The increasing proportion of elderly individuals has made elderly care a pressing societal issue, with robots anticipated to play a significant role in addressing this challenge. Beyond providing rehabilitation and physical support, researchers are also exploring the use of social robots for psychological and emotional support, particularly for individuals with dementia, to alleviate the workload of caregivers. However, recent studies indicate that while the introduction of social robots is expected to reduce caregiver burden, these technologies often fail to effectively assist individuals with dementia, inadvertently increasing the workload for care staff. This keynote will introduce ongoing research on the development of ‘Hiro-chan’, a baby-like robot designed specifically for elderly care. Findings from two- and four-week field trials of Hiro-chan as part of the elderly care toolkit for dementia patients and their caregivers helped us to understand how the baby-robot was perceived and interacted with, including the significant impact of the robot's interactive design on the nursing home environment. The development and implementation of Hiro-chan presents the case for an all-stakeholder-centred approach and a profound understanding of the needs of dementia patients and care staff are essential for successfully integrating robots into nursing home settings.

Speaker Biography

Hidenobu Sumioka

Dr Hidenobu Sumioka is the leader of the Presence Media Research Group in Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, part of Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Japan, where he has conducted research for over ten years. He received a PhD in Engineering from Osaka University, Japan, in 2008. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, Dr Sumioka served as a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), subsequently becoming a researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 2009 under the direction of Professor Rolf Pfeifer. His research interests include human-robot touch interaction, application of social robots for elderly care, and physiological influence of social robots on humans.

About the Presenter(s)
-Dr Hidenobu Sumioka is the leader of the Presence Media Research Group in Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, part of Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Japan, where he has conducted research for over ten years.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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