This work presents a comprehensive overview of social robots in therapy and the healthcare of children, adults, and elderly populations. According to recent evidence in this field, the primary outcomes and limitations are highlighted. This review points out the implications and requirements for the proper deployment of social robots in therapy and healthcare scenarios. Social robots are a current trend that is being studied in different healthcare services. Evidence highlights the potential and favorable results due to the support and assistance provided by social robots. However, some side effects and limitations are still under research. Social robots can play various roles in the area of health and well-being. However, further studies regarding the acceptability and perception are still required. There are challenges to be addressed, such as improvements in the functionality and robustness of these robotic systems.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s43154-020-00009-2.pdf

Social Robots in Therapy and Care

The unceasing aging of the population is leading to new problems in developed countries. Robots represent an opportunity to extend the period of independent living of the elderly as well as to ameliorate their economic burden and social problems. We present a new social robot, Mini, specifically designed to assist and accompany the elderly in their daily life either at home or in a nursing facility. Based on the results of several meetings with experts in this field, we have built a robot able to provide services in the areas of safety, entertainment, personal assistance and stimulation. Mini supports elders and caregivers in cognitive and mental tasks. We present the robot platform and describe the software architecture, particularly focussing on the human–robot interaction. We give in detail how the robot operates and the interrelation of the different modules of the robot in a real use case. In the last part of the paper, we evaluated how users perceive the robot. Participants reported interesting results in terms of usability, appearance, and satisfaction. This paper describes all aspects of the design and development of a new social robot that can be used by other researchers who face the multiple challenges of creating a new robotic platform for older people.

Mini: A New Social Robot for the Elderly

The goal of this work is to describe how robots interact with complex city environments, and to identify the main characteristics of an emerging field that we call Robot–City Interaction (RCI). Given the central role recently gained by modern cities as use cases for the deployment of advanced technologies, and the advancements achieved in the robotics field in recent years, we assume that there is an increasing interest both in integrating robots in urban ecosystems, and in studying how they can interact and benefit from each others. Therefore, our challenge becomes to verify the emergence of such area, to assess its current state and to identify the main characteristics, core themes and research challenges associated with it. This is achieved by reviewing a preliminary body of work contributing to this area, which we classify and analyze according to an analytical framework including a set of key dimensions for the area of RCI. Such review not only serves as a preliminary state-of-the-art in the area, but also allows us to identify the main characteristics of RCI and its research landscape.

/pdf/robot-city-interaction-mapping-the-research-landscape-a-2y9czrz2e1.pdf

Robot–City Interaction: Mapping the Research Landscape—A Survey of the Interactions Between Robots and Modern Cities

Background and Aim Loneliness is a common problem in older adults and contributes to poor health This scoping review aimed to synthesize and report evidence on the effectiveness of interventions using social robots or computer agents to reduce loneliness in older adults and to explore intervention strategies Methods The review adhered to the Arksey and O'Malley process for conducting scoping reviews The SCOPUS, PUBMED, Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ACM Digital Library and IEEE Xplore databases were searched in November, 2020 A two-step selection process identified eligible research Information was extracted from papers and entered into an Excel coding sheet and summarised Quality assessments were conducted using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool Results Twenty-nine studies were included, of which most were of moderate to high quality Eighteen were observational and 11 were experimental Twenty-four used robots, four used computer agents and one study used both The majority of results showed that robots or computer agents positively impacted at least one loneliness outcome measure Some unintended negative consequences on social outcomes were reported, such as sadness when the robot was removed Overall, the interventions helped to combat loneliness by acting as a direct companion (69%), a catalyst for social interaction (41%), facilitating remote communication with others (10%) and reminding users of upcoming social engagements (3%) Conclusion Evidence to date suggests that robots can help combat loneliness in older adults, but there is insufficient research on computer agents Common strategies for reducing loneliness include direct companionship and enabling social interactions Future research could investigate other strategies used in human interventions (eg, addressing maladaptive social cognition and improving social skills), and the effects of design features on efficacy It is recommended that more robust experimental and mixed methods research be conducted, using a combination of validated self-report, observational, and interview measures of loneliness

/pdf/friends-from-the-future-a-scoping-review-of-research-into-3cvqhndmo1.pdf

Friends from the Future: A Scoping Review of Research into Robots and Computer Agents to Combat Loneliness in Older People

Promoting health and prolonging independence in the home is a priority for older adults, caregivers, clinicians, and society at large. Rapidly developing robotics technology provides a platform for interventions, with the fields of physically and socially assistive robots expanding in recent years. However, less attention has been paid to using robots to enhance the cognitive health of older adults. The goal of this review is to synthesize the current literature on home-based cognitively assistive robots (CAR) in older adults without dementia and to provide suggestions to improve the quality of the scientific evidence in this subfield. First, we set the stage for CAR by: a) introducing the field of robotics to improve health, b) summarizing evidence emphasizing the importance of home-based interventions for older adults, c) reviewing literature on robot acceptability in older adults, d) highlighting important ethical issues in healthcare robotics, and e) reviewing current findings on socially assistive robots, with a focus on translating findings to the CAR context. With this foundation in place, we then review the literature on CAR, identifying gaps and limitations of current evidence, and proposing future directions for research. We conclude that CAR is promising and feasible and that there is a need for more methodologically rigorous evaluations of CAR to promote prolonged home-based independence in older adults.

/pdf/home-based-cognitively-assistive-robots-maximizing-cognitive-2e593m4k43.pdf

Home-Based Cognitively Assistive Robots: Maximizing Cognitive Functioning and Maintaining Independence in Older Adults Without Dementia.

This paper presents the design, development, methodology, and the results of a pilot study on using an intelligent, emotive and perceptive social robot (aka Companionbot) for improving the quality of life of elderly people with dementia and/or depression. Ryan Companionbot prototyped in this project, is a rear-projected life-like conversational robot. Ryan is equipped with features that can (1) interpret and respond to users' emotions through facial expressions and spoken language, (2) proactively engage in conversations with users, and (3) remind them about their daily life schedules (e.g. taking their medicine on time). Ryan engages users in cognitive games and reminiscence activities. We conducted a pilot study with six elderly individuals with moderate dementia and/or depression living in a senior living facility in Denver. Each individual had 24/7 access to a Ryan in his/her room for a period of 4–6 weeks. Our observations of these individuals, interviews with them and their caregivers, and analyses of their interactions during this period revealed that they established rapport with the robot and greatly valued and enjoyed having a Companionbot in their room.

A pilot study on using an intelligent life-like robot as a companion for elderly individuals with dementia and depression

This paper presents the design, development, methodology, and the results of a pilot study on using an intelligent, emotive and perceptive social robot (aka Companionbot) for improving the quality of life of elderly people with dementia and/or depression. Ryan Companionbot prototyped in this project, is a rear-projected life-like conversational robot. Ryan is equipped with features that can (1) interpret and respond to users' emotions through facial expressions and spoken language, (2) proactively engage in conversations with users, and (3) remind them about their daily life schedules (e.g. taking their medicine on time). Ryan engages users in cognitive games and reminiscence activities. We conducted a pilot study with six elderly individuals with moderate dementia and/or depression living in a senior living facility in Denver. Each individual had 24/7 access to a Ryan in his/her room for a period of 4-6 weeks. Our observations of these individuals, interviews with them and their caregivers, and analyses of their interactions during this period revealed that they established rapport with the robot and greatly valued and enjoyed having a Companionbot in their room.

A Pilot Study on Using an Intelligent Life-like Robot as a Companion for Elderly Individuals with Dementia and Depression

Mobile robots are being employed far more often in extreme environments, such as urban search and rescue, with greater levels of autonomy; yet recent studies on field robotics show that numerous failure modes affect the reliability of the robot in meeting mission objectives. Therefore, fault tolerance is increasingly important for field robots operating in unpredictable environments to ensure safety and effectiveness of the system. This paper demonstrates a self-adaptation frame- work, ReFrESH, that contains mechanisms for fault detection and fault mitigation. The goal of ReFrESH is to provide diagnosable and maintainable infrastructure support, built into a real-time operating system, to manage task performance in the presence of unexpected uncertainties. ReFrESH augments the port-based object framework by attaching evaluation and estimation mechanisms to each functional component so that the robot can easily detect and locate faults. In conjunction, a task level decision mechanism interacts with the fault detection elements in order to generate and choose an optimal approach to mitigating faults. Moreover, to increase flexibility of the fault tolerance, ReFrESH provides self-adaptation support for both software and hardware functionality. To our knowledge, this is the first framework to support both software and hardware self- adaptation. A demonstrative application of ReFrESH illustrates its applicability through a target tracking task deployed on a mobile robot system.

https://www.purdue.edu/crl/ReFrESH_IROS_2014.pdf

ReFrESH: A self-adaptation framework to support fault tolerance in field mobile robots

Hybridization of robots has led to great leaps in capability, often with minimal additional complexity, and refers to a synergistic combination of different actuation modes within a single platform. Doing so extends the capabilities and task space of a robot by pooling together the strengths of the individual modes and results in a single platform that is greater than the sum of its parts. In this paper we present a novel 2-D tread mechanism capable of exerting motive forces in two orthogonal directions. Early exploration into hybridization of this mechanism includes a holonomic differential drive configuration as well as a holonomic tread/limb/serpentine hybrid robot. Some preliminary results of the tread mechanism performance are presented as well.

A 2-D tread mechanism for hybridization in USAR robotics

Robot operating environments and the status of robots are complex and varying, so it is practically impossible for a robotics designer to anticipate all system configurations to successfully complete a task prior to deployment. Therefore, a mechanism for dynamic decision making and configuration synthesis that copes with system fault and uncertainty is necessary. This paper implements such a mechanism within a self-adaptive framework (ReFrESH). The goal of this presented mechanism is to provide diagnosability and maintainability to manage the system performance during task execution in the presence of unexpected uncertainties. Specifically, the functionality of the proposed mechanism include: (1) detection of system performance degradation; (2) diagnosis and locate of the fault module; (3) synthesis of feasible task configurations; (4) selection of the optimal one. We illustrate the feasibility of the proposed mechanism through a visual servoing task.

Joshua T. Lane

Papers

A pilot study on using an intelligent life-like robot as a companion for elderly individuals with dementia and depression

A Pilot Study on Using an Intelligent Life-like Robot as a Companion for Elderly Individuals with Dementia and Depression

ReFrESH: A self-adaptation framework to support fault tolerance in field mobile robots

A 2-D tread mechanism for hybridization in USAR robotics

A mechanism for real-time decision making and system maintenance for resource constrained robotic systems through ReFrESH