Social Robotics for the Elderly

Title: Social Robotics for the Elderly: In the Future ‘Who’ or ‘What’ Might Care and “Why”?

Abstract: Today I have the joy of presenting my research to the baby boomer generation. Defined, baby boomers, are that generation that were born between 1946 and 1964. My beautiful mother was born in 1946. In many symbolic ways, she is still caring for her four children and 8 grandchildren. But for how much longer? For now she has my father and firstborn living with her. But my mother is perhaps one of the lucky statistics, as yet, to have the ability to be an active carer of those around her. She has always eaten healthy and exercised. But in general our aging population will demand greater care services. There are currently 71.6 million baby boomers in U.S. alone who are between 56-74 years old. A great number of these baby boomers will get dementia or cancer. According to the World Health Organisation, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia:

• Dementia is a syndrome in which there is deterioration in memory, thinking, behaviour and the ability to perform everyday activities.

• Although dementia mainly affects older people, it is not a normal part of ageing.

• Worldwide, around 50 million people have dementia, and there are nearly 10 million new cases every year.

• Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and may contribute to 60–70% of cases.

• Dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide.

• Dementia has a physical, psychological, social, and economic impact, not only on people with dementia, but also on their carers, families and society at large.

One area that is currently under investigation to support the elderly are social robotics. These are social machines that are in their nascent stages of research and development. Could part of the care demand fall on the shoulders of robots? How might they be perceived by those living with dementia or requiring support? What form might these robots take? Will they be anthropomorphic? Will they be based around AI capabilities: to see (camera), hear (audio), talk (microphones)? Will they be conversational? To what extent?

The talk will be wide-reaching as the Gerroa Probus Group contribute to definitions of care, and care ethics, responsibility, human-centered design requirements, shortcomings of new social robotics, acceptable form factors, socio-economic factors of development, and much more.

Biography: Katina Michael is a professor at Arizona State University in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering. She directs the Society Policy Engineering Collective (SPEC). Prior to her appointment in Arizona, Professor Michael was the Associate Dean - International in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences at the University of Wollongong. Katina joined UOW as a lecturer in 2002.

References:

• https://techforaging.com/social-robots-elderly/#:~:text=Intuition%20Robotics%20unveiled%20ElliQ%20in,face%20the%20challenges%20of%20aging.

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• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30136901/

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• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-020-09546-y

• https://waypointrobotics.com/blog/elder-care-robots/

• https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-019-1244-6

• https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-020-01641-5

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• https://medicalfuturist.com/the-top-12-social-companion-robots/

• https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-10609-006

Citation: Katina Michael, 18 November 2020, “Social Robotics for the Elderly: In the Future ‘Who’ or ‘What’ Might Care and “Why”?”, Gerroa Combined Probus, Gerringong Uniting Church.