Project homeAnagha - Self Reflection
Week 1: Introduction to Socio-Cognitive Engineering
The teams were formed and a potential application for a robot intervention system to assist individuals with dementia was discussed. The group was introduced to three available robots for the project: Nao, Pepper, and Miro. My team and I chose to focus on mealtime, specifically during dinner, when individuals with moderate-stage dementia may experience confusion, anxiety, and irritability due to Sundown Syndrome. To develop our use-case scenario, we created three personas - Georgina (the individual with dementia), Eleana (the formal caretaker), and Sam (a family member). After careful consideration, we determined that the Pepper robot was the most suitable for our use case, as it can narrate stories and display pictures on a screen attached to its torso. Despite both Nao and Pepper being humanoid robots capable of engaging in conversations, we selected Pepper because our use case didn't require much movement from the robot. Additionally, the height of the Pepper robot was more appropriate for standing in front of or around the individual with dementia while narrating a story.
Week 2: Dementia, Memory, and Music as an Intervention
As engineering students designing a robot for patients with dementia, a guest lecture on the medical aspects of the disease proved informative. We learned about changes in the brain during aging, types of dementia, diagnostic methods, interventions, and treatments. Lifestyle changes can improve the quality of life in the long run, something we may overlook. This understanding helps us design a better solution for the target audience.
The "SCE Method" involving stakeholders and multidisciplinary design helps refine the core functions and design rationale. Cognitive abilities decline with age, and an individual's lifestyle contributes to the rate of decline. Cognitive reserve, the inherent quality of the brain, explains how susceptible the individual would be to functional impairment in case of disease or accident. It can be increased with healthy lifestyle choices. Dementia shows a significant decline in cognitive domains and interferes with daily lifestyle. Pharmacological treatments delay symptoms but not for the long term. Interventions aim to maintain cognition and regulate mood, preventing the individual from feeling "more disabled" than they are, and maintaining self-sufficiency and independence. Current interventions for maintaining cognition involve stimulation, training, and rehabilitation. Music, with its potential for engaging different brain networks, can be used in rehabilitation, mood regulation, social interaction, and even movement rehabilitation.
Our project involves personas, stakeholders, and problem and design scenarios. We designed the scenario for the evening when the patient faces Sundown Syndrome, mood swings, and loses motivation to eat. Our design scenario facilitates conversations between family members while the robot narrates stories and prompts interaction to help the patient complete meals and enjoy them. We decided to employ music in our use case for a more immersive environment for the patient during story narration. We also explored using the patient's favorite songs during narration to create opportunities for reminiscing.
Week 3: PAL
In week 3 we learned about PAL ( Physically Assisted Learning). PAL is a robot intervention system designed to help children with Type 1 diabetes manage their blood glucose levels. The system uses collaborative learning, a theory that suggests individuals learn better when actively interacting with the information, to teach children how to become self-sufficient in managing their diabetes. The robot interacts with the child through games and conversations, reminding them to check their blood glucose levels regularly, administer insulin, and cope with T1DM. PAL uses an adaptive robot that tailors tasks in games to the child's learning progress, motivating them to perform the activity. Evaluation results showed that children preferred playing with the adaptive robot more than the non-adaptive variant, as it helped them learn better. The project exemplifies the partnership between humans and robots, where both work together to achieve objectives and goals.
This week, the focus was on defining use cases, environments, stakeholders, values, and personas for the project. We finalized personas, stakeholders, environment, design, and problem scenarios for the project, using supporting literature and research in their design scenarios. We decided to use the Pepper robot for their project. While our use case is not intended for learning, creating a more collaborative and conversational robot for the project could motivate the patient to look forward to their daily activities.