Design of an Integrated Robotic Reminder System for People with Dementia

Several useful technologies to help people with dementia already exist. Robotic pets, for example, have been shown to alleviate negative symptoms associated with dementia. Most robotic pets, however, only have pet-like functionality. This is useful on its own, but adding additional care functionality would be helpful. A different useful tool for...

Personalized and Adaptive Cognitive Human-Robot Interaction with a Novel Fuzzy Logic Control and Reinforcement Learning-Based Paradigm: Master Thesis Report

An aging population puts a pressure on health-care workers working with dementia patients globally. A potential solution is to provide care with Socially Assistive Robots (SARs), i.e. robots who help people through social interaction. However, for effective care these SARs must be able to personalize their behavior to individual patients and...

Designing Robots with the Context in Mind- One Design Does Not Fit All

Robots’ visual qualities (VQs) impact people’s perception of their characteristics and affect users’ behaviors and attitudes toward the robot. Recent years point toward a growing need for Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) in various contexts and functions, interacting with various users. Since SAR types have functional differences, the user...

Evolving Fuzzy logic Systems for creative personalized Socially Assistive Robots

Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) are increasingly used in dementia and elderly care. In order to provide effective assistance, SARs need to be personalized to individual patients and account for stimulating their divergent thinking in creative ways. Rule-based fuzzy logic systems provide effective methods for automated decision-making of SARs...

Mathematical Modelling of Theory of Mind: Enabling Socially Assistive Robots to understand and predict humans in long-term interactions

Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) i.e., robots that assist humans through social interactions with them, have shown potential to improve the quality of life of their users. Nonetheless, the state-of-the-art SARs face challenges that prevent them from or limit them in assisting humans in the real world. Although current SARs display cues that...

Adaptive Fuzzy Logic Control Applied to Socially Assistive Drones: A Case Study

With the number of diagnosed cases rising every year, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is in need of novel therapeutic approaches to counteract the social and motor impairments inflicted by it. In this research, one of such therapeutic approaches, movement therapy (in particular Dance Movement Therapy (DMT)), is combined with the concept of...

Feel-good robotics: Requirements on touch for embodiment in assistive robotics

The feeling of embodiment, i.e., experiencing the body as belonging to oneself and being able to integrate objects into one's bodily self-representation, is a key aspect of human self-consciousness and has been shown to importantly shape human cognition. An extension of such feelings toward robots has been argued as being crucial for...