said Laurel Riek, a professor of computer science at UC San Diego, and the paper's senior author.
For the study, the research team led by Riek built relationships with three different dementia day care centers in San Diego County, reportsUC-San Diego.
Image: Creative commons |
- Based on the results of the six-month long community design process, the team identified various characteristics and designs a robot should have to support the caregivers and patients with dementia:
- Robots should help redirect conversations when repetitive questioning becomes burdensome
- Robots should be integrated into everyday objects that the people with dementia are already familiar with, or borrow features from those objects.
- Robots should be able to adapt to new situations and to the behavior of the person with dementia.
- Robots should be able to learn from end users, and customize and personalize their interaction and responses.
- Robots should have human-like components. That is not to say that they should look human. Rather the machines could, for example, use a real human voice or face.
· Robots should have human-like components. That
is not to say that they should look human. Rather the machines could, for
example, use a real human voice or face.
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The researchers presented their findings at the Human Robot Interaction conference in South Korea.