The benefit of humanoid robots
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Humanoid robots can be utilized for different purposes including: improving communication skills, assisting the individuals with their daily life, engaging and involving the individuals with various kinds of activities such as exercising, listening to music or entertaining them.[1]
Which robot suits best
Our group choose to use the Pepper Robot, since the main object of our project is to use the Pepper to prevent PwDs from leaving out alone. The key idea is to use music and dialog to persuade the PwD to stay inside.
Miro is not suitable for this case, since Miro does not have the ability to talk like human being, which means it can not have a conversation with PwDs using dialog. Furthermore, Miro is a dog-like robot which is too small, people with dementia can also have visual difficulties because the dementia affects the parts of their brain that handle visual information coming from the eyes. This means they will have visual problems, but have healthy eyes. This would leads that the Miro is easily ignored by the PwD.
Pepper is a Human-sized humanoid robot which is the highest between these three provided Robot, which can make it easier to get the PWD's attention and start a conversation that persuades the PWD. Furthermore, Pepper has a tablet on its chest which means it can provide more functions for PwDs to interact, for example, playing the puzzle, playing the video, seeing and changing the pictures and etc. This can be more easily to distract the PwDs' attention when they want to go out, so Pepper is the most suitable robot is our case.
Nano is a small humanoid robot
How Pepper is used
One function is using the Pepper to persuade the PwD to keep inside with suggested music according to time of the day and dialog flow,
another function is to notify the caretaker if the PwD insists to go out or wants to go out for a walk.
[1] Mordoch, Elaine & Osterreicher, Angela & Guse, Lorna & Roger, Kerstin & Thompson, Genevieve. (2012). Use of social commitment robots in the care of elderly people with dementia: A literature review. Maturitas. 74. 10.1016/j.maturitas.2012.10.015.