scholarly journals What Makes a Robot Social? A Review of Social Robots from Science Fiction to a Home or Hospital Near You

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Anna Henschel ◽  
Guy Laban ◽  
Emily S. Cross

Abstract Purpose of Review We provide an outlook on the definitions, laboratory research, and applications of social robots, with an aim to understand what makes a robot social—in the eyes of science and the general public. Recent Findings Social robots demonstrate their potential when deployed within contexts appropriate to their form and functions. Some examples include companions for the elderly and cognitively impaired individuals, robots within educational settings, and as tools to support cognitive and behavioural change interventions. Summary Science fiction has inspired us to conceive of a future with autonomous robots helping with every aspect of our daily lives, although the robots we are familiar with through film and literature remain a vision of the distant future. While there are still miles to go before robots become a regular feature within our social spaces, rapid progress in social robotics research, aided by the social sciences, is helping to move us closer to this reality.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Henschel ◽  
Guy Laban ◽  
Emily S. Cross

Purpose of review: We provide an outlook on the definitions, laboratory research, and applications of social robots, with an aim to understand what makes a robot social – in the eyes of science and the general public. Recent Findings: Social robots demonstrate their potential when deployed within contexts appropriate to their form and functions. Some examples include companions for the elderly and cognitively impaired individuals, robots within educational settings, and as tools to support cognitive and behavioural change interventions. Summary: Science fiction has inspired us to conceive of a future with autonomous robots helping with every aspect of our daily lives, although the robots we are familiar with through film and literature remain a vision of the distant future. While there are still miles to go before robots become a regular feature within our social spaces, rapid progress in social robotics research, aided by the social sciences, is helping to move us closer to this reality.


Author(s):  
Gauri Tulsulkar ◽  
Nidhi Mishra ◽  
Nadia Magnenat Thalmann ◽  
Hwee Er Lim ◽  
Mei Ping Lee ◽  
...  

AbstractSocial Assistive Robotics is increasingly being used in care settings to provide psychosocial support and interventions for the elderly with cognitive impairments. Most of these social robots have provided timely stimuli to the elderly at home and in care centres, including keeping them active and boosting their mood. However, previous investigations have registered shortcomings in these robots, particularly in their ability to satisfy an essential human need: the need for companionship. Reports show that the elderly tend to lose interests in these social robots after the initial excitement as the novelty wears out and the monotonous familiarity becomes all too familiar. This paper presents our research facilitating conversations between a social humanoid robot, Nadine, and cognitively impaired elderly at a nursing home. We analysed the effectiveness of human–humanoid interactions between our robot and 14 elderly over 29 sessions. We used both objective tools (based on computer vision methods) and subjective tools (based on observational scales) to evaluate the recorded videos. Our findings showed that our subjects engaged positively with Nadine, suggesting that their interaction with the robot could improve their well-being by compensating for some of their emotional, cognitive, and psychosocial deficiencies. We detected emotions associated with cognitively impaired elderly during these interactions. This study could help understand the expectations of the elderly and the current limitations of Social Assistive Robots. Our research is aligned with all the ethical recommendations by the NTU Institutional Review Board.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Daniele Giansanti

This commentary aims to address the field of social robots both in terms of the global situation and research perspectives. It has four polarities. First, it revisits the evolutions in robotics, which, starting from collaborative robotics, has led to the diffusion of social robots. Second, it illustrates the main fields in the employment of social robots in rehabilitation and assistance in the elderly and handicapped and in further emerging sectors. Third, it takes a look at the future directions of the research development both in terms of clinical and technological aspects. Fourth, it discusses the opportunities and limits, starting from the development and clinical use of social robots during the COVID-19 pandemic to the increase of ethical discussion on their use.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nik Norliati Fitri Md Nor ◽  
Siti Masayu Rosliah Abdul Rashid ◽  
Suriati Ghazali

Poverty among the elderly is always a significant concern due to changes in demographic patterns. It's because there is an increasing number of elderly, moreover, about the disability and limited ability of employment in themselves. This situation has an economic and social impact not only on individuals but also family members and the government involved. Therefore this article aims to study the issue of poverty among the elderly. Besides, the study will identify the financial resources obtained in the help of their daily lives. The study has selected a total of 327 older people aged 60 years and above. The study used a quantitative approach using a questionnaire to obtain feedback from respondents on their financial resources and income of respondents. The results of the study found that the majority of respondents answered 50.5% of the primary source of children as the main economic source in addition to other economic resources. Nevertheless, although there are results shown by the respondents, there are various sources as financial resources, but still exist among them. Therefore, it's hoped that the authorities or non-governmental organizations can help the elderly who face the problem of poverty always provide social assistance, especially related to the social security system through medical aspects exempt free hospital medical services, distribution of first-class medical cards or even provide initiatives through the enhancement of additional income programs explicitly implemented for the needy elderly. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8465
Author(s):  
Jorge Morato ◽  
Sonia Sanchez-Cuadrado ◽  
Ana Iglesias ◽  
Adrián Campillo ◽  
Carmen Fernández-Panadero

The exponential evolution of technology and the growth of the elderly population are two phenomena that will inevitably interact with increasing frequency in the future. This paper analyses scientific literature as a means of furthering progress in sustainable technology for senior living. We carried out a bibliometric analysis of papers published in this area and compiled by the Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus, examining the main participants and advances in the field from 2000 to the first quarter of 2021. The study describes some interesting research projects addressing three different aspects of older adults’ daily lives—health, daily activities and wellbeing—and policies to promote healthy aging and improve the sustainability of the healthcare system. It also looks at lines of research into transversal characteristics of technology. Our analysis showed that publications mentioning sustainability technologies for older adults have been growing progressively since the 2000s, but that the big increase in the number of research works in this area took place during the period 2016–2021. These more recent works show a tendency to study those factors that improve healthy aging, ensure the social inclusion of the elderly through technology and prolong the time in which they can live independent lives thanks to smart environments. Current research gaps in the literature are also discussed.


2019 ◽  
pp. 137-143
Author(s):  
Dennys Christovel Dese ◽  
Cahyo Wibowo

Peningkatan jumlah lansia setiap tahunnya harus dijadikan perhatian, akibat adanya peningkatan jumlah lansia masalah yang dihadapi akan menjadi semakin kompleks, salah satunya adalah masalah yang berkaitan dengan gejala penuaan. Menurunnya kapasitas intelektual berhubungan erat dengan fungsi kognitif pada lansia. Aktivitas fisik diidentifikasi sebagai salah satu faktor yang mempengaruhi fungsi kognitif. Aktivitas fisik bermanfaat untuk lansia sebagai pencegahan dan demensia. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian analitik observasional dengan menggunakan pendekatan cross sectional. Penelitian dilakukan di yayasan sosial Panti Wredha Salib Putih Salatiga pada bulan Juni 2018. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah lansia yang berumur ?60 tahun. Subjek pada penelitian ini berjumlah 16 responden. Variabel independen dalam penelitian ini adalah aktivitas fisik yang dinilai dengan menggunakan instrument GPAQ. Sedangkan variabel dependen dalam penelitian ini adalah fungsi kognitif yang dinilai dengan instrument MMSE. Terdapat 4 orang (25%) yang masuk dalam kategori fungsi kognitif normal dengan kategori aktifitas fisik sedang 1 orang dan aktifitas berat 3 orang, kemudian yang termasuk dalam kategori gangguan fungsi kognitif ringan sebanyak 11 orang (68,75%), dengan kategori aktifitas fisik sedang 8 orang dan aktifitas ringan 3 orang. Sedangkan yang termasuk dalam kategori gangguan fungsi kognitif berat, terdapat 1 orang (6,25%) dengan kategori aktifitasnya ringan. Taraf signifikansi antar variabel tingkat aktifitas fisik dan fungsi kognitif pada lansia adalah p=0.007 atau p<0,05, sehingga dapat disimpulkan ada  hubungan antara tingkat aktifitas fisik dengan fungsi kognitif pada lansia.   Increasing the number of elderly people every year should be a concern, due to an increase in the number of elderly problems faced will become increasingly complex, one of which is a problem related to the symptoms of aging. Decreased intellectual capacity is closely related to cognitive function in the elderly. Physical activity is identified as one of the factors that influence cognitive function. Physical activity is beneficial for the elderly as prevention and dementia. This study was an observational analytic study using a cross sectional approach. The study was conducted at the social foundation nursing home in the white cross in June 2018. The population in this study was elderly aged ≥60 years. The subjects in this study were 16 respondents. The independent variable in this study is physical activity that is assessed using the GPAQ instrument. While the dependent variable in this study was cognitive function which was assessed by the MMSE instrument. There are 4 people (25%) who fall into the category of normal cognitive function with moderate physical activity categories 1 person and heavy activities 3 people, then those included in the category of mild cognitive function disorders are 11 people (68.75%), with the category of physical activity being 8 people and 3 light activities. While those included in the category of severe cognitive function disorders, there is 1 person (6.25%) with a mild activity category. The significance level between the level of physical activity and cognitive function in the elderly is p = 0.007 or p <0.05, so it can be concluded that there is a relationship between the level of physical activity and cognitive function in the elderly.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-85
Author(s):  
Nicole Horáková ◽  
Jan Kajfosz

The European society is getting older and nobody knows how to deal with this problem. There are different models from family care, special housing for elderly to professional institutional care, which has the disadvantage of being very expensive. In Germany we have noticed in the last two or three years a special trend to send old people suffering from dementia to foreign countries, because these people need intensive care and the social services for example in Poland have a high standard. The aim of our survey is to dismantle, by the example of the private care institution situated in Poland, Upper Silesia which specializes on German customers, the social practices associated with placing the elderly in such institutions and also the methods of constructing meanings of these practices providing clarity in the various groups that take part in this process. To reach this aim we used qualitative field research, including discourse and narrative analysis of various materials (interviews, promotional texts, websites), which beside other things allowed us to reconstruct the media image of the surveyed residences for the elderly and show it in a wider context.


Author(s):  
Alistair M. C. Isaac ◽  
Will Bridewell

It is easy to see that social robots will need the ability to detect and evaluate deceptive speech; otherwise they will be vulnerable to manipulation by malevolent humans. More surprisingly, we argue that effective social robots must also be able to produce deceptive speech. Many forms of technically deceptive speech perform a positive pro-social function, and the social integration of artificial agents will be possible only if they participate in this market of constructive deceit. We demonstrate that a crucial condition for detecting and producing deceptive speech is possession of a theory of mind. Furthermore, strategic reasoning about deception requires identifying a type of goal distinguished by its priority over the norms of conversation, which we call an ulterior motive. We argue that this goal is the appropriate target for ethical evaluation, not the veridicality of speech per se. Consequently, deception-capable robots are compatible with the most prominent programs to ensure that robots behave ethically.


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