A dichotomic approach to adaptive interaction for socially assistive robots.

Socially assistive robotics (SAR) aims at designing robots capable of guaranteeing social interaction to human users in a variety of assistance scenarios that range, e.g., from giving reminders for medications to monitoring of Activity of Daily Living, from giving advices to promote an healthy lifestyle to psychological monitoring. Among possible users, frail older adults deserve a special focus as they present a rich variability in terms of both alternative possible assistive scenarios (e.g., hospital or domestic environments) and caring needs that could change over time according to their health conditions. In this perspective, robot behaviors should be customized according to properly designed user models. One of the long-term research goals for SAR is the realization of robots capable of, on the one hand, personalizing assistance according to different health-related conditions/states of users and, on the other, adapting behaviors according to heterogeneous contexts as well as changing/evolving needs of users. This work proposes a solution based on a user model grounded on the international classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF) and a novel control architecture inspired by the dual-process theory. The proposed approach is general and can be deployed in many different scenarios. In this paper, we focus on a social robot in charge of the synthesis of personalized training sessions for the cognitive stimulation of older adults, customizing the adaptive verbal behavior according to the characteristics of the users and to their dynamic reactions when interacting. Evaluations with a restricted number of users show good usability of the system, a general positive attitude of users and the ability of the system to capture users personality so as to adapt the content accordingly during the verbal interaction.

A Mind-inspired Architecture for Adaptive HRI.

One of the main challenges of social robots concerns the ability to guarantee robust, contextualized and intelligent behavior capable of supporting continuous and personalized interaction with different users over time. This implies that robot behaviors should consider the specificity of a person (e.g., personality, preferences, assistive needs), the social context as well as the dynamics of the interaction. Ideally, robots should have a "mind" to properly interact in real social environments allowing them to continuously adapt and exhibit engaging behaviors. The authors' long-term research goal is to create an advanced mind-inspired system capable of supporting multiple assistance scenarios fostering personalization of robot's behavior. This article introduces the idea of a dual process-inspired cognitive architecture that integrates two reasoning layers working on different time scales and making decisions over different temporal horizons. The general goal is also to support an empathetic relationship with the user through a multi-modal interaction inclusive of verbal and non-verbal expressions based on the emotional-cognitive profile of the person. The architecture is exemplified on a cognitive stimulation domain where some experiments show personalization capabilities of the approach as well as the joint work of the two layers. In particular, a feasibility assessment shows the customization of robot behaviors and the adaptation of robot interactions to the online detected state of a user. Usability sessions were performed in laboratory settings involving 10 healthy participants to assess the user interaction and the robot's dialogue performance.

Dancing With Parkinson's Disease: The SI-ROBOTICS Study Protocol.

Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most frequent causes of disability among older people, characterized by motor disorders, rigidity, and balance problems. Recently, dance has started to be considered an effective exercise for people with PD. In particular, Irish dancing, along with tango and different forms of modern dance, may be a valid strategy to motivate people with PD to perform physical activity. The present protocol aims to implement and evaluate a rehabilitation program based on a new system called "SI-ROBOTICS," composed of multiple technological components, such as a social robotic platform embedded with an artificial vision setting, a dance-based game, environmental and wearable sensors, and an advanced AI reasoner module. Methods and Analysis: For this study, 20 patients with PD will be recruited. Sixteen therapy sessions of 50 min will be conducted (two training sessions per week, for 8 weeks), involving two patients at a time. Evaluation will be primarily focused on the acceptability of the SI-ROBOTICS system. Moreover, the analysis of the impact on the patients' functional status, gait, balance, fear of falling, cardio-respiratory performance, motor symptoms related to PD, and quality of life, will be considered as secondary outcomes. The trial will start in November 2021 and is expected to end by April 2022. Discussions: The study aims to propose and evaluate a new approach in PD rehabilitation, focused on the use of Irish dancing, together with a new technological system focused on helping the patient perform the dance steps and on collecting kinematic and performance parameters used both by the physiotherapist (for the evaluation and planning of the subsequent sessions) and by the system (to outline the levels of difficulty of the exercise). Ethics and Dissemination: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the IRCCS INRCA. It was recorded in ClinicalTrials.gov on the number NCT05005208. The study findings will be used for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals and presentations in scientific meetings.

Coaching Through Technology: A Systematic Review into Efficacy and Effectiveness for the Ageing Population.

Background: Despite the evidence on the positive role of self-management, the adoption of health coaching strategies for older people is still limited. To address these gaps, recent efforts have been made in the ICT sector in order to develop systems for delivering coaching and overcoming barriers relating to scarcity of resources. The aim of this review is to examine the efficacy of personal health coaching systems for older adults using digital virtual agents. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted in December 2019 analyzing manuscripts from four databases over the last 10 years. Nine papers were included. Results: Despite the low number of studies, there was evidence that technology-integrated interventions can deliver benefits for health over usual care. However, the review raises important questions about how to maintain benefits and permanence of behavior change produced by short-term interventions. Conclusion: These systems offer a potential tool to reduce costs, minimize therapist burden and training, and expand the range of clients who can benefit from them. It is desirable that in the future the number of studies will grow, considering other aspects such as the role of the virtual coaches' characteristics, social-presence, empathy, usability, and health literacy.

TV-based assistive integrated service to support European adults living with mild dementia or mild cognitive impairment (TV-AssistDem): study protocol for a multicentre randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia progressively compromise the ability of people to live independently and can have a negative impact on their quality of life. Within the current European Active and Assisted Living programme (AAL), project TV-AssistDem has been developed to deliver a TV-based platform service to support patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia and provide relief to their caregivers. The application is intended to be used daily at home, mainly by the participants themselves, with the help of their informal caregivers. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of TV-AssistDem to improve quality of life in people with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia. METHODS: This is a 12-month European multicentre randomized controlled trial which will be performed in two countries: Spain and Romania. Two hundred and forty older adults will be recruited using identical inclusion/exclusion criteria. The primary outcome will be the change from baseline of TV-AssistDem on patient quality of life at 12 months. The secondary outcomes will be the changes from baseline of: 1) informal caregiver quality of life, 2) informal caregiver burden, 3) patient treatment adherence, 4) patient treatment compliance, 5) patient functional status, and 6) healthcare cost-effectiveness at 12 months. Patients in the intervention group will have access to an interactive platform which offers remote assistive services through a device connected to the television. The core services of the platform are: 1) Calendar and reminders, 2) Health monitoring and data transmission to a health server and 3) Videoconference; service-oriented applications are: 4) Cognitive stimulation; 5) Reminiscences; and 6) Patient and caregiver healthcare education. The analysis will be made following an intention-to-treat procedure. Linear and Generalized Mixed Model analysis will be performed. DISCUSSION: We hypothesize that the regular use of TV-AssistDem will result in an improvement in patient quality of life. The uniqueness of this home TV-based intervention lies on its widespread accessibility and its integrative approach to quality of life in people with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia and their informal caregivers. However, several anticipated challenges will need to be faced: poor engagement and connectivity problems. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT03653234 , Date of registration: 31 August 2018.

ROBIN, a Telepresence Robot to Support Older Users Monitoring and Social Inclusion: Development and Evaluation.

INTRODUCTION: This article describes an enhanced telepresence robot named ROBIN, part of a telecare system derived from the GIRAFFPLUS project for supporting and monitoring older adults at home. ROBIN is integrated in a sensor-rich environment that aims to continuously monitor physical and psychological wellbeing of older persons living alone. The caregivers (formal/informal) can communicate through it with their assisted persons. Long-term trials in real houses highlighted several user requirements that inspired improvements on the robotic platform. The enhanced telepresence robot was assessed by users to test its suitability to support social interaction and provide motivational feedback on health-related aspects. METHODS: Twenty-five users (n = 25) assessed the new multimodal interaction capabilities and new communication services. A psychophysiological approach was adopted to investigate aspects like engagement, usability, and affective impact, as well as the possible role of individual differences on the quality of human-robot interaction. RESULTS: ROBIN was overall judged usable, the interaction with/through it resulted pleasant and the required workload was limited, thus supporting the idea of using it as a central component for remote assistance and social participation. Open-minded users tended to have a more positive interaction with it. CONCLUSIONS: This work describes an enabling technology for remote assistance and social communication. It highlights the importance of being compliant with users' needs to develop solutions easy to use and able to foster their social connections. The role of personality appeared to be relevant for the interaction, underscoring a clear role of the service personalization.