Robot Therapy for Elders Affected by Dementia - IEEE Pulse

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54 Industrial robots accomplish their tasks very quickly and accurately. They must be taught by a human operator and a specific environment must be designed for them to accomplish their tasks. Most industrial robots are considered potentially dangerous to humans, and so they are kept isolated from people. On the other hand, the rapid development of high technology has produced robots not only for factories but also for homes, hospitals, museums, etc. In particular, human interactive robots for psychological enrichment are one of the new applications of robotics, and this field of application has research and commercial potential [26]. Human interactive robots are designed for entertainment, communication (social activity), guides, education, welfare and mental therapy, and other purposes. Various types of robots, such as humanoids, animals, and those with a unique appearance, have been developed. These robots are more interactive with humans than industrial robots. They are evaluated not only in terms of objective measures, such as speed and accuracy, but also in terms of subjective measures for interacting with humans, such as joy and comfort. Entertainment robots are good examples of the importance of their subjective value (Figure 1). There are four categories of human interactive robots for psychological enrichment in terms of their relationship with humans: 1) performance robots; 2) teleoperated performance robots; 3) operation, building, programming, and control robots; and 4) interactive autonomous robots. Performance Robots Performance robots have a long history and are able to perform movements that express meanings to humans, mostly for fun. Mechanical puppets that could play an organ, make pictures, and write letters were developed in Switzerland in the 18th century. Karakuri dolls were developed to perform dances, magic, and so on in Japan during the same era. Recently, many performance robots have been used at exhibitions, museums, movies, and amusement parks such as Disney Land and Universal Studios. Recent humanoid robots such as Honda’s ASIMO and Sony’s QRIO can be included in this category [27], [28]. A performance robot can amuse a sizeable audience at any time. However, their movements will probably be preprogrammed and mostly repetitive, and so they are not usually very interactive with humans. A high degree of Automatic Machine Objective Evaluation Fast Accurate Cheap Medical Robot Welfare Robot Industrial Robot Working with Human Home Appliance Entertainment Fig. 1. Objective and subjective measures for evaluating artifacts. complexity is important in performance robots to keep humans amused. Teleoperated Performance Robots Teleoperated performance robots are controlled remotely by a hidden operator. Their movements can appear reactive to their audience or to the humans who interact with them because the operator senses their current actions and sends commands to the robot to simulate reactive behavior. At exhibitions or amusement parks, for example, human-type robots are used as teleoperated performance robots. Operating, Building, Programming, and Controlling Robots Humans derive much fun and joy from operating, building, programming, and controlling robots. Moreover, we can watch the performance of the robot that we are operating. A simple example of this is the UFO Catcher, a stuffed animal game machine, at amusement centers. Building and programming a robot is also included in this category. Contests between robots, such as Micro-mouse, RoboCup, and RoboOne, are popular examples [29], [30]. LEGO, Mindstorms, and I-Blocks are some other examples. Because building and programming robots can stimulate children’s creativity, this activity combines entertainment with education and is often referred to as edutainment [31], [32]. Interactive Autonomous Robots Interactive autonomous robots interact with humans in the physical world. They use verbal and nonverbal communication depending on the functions of the robots. Contrary to robots in the other categories, the interactions between humans and these robots are mostly personal. For example, Sony’s dog robot, AIBO, which is designed for entertainment, has a mechanical appearance and attracts people’s interest by using nonverbal communication [33]. The communication robot, ifbot, produces conversation by using facial expressions and a huge data of prepared conversation scenes [34]. The human-friendly information terminal, PaPeRo, can control home electric appliances, collect information via the Internet by voice command, and entertain people by dancing and playing games [35]. Guide robots in museums and exhibitions [36] the and mental commitment robots discussed in this article belong to this category. Mental commitment robots are not intended for offering people physical work or service. Aesthetic Objects Subjective Evaluation Interesting Beautiful Comfortable Their function is to engender mental effects, such as pleasure and relaxation, in their role as personal robots. These robots act independently with purpose and motives while receiving stimulation from the environment, mimicking living organisms. Actions that manifest during interactions with people can be interpreted as if the robots have feelings. A basic psychological experiment was conducted on the subjective interpretation and evaluation of robot behavior IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY MAGAZINE JULY/AUGUST 2008
following interactions between robots and people [12]. This showed the importance of appropriately stimulating the human senses and extracting associations. Sensor systems, such as visual, aural, and tactile senses for robots, were studied and developed. A plane tactile sensor using an air bag was developed to cover the robot to enhance bodily contact between people and robots. It detects the position and calculates the force when there is contact, and at the same time, provides a soft texture. Dog, cat, and seal robots were developed using these sensors. Paro the Seal Robot Paro, a seal robot, is shown in Figure 2. Its appearance resembles a baby harp seal, a nonfamiliar animal. Therefore, people can accept Paro easily without preconceptions. The fur has a soft, natural feel, and the newly developed soft tactile sensors, named ubiquitous surface tactile sensors, were inserted between the hard inner skeleton and the fur over the whole body surface to permit measurement of human contact [23]. Paro is equipped with four primary senses, i.e., sight (light sensor), auditory (determination of sound source direction and speech recognition), balance, and the tactile sense mentioned previously. Its moving parts are designed to provide vertical and horizontal neck movements, front and rear paddle movements, and independent movements of each eyelid, which is important for creating facial expressions. Paro weighs approximately 2.8 kg. Its operating time with the installed battery is approximately 1 h. However, a charger, which resembles a dummy (pacifier), can be used for continuous operation of Paro. For therapy use, its artificial fur is hygienic with an antibacterial, soil-resistant finish, and hair loss is prevented. Paro has an electromagnetic shield, and so it can be used by people with a pacemaker. Paro’s reliability and durability have been improved through voltage, drop, and stroking tests over 10,000 times, and a long-term commissioning test in a nursing home. Paro has a behavior generation system (Figure 3) consisting of two hierarchical layers of processes: proactive and reactive. These two layers generate three types of behavior: proactive, reactive, and physiological. Proactive Behavior Paro has two layers to generate proactive behavior: a behavior planning layer and a behavior generation layer. By addressing its internal states of stimulation, desires, and rhythm, Paro generates proactive behavior. Behavior Planning Layer This has a state transition network based on Paro’s internal states and desire, produced by its internal rhythm. Paro has internal states that can be described with words indicating emotions. Each state has a numerical level, which changes according to the stimulation. Moreover, each state decays with time. Interaction changes its internal states and creates the character of Paro. The Stimulation Light Auditory Tactile Posture Internal Rhythm behavior planning layer sends basic behavioral patterns to the behavior generation layer. The basic behavioral patterns include several poses and movements. Here, although the term proactive is used, the proactive behavior is very primitive compared with that of humans. We programmed Paro such that its behavior (blinking eyes, movement of neck and flippers, etc.) was similar to that of a real seal. We visited the harp seal’s habitat in Canada and observed its behavior. In particular, the noises made by Paro are based on actual seal vocalizations. Behavior Generation Layer This layer generates control references for each actuator to perform the determined behavior. The control reference depends on the magnitude of the internal states and their variations. For example, various parameters can change the motion speed and number of instances of the same behavior. Therefore, although the number of basic patterns is finite, the number of emerging behaviors is infinite because of the varying number of parameters. This creates life-like behavior. In addition, to gain attention, the behavior-generation layer adjusts the parameters according to the priority of reactive and proactive behaviors based on the magnitude of the internal states. This function allows the behavioral situation of Paro to be unpredictable to a subject. Fig. 2. Paro, the seal robot. Evaluation of Value State Transition Network Internal States Desire Control Reference Speed Number of Behavior Reactive Behavior 1 Reactive Behavior M Fig. 3. The behavior generation system of Paro. Proactive Processes Reactive Processes Behavior Planning Layer Basic Behavior Pattern 1 Basic Behavior Pattern N Behavior Generation Layer Behavior IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY MAGAZINE JULY/AUGUST 2008 55
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