TITLE:
The Optimization of Humanoid Robot’s Dialog in Improving Communication between Humanoid Robot and Older Adults
AUTHORS:
Misao Miyagawa, Yuko Yasuhara, Tetsuya Tanioka, Rozzano Locsin, Waraporn Kongsuwan, Elmer Catangui, Kazuyuki Matsumoto
KEYWORDS:
Dementia, Dialogue, Humanoid Robot, Older Adults
JOURNAL NAME:
Intelligent Control and Automation,
Vol.10 No.3,
August
19,
2019
ABSTRACT:
Older adults with dementia are increasing in Japan. Because of this, “communication
robots” are being introduced into nursing settings to substitute
for the shortage of nurses and other care workers. Our research group is currently
developing a humanoid nursing robot with caring function (HNR),
specifically for the functional and practical use of older adults with dementia.
The purpose of this study was to clarify improvement points of the current
function of humanoid robot’s (Pepper) (SoftBank Robotics) dialog pattern for
improving optimal communication between humanoid robot and older adults.
Dialog programs were installed in the humanoid robot Pepper, including the
application program Care Prevention Gymnastics Exercises for Pepper (Pepper-CPGE) that was made by Xing Company, Japan. Dialogues between older
adults and Pepper-CPGE were recorded by video camera. Data from transcriptions
of the conversations captured from video and from field notes were
analyzed focusing on human-robot interaction. From the recorded scenes and
conversations, the following were points to be improved: 1) Intonation of the
words vocalized by Pepper-CPGE was different from that expected by the
older adult resulted in inappropriate responses by the older adult; 2) The
timing between Pepper’s questions and the responses of the older adult were
not timely and did not match (differences in the question-response time),
which lead to confusion among the older adults; and 3) Other surroundings
older adults were interested in the dialogue with Pepper-CPGE. However,
Pepper-CPGE cannot communicate with multiple older adults. ImprovingPepper-CPGE’s ability to communicate with multiple older adults as an older
adult’s dialogue with Pepper-CPGE can cause other older adults to also interact
not only with the older adult that Pepper-CPGE is interacting with but
also with Pepper-CPGE. This study shows that transactive relations among
humanoid robots and older adults can be facilitated. Improving communication
between humanoid robots and the older adults by optimizing a structured
dialogue is needed to enhance appropriate engagement and participation.
It is necessary to create a “Caring dialogue Database” for HNRs in order
to know the patient/client and to share the aesthetic experiences of human-robot interactions. Also, it is important to develop a dialog pattern that
enables humanoid robots to sympathize with older adults.