Application of a Communication Robot as a Moderator for Recreational Speech Rehabilitation

The purpose of this study is to utilize a robot to enable people with limited experience and skills to take on the role of moderator for recreational rehabilitation conducted by speech-language pathologists. Recreational rehabilitation is known as an effective way to improve language skills and avoid social isolation. However, in order to effectively implement rehabilitation, it is necessary to solve the issues required of the moderator, specifically, to provide greater care to the participants, to reduce the burden of preparation, and to make it possible for those with limited experience to carry out the program. To solve these issues, the use of communication robots is expected. However, it is difficult to easily introduce such systems in terms of reliability, reproducibility, and automation in nursing and welfare fields where people are unfamiliar with the handling of information devices. Therefore, this study aims to make effective use of robots. First, by analyzing the role of the moderator through interviews with nursing care staff, a role that can be played by a robot was extracted. Next, a method to enable the robot to take on the role of the moderator was studied, and a method was proposed that combines existing technologies that are highly reliable and easy for nursing care staff to handle. Specifically, a system was proposed in which the robot's lines can be edited by the nursing staff using an editable PowerPoint presentation in advance preparation, and the timing of the robot's speech can be controlled remotely with a single click during recreation. A trial rehabilitation experiment using the proposed system showed the possibility of reducing the burden on the moderator while achieving participant communication equivalent to that of a human moderator.