https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/PAPERS/socialroboticssurvey.pdf

A survey of socially interactive robots

Robot therapy for elderly residents in a care house has been conducted since June 2005. Two therapeutic robots were introduced into a care facility, and activated for over 9 h each day to interact with the residents. This paper presents the results of the first month of this experiment. To investigate the psychological and social effects of the robots, each subject was interviewed, and their social network was analyzed. In addition, the activities of the residents in public areas were recorded by video cameras during daytime hours (8:30-18:00). For physiological analysis, residents' urine was obtained and analyzed for hormones 17-ketosteroid sulfate and 17-hydroxycorticosteroids. The experimental protocol was reviewed and approved by the ethical committee of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The results indicate that interaction with the seal robots increased their social interaction. Furthermore, the urinary tests showed that the reactions of the subjects' vital organs to stress improved after the introduction of the robots.

Living With Seal Robots—Its Sociopsychological and Physiological Influences on the Elderly at a Care House

Living with seal robots-Its socio-psychological and physiological influences on the elderly in a care house

Mental healthcare of elderly people is a common problem in advanced countries. Recently, high technology has developed robots for use not only in factories but also for our living environment. In particular, human-interactive robots for psychological enrichment, which provide services by interacting with humans while stimulating their minds, are rapidly spreading. Such robots not only simply entertain but also render assistance, guide, provide therapy, educate, enable communication, and so on. Robot therapy, which uses robots as a substitution for animals in animal-assisted therapy and activity, is a new application of robots and is attracting the attention of many researchers and psychologists. The seal robot named Paro was developed especially for robot therapy and was used at hospitals and facilities for elderly people in several countries. Recent research has revealed that robot therapy has the same effects on people as animal therapy. In addition, it is being recognized as a new method of mental healthcare for elderly people. In this mini review, we introduce the merits and demerits of animal therapy. Then we explain the human-interactive robot for psychological enrichment, the required functions for therapeutic robots, and the seal robot. Finally, we provide examples of robot therapy for elderly people, including dementia patients.

/pdf/robot-therapy-a-new-approach-for-mental-healthcare-of-the-41k7ydikjh.pdf

Robot Therapy: A New Approach for Mental Healthcare of the Elderly – A Mini-Review

Mental commit robots have been developed to provide psychological, physiological, and social effects in human beings through physical interaction. The appearance of these robots is designed to emulate real animals such as a cat or a seal. The seal robot was developed especially for therapeutic applications. Seal robots have been applied to assisting the activity of the elderly at a day service center. In order to investigate the effects of seal robots on elderly people, their mood was evaluated using face scales (which express moods by identifying the appropriate facial illustration) and questionnaires. Changes in reaction to stress in the elderly was measured using urinary tests. In addition, stress of nursing staff was investigated. Their mental state was evaluated using a "burnout scale." The day service center was provided with seal robots for five weeks. As a result, the feelings of elderly people improved by the interaction with the robots. Urinary tests showed that their ability to overcome stress were also improved. Moreover, the stress levels of the nursing staff decreased because the elderly people required less supervision when interacting with the robots. Consequently, the seal robots were judged to be useful at institutions for the elderly, such as the day service center.

/pdf/effects-of-robot-assisted-activity-for-elderly-people-and-wcfu8s0kak.pdf

Effects of robot-assisted activity for elderly people and nurses at a day service center

This paper describes the research on mental commit robot that seeks a different direction that is not so rigidly dependent on such objective measures as accuracy, speed, and cost. The main goal of this research is to explore a new area in robotics, with an emphasis on human-robot interaction. In the previous research, we categorized robots into four categories in terms of appearance. Then, we introduced a cat robot and a seal robot, and evaluated them by interviewing many people. The results showed that physical interaction improved subjective evaluation. Moreover, a priori knowledge of a subject has much influence into subjective interpretation and evaluation of the robot. In this paper, 785 subjects were asked to evaluate the seal robot and the results were analyzed by multivariate analysis. In addition, we applied the mental commit robot to therapy of children similar to the animal assisted therapy. This paper describes some of the results of the "robot assisted therapy".

Mental commit robot and its application to therapy of children

Absfruct-We have been developing mental commit robots that provide psychological and physiological effects to human beings through physical interaction. The appearances of robots look like real animals such as cat and seal. We applied mental commit robots to assist therapy of children at a hospital. Video will show how children interact with the mental commit robots. Index tenns-Mental Commit-Robot, Robot Assisted Therapy, Physical Interaction, Human-Robot Interaction

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/7453/20265/00936420.pdf

T. Kumasaka

Papers

Mental commit robot and its application to therapy of children

Therapy of children assisted by mental commit robot