Mini: A New Social Robot for the Elderly
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Mini: A New Social Robot for the Elderly Miguel A. Salichs1 · Álvaro Castro-González1 · Esther Salichs1 · Enrique Fernández-Rodicio1 · Marcos Maroto-Gómez1 · Juan José Gamboa-Montero1 · Sara Marques-Villarroya1 · José Carlos Castillo1 · Fernando Alonso-Martín1 · Maria Malfaz1 Accepted: 28 July 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The unceasing aging of the population is leading to new problems in developed countries. Robots represent an opportunity to extend the period of independent living of the elderly as well as to ameliorate their economic burden and social problems. We present a new social robot, Mini, specifically designed to assist and accompany the elderly in their daily life either at home or in a nursing facility. Based on the results of several meetings with experts in this field, we have built a robot able to provide services in the areas of safety, entertainment, personal assistance and stimulation. Mini supports elders and caregivers in cognitive and mental tasks. We present the robot platform and describe the software architecture, particularly focussing on the human–robot interaction. We give in detail how the robot operates and the interrelation of the different modules of the robot in a real use case. In the last part of the paper, we evaluated how users perceive the robot. Participants reported interesting results in terms of usability, appearance, and satisfaction. This paper describes all aspects of the design and development of a new social robot that can be used by other researchers who face the multiple challenges of creating a new robotic platform for older people. Keywords Robots for elderly · Healthcare robotics · Human–robot interaction · HRI · Social robotics · Assistive robotics
1 Introduction The unceasing aging of the population in developed countries is leading advanced societies to new problems that are not solved yet. It is expected that, in the near future, health care systems will be struggling to provide the proper services to the growing population of seniors, mainly due to
limited economic resources and a shortage of qualified workers [20,24,39]. In addition, physicians and caregivers have known for decades that the elderly prefer to live independently in their home for as long as possible [42,43]. However, many times, this independent living comes to an end earlier than expected because the elderly need to be monitored by physicians, or
The research leading to these results has received funding from the projects: Development of social robots to help seniors with cognitive impairment (ROBSEN), funded by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad; and Robots Sociales para Estimulación Física, Cognitiva y Afectiva de Mayores (ROSES), funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades.
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Juan José Gamboa-Montero [email protected] Sara Marques-Villarroya [email protected]
Álvaro Castro-González [email protected]
José Carlos Castillo [email protected]
Miguel A. Salichs [email protected]
Fernando Alonso-Martín [email protected]
Esther
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