Researchers at
the University of Hertfordshire have developed a prototype of a social robot
which supports independent living for the elderly, working in partnership with
their relatives or carers. The robot uses a state of the art service platform
called Care-O-bot® 3 and works within a smart-home environment. Over the past
three years the project team successfully carried out a wide range of studies
in the University's Robot House which included, detecting the activity and
status of people in a smart-home environment as well as focusing on robots'
ability to remember and recall.
Developments, which
was part of an EU project called ACCOMPANY (Acceptable Robotics Companions for
Ageing Years), culminated into three interaction scenarios, which were subsequently
evaluated by involving elderly people and their formal/informal carers across
France, the Netherlands and the UK. ACCOMPANY's results demonstrated that a
social robot can potentially help to prevent isolation and loneliness, offering
stimulating activities whilst respecting autonomy and independence. The project
received excellent results from its final review in Brussels.
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