There is a close connection between health and the quality of one's social life. Strong social bonds are essential for health and wellbeing, but often health conditions can detrimentally affect a person's ability to interact with others. This can become a vicious cycle resulting in further decline in health. For this reason, the social management of health is an important aspect of healthcare. We propose that socially assistive robots (SARs) could help people with health conditions maintain positive social lives by supporting them in social interactions. This paper makes three contributions, as detailed below. We develop a framework of social mediation functions that robots could perform, motivated by the special social needs that people with health conditions have. In this framework we identify five types of functions that SARs could perform: a) changing how the person is perceived, b) enhancing the social behavior of the person, c) modifying the social behavior of others, d) providing structure for interactions, and e) changing how the person feels. We thematically organize and review the existing literature on robots supporting human-human interactions, in both clinical and non-clinical settings, and explain how the findings and design ideas from these studies can be applied to the functions identified in the framework. Finally, we point out and discuss challenges in designing SARs for supporting social interactions, and highlight opportunities for future robot design and HRI research on the mediator role of robots.
One of the major areas where social robots are finding their place in society is for healthcare-related applications. Yet, very little research has mapped the deployment of socially assistive robots (SARs) in real settings. Using a documentary research method, we were able to trace back 279 experiences of SARs deployments in hospitals, elderly care centers, occupational health centers, private homes, and educational institutions worldwide from 33 different countries, and involving 52 different robot models. We retrieved, analyzed, and classified the functions that SARs develop in these experie…
Human assistive robotics have the potential to help the elderly and individuals living with disabilities with their Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Robotics researchers focus on assistive tasks from the perspective of various control schemes and motion types. Health research on the other hand focuses on clinical assessment and rehabilitation, arguably leaving important differences between the two domains. In particular, little is known quantitatively on which ADLs are typically carried out in a persons everyday environment - at home, work, etc. Understanding what activities are frequently ca…
Human assistive robotics have the potential to help the elderly and individuals living with disabilities with their Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Robotics researchers present bottom up solutions using various control methods for different types of movements. Health research on the other hand focuses on clinical assessment and rehabilitation leaving arguably important differences between the two domains. In particular, little is known quantitatively on what ADLs humans perform in their everyday environment - at home, work etc. This information can help guide development and prioritization o…
Socially Assistive Robot in Sexual Health: Group and Individual Student-Robot Interaction Activities Promoting Disclosure, Learning and Positive Attitudes
University of Genova（热那亚大学）；Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology（北陆先端科学技术大学院大学）；Nagoya University（名古屋大学）；Advinia Health Care Limited LTD（Advinia 医疗保健有限公司）；Chubu University（中部大学）；Softbank Robotics Europe SAS（软银机器人欧洲公司）；University of Bedfordshire（贝德福德大学）；Middlesex University Higher Education Corporation（密德萨斯大学高等教育公司）；Örebro University（厄勒布鲁大学）
The nursing literature shows that cultural competence is an important requirement for effective healthcare. We claim that personal assistive robots should likewise be culturally competent, that is, they should be aware of general cultural characteristics and of the different forms they take in different individuals, and take these into account while perceiving, reasoning, and acting. The CARESSES project is an Europe-Japan collaborative effort that aims at designing, developing and evaluating culturally competent assistive robots. These robots will be able to adapt the way they behave, speak a…
We explore new aspects of assistive living on smart human-robot interaction (HRI) that involve automatic recognition and online validation of speech and gestures in a natural interface, providing social features for HRI. We introduce a whole framework and resources of a real-life scenario for elderly subjects supported by an assistive bathing robot, addressing health and hygiene care issues. We contribute a new dataset and a suite of tools used for data acquisition and a state-of-the-art pipeline for multimodal learning within the framework of the I-Support bathing robot, with emphasis on audi…
Heriot-Watt University（赫瑞-瓦特大学）；University of Glasgow（格拉斯哥大学）
We present an ongoing project that aims to develop a social robot to help children cope with painful and distressing medical procedures in a clinical setting. Our approach uses automated planning as a core component for action selection in order to generate plans that include physical, sensory, and social actions for the robot to use when interacting with humans. A key capability of our system is that the robot's behaviour adapts based on the affective state of the child patient. The robot must operate in a challenging physical and social environment where appropriate and safe interaction with…
Facilitating the Emergence of Assistive Robots to Support Frailty: Psychosocial and Environmental Realities
University of Nottingham, School of Computer Science, Nottingham, UK（诺丁汉大学计算机科学学院）；University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK（谢菲尔德大学）；University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK（赫特福德大学）；Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK（赫罗特-瓦特大学）；Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK（谢菲尔德哈姆大学）
Université Laval（拉瓦尔大学）；Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation and Social Integration (CIRRIS)（康复与社会融合跨学科研究中心）
This paper presents the development and preliminary validation of a control interface based on a sequence matching algorithm. An important challenge in the field of assistive technology is for users to control high dimensionality devices (e.g., assistive robot with several degrees of freedom, or computer) with low dimensionality control interfaces (e.g., a few switches). Sequence matching consists in the recognition of a pattern obtained from a sensor's signal compared to a predefined pattern library. The objective is to allow the user to input several different commands with a low dimensional…
We present the design of the Stewart Platform Robot for Interactive Tabletop Engagement (SPRITE). This robot is designed for use in socially assistive robotics, a field focusing on non-contact social interaction to help people achieve goals relating to health, wellness, and education. We describe a series of design goals for a tabletop, socially assistive robot, including expressive movement, affective communication, a friendly, nonthreatening, and customizable appearance, and a safe, robust, and easily-repaired mechanical design.
Assistive robots for healthcare have seen a growing demand due to the great potential of relieving medical practitioners from routine jobs. In this paper, we investigate the development of an optimization-based control framework for an ultrasound-guided assistive robot to perform scoliosis assessment. A conventional procedure for scoliosis assessment with ultrasound imaging typically requires a medical practitioner to slide an ultrasound probe along a patient's back. To automate this type of procedure, we need to consider multiple objectives, such as contact force, position, orientation, energ…
Towards Emotion Co-regulation with LLM-powered Socially Assistive Robots: Integrating LLM Prompts and Robotic Behaviors to Support Parent-Neurodivergent Child Dyads
Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology（工业设计系，埃因霍温理工大学）；Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology（生物医学工程系，埃因霍温理工大学）；Department of Engineering, Institute of Science Tokyo（工程系，东京科学研究所）；Department of Engineering, Utrecht University（工程系，乌得勒支大学）
University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学）；University of Perugia（佩鲁贾大学）；University of Naples Federico II（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）
Social assistive robots are starting to be widely used in pediatric health-care environments with the aim of distracting and entertaining children, and so of reducing a possible state of anxiety. In this paper, we present some initial results of a study (N=69) conducted in a Health-Vaccines Center, where the distraction role of a social robot, which interacts with a child showing an emotional behavior, is compared with the same not showing any emotional social cue. Outcome criteria for the evaluation of the intervention included the parents reported level of anxiety before, during and after th…
IMT Atlantique（大西洋高等电信学院）；CHRU de Brest（布雷斯特大学医院中心）；European University of Brittany（布列塔尼欧洲大学）
The rising number of the elderly incurs growing concern about healthcare, and in particular rehabilitation healthcare. Assistive technology and assistive robotics in particular may help to improve this process. We develop a robot coach capable of demonstrating rehabilitation exercises to patients, watch a patient carry out the exercises and give him feedback so as to improve his performance and encourage him. The HRI of the system is based on our study with a team of rehabilitation therapists and with the target population.The system relies on human motion analysis. We develop a method for lea…
Engagement in Human-Machine Interaction is the process by which entities participating in the interaction establish, maintain, and end their perceived connection. It is essential to monitor the engagement state of patients in various AI-based interactive healthcare paradigms. This includes medical conditions that alter social behavior such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Engagement is a multi-faceted construct which is composed of behavioral, emotional, and mental components. Previous research has neglected this multi-faceted nature of enga…
With increasing physicians' workload and patients' needs for care, there is a need for technology that facilitates physicians work and performs continues follow-up with patients. Existing approaches focus merely on improving patient's condition, and none have considered managing physician's workload. This paper presents an initial evaluation of a conversational agent assisted coaching platform intended to manage physicians' fatigue and provide continuous follow-up to patients. We highlight the approach adapted to build the chatbot dialogue and the coaching platform. We will particularly discus…
Digitalization and Virtual Assistive Systems in Tourist Mobility: Evolution, an Experience (with Observed Mistakes), Appropriate Orientations and Recommendations
The rapid growth in mobile healthcare technology could significantly help control chronic diseases, such as diabetes. This paper presents a systematic review to characterise type 1 & type 2 diabetes management applications available in Apple's iTunes store. We investigated "Health & Fitness" and "Medical" apps following a two-step filtering process (Selection and Analysis phases). We firstly investigated the apps compliance to the persuasive system design (PSD) model. We then characterised the behaviour change techniques (BCTs) of top-ranked apps for diabetes management. Finally, we checked th…
Health Monitoring and Management System (HMMS) is an emerging technology for decades. Researchers are working on this field to track health conditions for different users. Researchers emphasize tracking health conditions from an early stage to the human body. Therefore, different research works have been conducted to establish HMMS in schools. Researchers propose different frameworks and technologies for their HMMS to check student's health condition. In this paper, we introduce a complete and scalable HMMS to track health conditions and nutrient balance for students from primary school. We de…
Recent studies have focused on facilitating perception and outdoor navigation for people with blindness or some form of vision loss. However, a significant portion of these studies is centered around treatment and vision rehabilitation, leaving some immediate needs, such as interaction with the surrounding objects or recognizing colors and fine patterns without tactile feedback. This study targets such needs and delivers a straightforward communication method using a wearable, unobtrusive device with the environment. We initially discuss the advantages and limitations of related works to draw …
Background: Mental health problems are prevalent in college students. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problems, and created a surge in the popularity of telehealth and mobile health solutions. Despite that mobile health is a promising approach to help students with mental health needs, few studies exist in investigating key features students need in a mental health self-management tool. Objective: The objective of our study was to identified key requirements and features for the design of a student-centered mental health self-management tool. Methods: An interview study was first conduct…
Healthcare Utilization, Chronic Condition Management, and Workplace Functioning Among Users of a Purpose-Built Mental Health AI (Ash): Cross-Sectional Study
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte（北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校）；Slingshot AI；University of Southern California's Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR)（南加州大学经济与社会研究中心）
AmarDoctor: An AI-Driven, Multilingual, Voice-Interactive Digital Health Application for Primary Care Triage and Patient Management to Bridge the Digital Health Divide for Bengali Speakers
MedAi Bangladesh Limited（MedAi孟加拉有限公司）；Central Police Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh（达卡警察医院）；University of Birmingham, UK（英国伯明翰大学）
Applications for learning and training have been developed and highlighted as important tools in health education. Despite the several approaches and initiatives, these tools have not been used in an integrated way. The specific skills approached by each application, the absence of a consensus about how to integrate them in the curricula, and the necessity of evaluation tools that standardize their utilization are the main difficulties. Considering these issues, Portal of Games and Environments Management for Designing Activities in Health (Pegadas) was designed and developed as a web portal t…
