Robot Pepper: a loyal partner in elderly care, bringing positive emotional experiences to the elderly

Researchers at the University of Bari and the University of Parma recently published a new study that explored the emotional responses of older adults after interacting with the robot Pepper. Research has found that most elderly people respond positively emotionally, and the help of robots can make the elderly more interested in training tasks in nursing care.

Robots are increasingly being used in various life scenarios, especially in the field of health care. Robots are providing assistance to the elderly with their unique abilities.

Previously, researchers had used NAO robots in other studies in cognitive stimulation therapy. These studies measured not only older adults' performance on task completion, but also their engagement and affective responses. "For example, at a medical center that treats cognitive impairment and dementia, we use NAO robots to show older adults how to perform physical exercises and to assist therapists in group therapy sessions to restore and maintain older adults' health," said researcher Pinault. Cognitive abilities, such as memory, orientation, and communication.”

When Pepper came to the laboratory, the researchers believed that Pepper had advantages in body height, tablet display, and mobile functions, and could better understand the test results. Rewritten content: When Pepper entered the laboratory, researchers believed that Pepper had greater advantages in height, tablet display, and mobile capabilities to better present test results

So researchers at the Alzheimer's Disease Center in Barrie conducted a new investigation. In their new study, Pino and their colleagues analyzed the emotions of eight older adults as they completed a memory task with the help of the Pepper robot. To do this, they compared the predictions made by a specially trained automatic facial expression recognition (FER) system with the observations of three human raters.

As they expected, the Pepper robot was perfect for this test

because it has tactile sensors on its head and hands, as well as a tablet that plays videos and images that the user can press buttons to interact with the robot.

In the experiment, during Pepper's company, the old man showed a more positive facial expression and became more engaged

. Pino explained: "Robots for real-world applications should ideally be responsive and move flexibly. Therefore, robots that can adapt to human interaction are particularly suitable.

Researchers note that humanoid robots have great potential as they are able to engage in more engaging interactions with users. Applying robotics technology to elderly care scenarios provides new possibilities for improving patients’ quality of life and reducing the burden on caregivers and medical services

Reference: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-05-explores-older-adults-react-interacting.html

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