My robot is happy today: how older people with mild cognitive impairments understand assistive robots' affective output

This paper presents the research conducted towards developing the affective output channel of an assistive robot, called RAMCIP, targeted to elderly users with mild cognitive impairments (MCI) or early stages of Alzheimer Disease (AD). An animated screen allowing the robot to express emotions through facial expressions has been developed, along with a framework for the corresponding modifications of the robot's speech prosody. Both of the above affective robot output elements are dynamically adapted during RAMCIP use based on an affective output policy. The paper reports the results of four experiments, which have been conducted with MCI and early AD patients in order to validate the developed facial expression and speech intonation affective output modalities. The above research efforts have led to the development of the corresponding software prototypes, which have been integrated in the RAMCIP robot.