Culturally competent robots help improve mental health in the elderly Photo. University of Bedfordshire

 

The University of Bedfordshire, Middlesex University and Avinia Health Care are British partners jointly studied by the University of Genoa, Italy, which developed the artificial intelligence of robots.

CARESSES, which was funded jointly by the EU and the Japanese government within its research and innovation programs, participated in the project in collaboration with SoftBank Robotics, a world-leading robotics company.

Studies have shown that the elderly (up to 18 hours over two weeks) in nursing homes using culturally competent robots have significantly improved mental health. In particular, this had a small but positive impact on the severity of user loneliness after using the system for two weeks.

“The study of care-sesses was co-operated by researchers to explore the development potential of culturally competent robots,” said Dr. Chris Papadopoulos, lead author of the assessment, and “Irena Papadopoulos, a supernatural health and nursing professor at Middlejax University, who said that “in the UK alone, 15,000 people are living in the United Kingdom.” It is over 100 years old and this figure will steadily increase. So socially assisted and intelligent robots for the elderly will be able to ease the pressure of hospitals and nursing homes. "

“The results show that our experimental robots are culturally more adept at users. Participants were mostly positive, but they also criticized some of the interactions caused by voice recognition restrictions. “We will continue to study this pioneering project in the future.”

“The artificial intelligence developed in the project allowed robots to interact autonomously with the elderly for many hours even when there was time pressure and technical problems,” said Antonio Sgorbissa, professor at Genoa University, the leader of artificial intelligence development. “Nevertheless, we showed that culturally competent robots can relieve the loneliness of the elderly and improve mental health.Therefore, it is essential to continue this study in order to maximize the potential of artificial intelligence and utilize it for social benefits.