Designing robot verbal and nonverbal interactions in socially assistive domain for quality ageing in place

Giorgi, I, Watson, C, Pratt, C and Masala, GL (2020) Designing robot verbal and nonverbal interactions in socially assistive domain for quality ageing in place. In: International KES Conference on Human Centred Intelligent Systems 2020 (KES HCIS 2020), 17 June 2020 - 19 June 2020, Virtual.

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Abstract

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020. Endowing robots with the role of social assistance in silver care could be a powerful tool to combat chronic loneliness in ageing adults. These robots can be tasked with functional and affective care to support quotidian living and grant companionship that helps lessen the burden of cognitive decline and impairment emerging from social isolation. To accomplish such imperative tasks, artificial agents must be adept at communicating naturally with the human elder. In this work, we aim to enable human–robot interaction by designing human-like verbal and nonverbal behaviours of an autonomous robot companion. We employed the robot on a trial run using customisable algorithms to address a range of needs, while thriving social and emotional attachment with the potential senior user, with the final intent being that such endeavours can help achieve quality ageing in place.