Performance of daily activities by older adults with dementia: The role of an assistive robot

Abstract

Older adults with cognitive impairment often have difficulties in remembering the proper sequence of activities of daily living (ADLs) or how to use the tools necessary to perform ADLs. They, therefore, require reminders in a timely fashion while performing ADLs. This is a very stressful situation for the caregivers of people with dementia. In this paper we describe a pilot study where a tele-operated assistive robot helps a group of older adults with dementia (OAwD) to perform an ADL, namely making a cup of tea in the kitchen. Five OAwD along with their caregivers participated in this study which took place in a simulated-home setting. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and usability of a robotic system in assisting the OAwD to perform ADL in a home setting. The findings from this study will contribute to achieve our ultimate goal of designing a full-fledged assistive robot that assists OAwD aging in their own homes. The assistive robots designed for people with dementia mostly focus on companionship. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first attempt to design an assistive robot which will provide step-by-step guidance to people with dementia in their activities of daily living.

Speech recognition in Alzheimer's disease with personal assistive robots

“…The data in this paper come from a study to examine the feasibility and usability of a personal assistive robot to assist older adults with AD in the completion of daily activities (Begum et al, 2013). Ten older adults diagnosed with AD, aged ≥ 55, and their caregivers were recruited from a local memory clinic in Toronto, Canada.…”

“…We conducted the study with older adults with mild or moderate AD and the tasks of hand washing and tea making. Our preliminary data analysis showed that the participants reacted well to the robot itself and the prompts that it provided, suggesting the feasibility of using personal robots for this application (Begum et al, 2013). One important identified issue is the need for an automatic speech recognition system to detect and understand utterances specifically from older adults with AD.…”

What People with Dementia Want: Designing MARIO an Acceptable Robot Companion

“…Some PWD experienced difficulty using the system but made positive remarks about having fun conversations with it and it being 'pretty smart and great' [15]. Ed, another assistive robot with audio and video prompts to guide the undertaking of domestic tasks was piloted in a lab setting with PWD (n=5) [16]. Whilst only 3 PWD adhered to the robot prompts and treated it as a person or friend, all said they trusted the robot would be reliable and help them.…”

Classification of materials by acoustic signal processing in real time for NAO robots

“…Other potential applications include systems for cognitive personal assistance such as user support in complex environments and basic support for elderly or disabled people making domestic tasks and activities of daily life that would be increasingly challenging and easier for them. 3,34 As the approach presented in this article works remotely, meaning that there is no need to go where the robot is to start the classification, we can think of even more potential applications that will reduce the need for the user to move as most robots will be remotely controlled using a computer or other device. 34 …”

“…3,34 As the approach presented in this article works remotely, meaning that there is no need to go where the robot is to start the classification, we can think of even more potential applications that will reduce the need for the user to move as most robots will be remotely controlled using a computer or other device. 34 …”