Challenges for Service Robots—Requirements of Elderly Adults with Cognitive Impairments

Abstract

ObjectiveWe focused on identifying the requirements and needs of people suffering from Alzheimer disease and early dementia stages with relation to robotic assistants.MethodsBased on focus groups performed in two centers (Poland and Spain), we created surveys for medical staff, patients, and caregivers, including: functional requirements; human–robot interaction, the design of the robotic assistant and user acceptance aspects. Using Likert scale and analysis made on the basis of the frequency of survey responses, we identified users’ needs as high, medium, and low priority.ResultsWe gathered 264 completed surveys (100 from medical staff, 81 from caregivers, and 83 from potential users). Most of the respondents, almost at the same level in each of the three groups, accept robotic assistants and their support in everyday life. High level priority functional requirements were related to reacting in emergency situations (calling for help, detecting/removing obstacles) and to reminding about medication intake, about boiling water, turning off the gas and lights (almost 60% of answers). With reference to human–robot interaction, high priority was given to voice operated system and the capability of robotic assistants to reply to simple questions.ConclusionOur results help in achieving better understanding of the needs of patients with cognitive impairments during home tasks in everyday life. This way of conducting the research, with considerations for the interests of three stakeholder groups in two autonomic centers with proven experience regarding the needs of our patient groups, highlights the importance of obtained results.

Designing Socially Assistive Robots for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Patients and Their Caregivers: Where We Are and Where We Are Headed

“…A 2017 survey conducted on potential users, 20% of whom had early-stage AD and the rest had some degree of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), caregivers, and medical staff found varying priorities between groups. The functions considered the highest priority by all groups were related to patient safety, such as features that call for help if something happens to the patient, detects obstacles for fall prevention, ensure that water, gas, and lights are turned off, as well as features that ensure patients take their medications properly [42]. Similar safety and healthcare features were rated as high-priority by a smaller survey conducted in Paris, published in 2015, of 25 elderly individuals, though not as highly as some other functions.…”

“…Interestingly, caregivers and medical personnel rated many of these tasks as medium-high priority, indicating a discrepancy between what potential users think they need, and what those who care for them believe would be useful; potential users may not want to admit that assistance with certain functions would be beneficial. In a similar vein, fewer potential users believed that the robot should be able to identify the user's emotional state and act to try to improve that state than did caretakers and medical staff [42]. Furthermore, while it was agreed that some of these functions should be autonomously engaged by the robot, such as safety-relevant functions, other features, such as cognitive stimulation, were desired to be on-demand by potential users, while caretakers/medical staff believed the robot should initiate the behavior [42].…”

“…In a similar vein, fewer potential users believed that the robot should be able to identify the user's emotional state and act to try to improve that state than did caretakers and medical staff [42]. Furthermore, while it was agreed that some of these functions should be autonomously engaged by the robot, such as safety-relevant functions, other features, such as cognitive stimulation, were desired to be on-demand by potential users, while caretakers/medical staff believed the robot should initiate the behavior [42]. Most of the issues deemed high-priority by patients and/or caregivers/staff can be readily solved using computer vision, and simpler technologies, such as automatic reminders and timers.…”

“…Notably, touch screens were the next preferred interface for users, though roughly half as popular as voice commands. Medical staff in particular believed that the ability to issue commands via simple gestures was a high priority, though this belief was not shared by the caregivers, nor the patients themselves [42]. It is probable that gesture-based communication would be most useful for the more severely impaired, something that is perhaps more recognized by medical professionals.…”

“…The appearance of the robot also needs to be tailored to users' expectations. The overwhelming majority of potential users and caregivers alike in the Spain-Poland survey believed that the assistive robot should be as tall as, or shorter than the user, with a preference towards chest height [42]. The Paris survey found that mechanical-looking human-like robots were the most popular, with those which were mechanical animal-like, animal-like, and machine-like receiving roughly 20% popularity each [43].…”