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Develo** a Social Robot – A Case Study

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Robotics in Healthcare

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1170))

Abstract

Social robotics is currently challenging researchers to look at virtually every topic with relevance for human societies. The multidisciplinary nature of this new area is emerging at a fast pace and, at the same time, multiple challenges are also emerging.

This chapter addresses the development of a social robot, including baseline work developed during the European FP7 Project Monarch on a social robot for edutainment activities for inpatient children in the Pediatrics ward of an oncological hospital, and the work developed in the post-project period. The long period (Monarch started in early 2013) allowed a diversity of experiments that resulted in valuable lessons and in the blossoming of new ideas and challenges.

The overview of the Monarch project is the leitmotiv for a critical view of social robotics and the identification of key challenges, on the light of current technologies and social trends and expectations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Project Monarch – Multi-Robot Cognitive Systems Operating in Hospitals, grant FP7-ICT-2011-9-601033.

  2. 2.

    Interacting through speech is a sophisticated endeavor. Nonetheless, seemingly coherent, unsophisticated, speech can be achieved with basic techniques – recall the ELIZA program from the early days of AI.

  3. 3.

    Microexpressions have a very short duration, in the range 1/15–1/25 of a second, and may involve the involuntary motion of muscles.

  4. 4.

    US Food and Drug Administration.

  5. 5.

    RGB cameras were used only for the duration of the Monarch project and are currently not being used.

  6. 6.

    The ReadSpeaker™ commercial TTS software is used. Current configuration is that of a female voice with slightly increased pitch to resemble a childish voice.

  7. 7.

    In this context, consistency has a meaning of equivalence or similarity.

  8. 8.

    Acronym for Robot Operating System, a common, public domain, middleware used in the mbot.

  9. 9.

    Education and entertainment.

  10. 10.

    This period includes a small (variable) period in which the robot is allowed to move within the ward and a period in which touch, RFID, RGB-D, and utterances are active but the mbot is stationary at the docking station.

  11. 11.

    Strictly, similarity with humans implies that a social robot does not have to necessarily act nice at all times, and it may even be impolite, e.g., as saying to someone not to go to a specific area, or showing contempt/sadness if is being hit repeatedly. Exerting direct authority, from robots towards humans, is frequently not well accepted by humans. Advising/counselling is likely to produce the best results. Indirect suggestions, e.g., nudges (see for instance [62]) also play a valuable role.

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Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without the collaboration of the Pediatrics ward of IPOLFG hospital in Lisbon, Portugal, and in particular of the Director of the ward, Dra. Filomena Pereira. As Monarch full partners, the staff of the Pediatrics ward was always supportive, without facilitating the life of the robot, hence naturally contributing to reduce bias in the assessment. The robot stayed at the hospital after the official end of the project (June 2016) and it has been a continuous scientific challenge always backed by the people in the Pediatrics ward.

This work has been partially funded by project FCT [UID/EEA/50009/2019].

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  1. Instituto Superior Técnico/Institute for Systems and Robotics, Lisbon, Portugal

    João S. Sequeira

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Correspondence to João S. Sequeira .

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    João Silva Sequeira

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Sequeira, J.S. (2019). Develo** a Social Robot – A Case Study. In: Sequeira, J. (eds) Robotics in Healthcare. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1170. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24230-5_6

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