THERAPIST: Towards an Autonomous Socially Interactive Robot for Motor and Neurorehabilitation Therapies for Children

Abstract

BackgroundNeurorehabilitation therapies exploiting the use-dependent plasticity of our neuromuscular system are devised to help patients who suffer from injuries or diseases of this system. These therapies take advantage of the fact that the motor activity alters the properties of our neurons and muscles, including the pattern of their connectivity, and thus their functionality. Hence, a sensor-motor treatment where patients makes certain movements will help them (re)learn how to move the affected body parts. But these traditional rehabilitation processes are usually repetitive and lengthy, reducing motivation and adherence to the treatment, and thus limiting the benefits for the patients.ObjectiveOur goal was to create innovative neurorehabilitation therapies based on THERAPIST, a socially assistive robot. THERAPIST is an autonomous robot that is able to find and execute plans and adapt them to new situations in real-time. The software architecture of THERAPIST monitors and determines the course of action, learns from previous experiences, and interacts with people using verbal and non-verbal channels. THERAPIST can increase the adherence of the patient to the sessions using serious games. Data are recorded and can be used to tailor patient sessions.MethodsWe hypothesized that pediatric patients would engage better in a therapeutic non-physical interaction with a robot, facilitating the design of new therapies to improve patient motivation. We propose RoboCog, a novel cognitive architecture. This architecture will enhance the effectiveness and time-of-response of complex multi-degree-of-freedom robots designed to collaborate with humans, combining two core elements: a deep and hybrid representation of the current state, own, and observed; and a set of task-dependent planners, working at different levels of abstraction but connected to this central representation through a common interface. Using RoboCog, THERAPIST engages the human partner in an active interactive process. But RoboCog also endows the robot with abilities for high-level planning, monitoring, and learning. Thus, THERAPIST engages the patient through different games or activities, and adapts the session to each individual.ResultsRoboCog successfully integrates a deliberative planner with a set of modules working at situational or sensorimotor levels. This architecture also allows THERAPIST to deliver responses at a human rate. The synchronization of the multiple interaction modalities results from a unique scene representation or model. THERAPIST is now a socially interactive robot that, instead of reproducing the phrases or gestures that the developers decide, maintains a dialogue and autonomously generate gestures or expressions. THERAPIST is able to play simple games with human partners, which requires humans to perform certain movements, and also to capture the human motion, for later analysis by clinic specialists.ConclusionsThe initial hypothesis was validated by our experimental studies showing that interaction with the robot results in highl...

Evaluating the Child–Robot Interaction of the NAOTherapist Platform in Pediatric Rehabilitation

“…Almost all the schoolchildren agreed that they wanted to have the robot at home (QlO) and even to be attended by it in the hospital (Qll). Qll has the opposite result than in the previous work of Therapist [5]. This may be because the NAO robot is smaller than the children, which could make it less intimidating and friendlier than the Ursus robot used in the Therapist project.…”

“…T he social vs. art ificial percept ion metric can take values from -9 to 9. T he questionnaire system has been adapted from the T herapist project [5].…”

“…Participants also had to select about 5 adjectives from a list of 16 (Q7), as in the previous work of Therapist [5]. Figure 6 presents the list of all a.djectives with the proportion of the selected ones.…”

“…Our proposed system is called NAOTherapist and it is the result of a new development phase in the Therapist project [5]. In the first approach, a bear-like robotic platform called Ursus executed a sequence of preprogrammed behaviors to carry out rehabilitation movements with the upper limbs [38].…”

Therapy Monitoring and Patient Evaluation with Social Robots

“…A computerised system, the camera and the robot are connected to, controls everything regarding the execution of a session, but also, by means of a graphical application and using Automated Planning, allows the therapist to design the therapy, based on several clinical parameters. NAOTherapist is part of the Therapist project [3].…”