Interactive social robots for older adults and caregivers
To provide innovative solutions for the ageing population and to support ageing-in-place, the School of Nursing has been collaborating with NEC Hong Kong (NECHK) to develop five intelligent interactive social robots for providing elderly care services. On 6 October, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between PolyU and the NECHK, with the purpose of carrying out a series of studies by the School of Nursing to explore the use of social robots by older adults.
Led by Prof. Angela Leung, Professor & Associate Head (Research), the research team will investigate the acceptability of the social robots by older adults and the preliminary effects of the interactions with the robots on loneliness, cognition, medication adherence, and mental and social well-being.
One key feature of the social robots is the ability to speak Cantonese that promotes communication with Hong Kong Chinese older adults. It is easy for older adults to give verbal instructions to the robots that assist activities of daily living, such as turning on the TV news channels or music players, or making phone calls to their family members and friends. The robots are able to give reminders to the older adults for some defined activities such as taking medication and having meals. The social robots can also provide companionship and promote interpersonal communication, and such feature is particularly helpful to the older adults who are living alone. The presence of the social robots at home is likely to support older people integrating to the community and the research team is gathering more evidence to support this view.
Prof. Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation), PolyU [3rd from right] signed the MoU with Ms Elsa Wong (4th from right), Managing Director of NECHK. Prof. Angela Leung (3rd from left), the Principal Investigator of the social robot studies.
Home Previous Next
