Towards Real-World Dementia Care: Encouraging Activity Engagement Using an Intelligent Humanoid Robot.

Abstract

Humanoid social assistive robotics (SARs) can promote activity engagement for older adults living with dementia. Few studies, however, evaluate the capacity of humanoid SARs to encourage activity engagement in long-term aged care facilities (LACFs). The complexity of the environment, robot design, and personal attributes underscore the challenge of humanoid SARs to encourage activity engagement in practice. This study employed a mixed-methods approach involving nine participants (aged ≥65 years) with mild to moderate cognitive impairment from one aged care facility and seven carers from four different Australian states. Through the triangulation of observational engagement data, participants' semi-structured interviews, and carers focus group discussion, six themes encompassing activity engagement were identified and are discussed for future application and evaluation of humanoid SARs in dementia care: (1) robot physical design, (2) interaction patterns, (3) activity guidelines, (4) intervention environment, (5) personal history, and (6) relationship establishment.