Emotional Robotics in Elder Care - A Comparison of Findings in the UK and Germany

Robot-therapy with emotional robots is a new approach for people with cognitive impairments. This article looks at explorative findings of the therapeutic seal PARO in a practice network in England and findings of PARO and the toy dinosaur PLEO in teaching research projects in Germany. The findings in the UK and Germany have comparable outcomes on social interaction of the residents. Examples of the outcomes are presented and analysed with respect to the question in how far there are indicators for a new quality of interaction due to the robotic intervention and in how far it can contribute to interventions which enhance social interaction in care.

[1]  A. Hofman,et al.  Prevalence of dementia and major subtypes in Europe: A collaborative study of population-based cohorts. Neurologic Diseases in the Elderly Research Group. , 2000, Neurology.

[2]  Sherry Turkle,et al.  Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other , 2011 .

[3]  Murna Downs,et al.  Meaningful social interactions between older people in institutional care settings , 2003, Ageing and Society.

[4]  Barbara Klein,et al.  Robot-Therapy in Germany (特集 ロボット・セラピー) , 2012 .

[5]  Takanori Shibata,et al.  Psychophysiological Effects by Interaction with Mental Commit Robot , 2002, J. Robotics Mechatronics.

[6]  A. Hofman,et al.  Incidence of dementia and major subtypes in Europe: A collaborative study of population-based cohorts. Neurologic Diseases in the Elderly Research Group. , 2000, Neurology.

[7]  K. McKee,et al.  Activity, friendships and wellbeing in residential settings for older people , 1999 .

[8]  Takanori Shibata,et al.  Living With Seal Robots—Its Sociopsychological and Physiological Influences on the Elderly at a Care House , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[9]  Takanori Shibata,et al.  Investigation of brain activity during interaction with seal robot by fNIRS , 2011, 2011 RO-MAN.

[10]  K. Savik,et al.  The relationship between social interaction and characteristics of aggressive, cognitively impaired nursing home residents , 2000 .

[11]  Christopher P. Scholtz.  Alltag mit kunstlichen Wesen: Theologische Implikationen eines Lebens mit subjektsimulierenden Maschinen am Beispiel des Unterhaltungsroboters Aibo , 2008 .